Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-03-03 09:37
Mardi Gras in New Orleans is this Tuesday, "Fat Tuesday," which inevitably turns my mind to the continuing New Orleans tradition of jazz clarinet playing.
Many significant jazz clarinetists have been born in New Orleans or been influenced by its culture, starting with Lorenzo Tio, Alphonse Picou (originator of the "High Society" solo that even Charlie Parker quoted in his improvisations), Barney Bigard etc, and, in our time, Pete Fountain, his protege Tim Laughlin, Doreen Ketchens (who plays on the streets of the French Quarter), Dr. Michael White (jazz on the Wurlitzer Reform Boehm), Victor Goines, Evan Christopher, and many more.
In fact, many classical clarinetists have made their mark on the city also: Donald Montanaro (before he settled in Philadelphia), Ron deKant, Orlando Tognozzi, Larry Combs (before Chicago), and today the superb Julliard graduate and student of Jon Manasse, Christopher Pell.
But one relatively unsung jazz avaunt garde player, Alvin Batiste, lingers most in my memory. Batiste extended the clarinet style beyond traditional jazz, swing, and bebop, to encompass an approach to improvisation shared by saxophonists such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane yet always alluding to his origins in New Orleans jazz.
I offer this as a Mardi Gras tribute to an original voice able to sing in modern jazz in ways not derivative of Buddy DeFranco, Tony Scott, or Eddie Daniels. When he died in 2007, Batiste was given a big New Orleans Jazz parade send-off. (It's on Youtube).
Alvin Batiste plays the blues in his tune "Late":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMGhoBxLjF4.
In another tune, "Imp and Perry" (which comes up on YouTube if you search the title directly as Alvin Baltiste: Imp and Perry but not though the URL), Batiste echos John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" melodically and in some of the progressions.
Finally, like Bill Smith in his "The Riddle" album with Dave Brubeck, Batiste improvised through a formally structured, extended Suite of his own,
" Alvin Batiste Musique d Afrique Nouvelle Orleans Suite 3." Searching for this title in YouTube will bring up the performance, but the URL doesn't work directly for me. Somehow, the mood here brings to mind the Medieval "Play of Daniel" as performed years ago by the New York Pro Musica. New Orleans, like a Medieval walled city, is a crazy patchwork of cultures, sights, and sounds.
Happy Mardi Gras from the Crescent City!
Post Edited (2014-03-03 10:40)
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