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Michael White (clarinetist)

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For other people named Michael White, see Michael White (disambiguation).

Michael White
White at the 2007 Satchmofest
White at the 2007 Satchmofest
Background information
Born (1954-11-29) November 29, 1954 (age 70)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
GenresJazz, traditional New Orleans jazz
Occupation(s)Musician, educator
InstrumentClarinet
LabelsBasin Street, Antilles, 504

Michael White (born November 29, 1954 in New Orleans) is a jazz clarinetist, bandleader, composer, jazz historian and musical educator. Jazz critic Scott Yanow said in a review that White "displays the feel and spirit of the best New Orleans clarinetists".[1]

Early life

White was raised Catholic in New Orleans (by a father who was a Knight of Peter Claver), and attended a number of Black Catholic schools in the city, including Saint Francis de Sales, Holy Ghost, and St Joan of Arc. While at the latter school, he studied clarinet and played in his first parade.[2][3]

Career

Michael White at Algiers Riverfest, New Orleans, 2008

White is a classically trained musician who began his jazz musical career as a teenager playing for Doc Paulin's Brass Band in New Orleans. He was a member of an incarnation of the Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, established by banjoist Danny Barker. He was discovered by Kid Sheik Colar, who heard him performing in Jackson Square in the French Quarter. White began working regularly with Colar. White can be heard on the 1989 album The Majesty of the Blues by Wynton Marsalis.[4] Marsalis appears on White's 1990 album Crescent City Serenade with Wendell Brunious and Walter Payton.

Since 1979 White has played in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, founded by clarinetist John Casimir sometime in the 1940s.[5] During the 1980s he led a band called The New Orleans Hot Seven. Performing "A Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton" in concert with them at the Lincoln Center in New York City in 1989 led to a favorable review by Jon Pareles in The New York Times. On May 25, 2004, a selection from White's album Dancing in the Sky ("Algiers Hoodoo Woman") was broadcast on NPR's All Songs Considered.[6] The Dancing in the Sky album is mostly original compositions by White.

In 1981, White founded The Original Liberty Jazz Band to preserve the musical heritage of New Orleans. The group has performed an end-of-year concert at the Village Vanguard every year since the early 1990s.[7] On May 13, 2006, White performed "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" at the Tulane University commencement ceremony. Former U.S. presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were in attendance at the ceremony. Clinton said that the music "was played the way Dixieland bands have always done it. At first low, weeping, sorrowful."[8]

Other endeavors

White is also a college professor who formerly taught Spanish, now teaching African-American music at Xavier University of Louisiana,[9] an historically black university. At the university, he holds the Rosa and Charles Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities of New Orleans Music and Culture. He has also served as guest director at several Jazz at Lincoln Center concerts relating to traditional New Orleans jazz, often working with Wynton Marsalis. White has also served as a commissioner for the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park.[10]

Personal life

White was living in a one-story home in the Gentilly district of New Orleans, near the London Avenue Canal during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. White was a collector of jazz artifacts and local history for 30 years. He owned the original sheet music of "Dead Man Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton, a clarinet mouthpiece by Sidney Bechet, and an estimated 5,000 records and LPs which were lost during the flooding.[9]

Discography

Year Album Notes Label
2012 Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Part 2 - Basin Street
2011 Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Part 1 - Basin Street
2008 Blue Crescent - Basin Street
2005 Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast - Nonesuch
2005 Songs of New Orleans: Preservation Hall Jazz Band Preservation Hall album Preservation Hall
2004 Dancing in the Sky Basin Street
2002 Jazz From the Soul of New Orleans - Basin Street
2000 A Song For George Lewis - Basin Street
2000 A Tribute to Johnny Dodds - Jazz Crusade
2000 Dance @ the Dew Drop - GHB
2000 Shake It and Break It (expanded reissue) - 504
1992 New Year's Eve Live at the Village Vanguard - Antilles
1990 Crescent City Serenade - Antilles
1989 The Majesty of the Blues - Columbia
1987 Shake It and Break It - 504
1984 T'Ain't Nobody's Business - 504
1983 Jazz Continues: Young Tuxedo Brass Band - 504

Awards and honors

Notes

The discography used allmusicguide.com as one guide.

References

  1. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Dancing in the Sky". Retrieved May 28, 2007.
  2. ^ Michael White (The HistoryMakers A2010.041), interviewed by Denise Gines, June 7, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 7, Michael White recalls his parents' involvement in the Knights of Peter Claver
  3. ^ Michael White (The HistoryMakers A2010.041), interviewed by Denise Gines, June 7, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 5, Michael White describes his Catholic schooling in New Orleans, Louisiana, pt. 1
  4. ^ "Basin Street Records Bio". Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  5. ^ Koster, Rick (2002). Louisiana Music: A Journey from R&B to Zydeco, Jazz to Country, Blues to Gospel, Cajun Music to .... Da Capo Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-306-81003-4.
  6. ^ "All Songs Considered, Episode 64". NPR.
  7. ^ Chinen, Nate (December 29, 2006). "Ring Out, Ring In, And You Can Choose the Beat". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  8. ^ Nead, Arthur. "Tulane Commencement 2006". Archived from the original on September 6, 2006. Retrieved May 28, 2007.
  9. ^ a b Burnett, John. "Lost Jazz Treasures Live on in Clarinetist's Music". NPR. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  10. ^ "Dr. Michael White, Jazz Musician, Professor, Xavier University". Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  11. ^ "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 2008". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on August 15, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
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