Alvin Batiste

Alvin Batiste
“Legendary Pioneer of Jazz”
November 7, 1932 – May 6, 2007

A music master, composer, arranger, educator and performer - Alvin Batiste defies description. Batiste, a native of New Orleans, was born on November 7, 1932 and transitioned on May 6, 2007 at 2:30 am.

He is simply "Batiste" - one of the most distinctive and virtuosic of modern jazz clarinet players, and his name alone has become synonymous with taking the music to the next level and the next generation, a ‘Music Pioneer’ who has contributed to every genre.

His Columbia album billed him as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz." Alvin Batiste is an avant-garde player who does not fit easily into any classification. Under-recorded throughout his career, Batiste was a childhood friend of Ed Blackwell and spent time in Los Angeles in 1956 playing with Ornette Coleman.

Batiste was born in New Orleans in 1932, and is among the rare artists who have created a modern approach to improvising on the clarinet. “My dad played the clarinet,” Alvin explains, “and was a boyhood friend of the great Edmond Hall as well as a fan of Benny Goodman. I wasn’t that interested in learning the instrument when he bought one for me, until I heard Charlie Parker’s recording of ‘Now’s the Time’ at a friend’s house. You could only find records like that in one or two stores in New Orleans at the time, and my reaction was, ‘What was that?’ I started practicing seriously at that point.”

Batiste and renowned saxophonist Edward ‘Kidd” Jordan would develop a friendship that spans fifty-five years. They met as young musicians at Southern University in Baton Rouge in 1952, played together in the University’s concert & marching bands as well as the Collegian and The Dukes of Rhythm, both unauthorized jazz bands which were not allowed on the campus, pledge in the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and later would marry a pair of sisters; Alvin to Edith Chatters and Kidd to Edvidge Chatters. Alvin introduced Jordan to Edvidge following a Stan Kenton Big Band show at the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans in which Alvin and Kidd had waited for more than an hour hoping for a chance to meet band members Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Parker abided and immediately dubbed the two young musicians his friends.

Batiste would later share tenure with Jordan at the Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp, established in 1995 to honor the legacy of a beloved international ambassador and one of New Orleans ’ greatest native sons. The Camp was designed to perpetuate the rich jazz tradition by teaching young people the art form in the city where it was created.

Other members of The Dukes of Rhythm included Don Dillon, Edward Sanders, Curtis Godchaux, Berk Robison, Ed “Lil Daddy” Duplessis, Ludwig Freeman, Dewey Lewis, Ed Sawyer, Bernard Beaco and other classmates.

“Bat” was also influenced during his early years by his teachers T. LeRoy Davis, Huel Perkins, John Banks, Henry Thompson (Omar Sharif) and Berk Robinson, the latter an advance student who had mastered all of Charlie Parker’s tunes.

Batiste first received international attention after he appeared on two Julian Cannonball Adderly recordings. Batiste had just completed the musical score to Vu-Dou Macbeth an Operatic choreo-drama by librettist Lenwood O’Sloan. Batiste performed throughout American Inner city school districts using the principles in his book entitled: The Root Progression System: The Fundamentals of African American Music.

Throughout his musical career, Batiste has performed with the Ray Charles Orchestra, Larry Darnell, Joe Jones, Smiley Lewis, Joe Robichaux, Guitar Slim, Marlon Jordan and George Williams. He also played with the American Jazz Quintet. Batiste recorded with the AFO Records ("All For One"), a New Orleans based record company formed in 1961 by Harold Battiste which is credited with creating a rhythmic new jazz feel. This New Orleans modern jazz developed by Alvin Batiste, Harold Battiste, pianist Ellis Marsalis, drummer Ed Blackwell and other local musicians was highly influenced by its New York counterpart; “bebop” yet maintained strong southern characteristics.

Batiste made three albums with Clarinet Summit in the 1980s (a quartet also including John Carter, David Murray, and Jimmy Hamilton). Batiste recorded an album, Bayou Magic, in 1988 as a leader for India Navigation and made the 1993 Columbia album Late. Songs, Words and Messages, Connections appeared in 1999.
Batiste also performed on the Marlon Jordan featuring Stephanie Jordan 2005 CD release which was a production of the Jordan-Chatters-Batiste family.

His most current CD made available on April 10. 2007; Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste is with Bradford Marsalis and other notable Jazz musicians, (Alvin Batiste – Clarinet, Edward Perkins – Vocals, Branford Marsalis – Saxophones, Russell Malone – Guitar, Lawrence Fields – Piano, Ricardo Rodriguez – Bass and Herlin Riley – Drums). Few musicians are more deserving of honors than Alvin Batiste, he has been a central figure in shaping modern music for the past half century, and the ten tracks on Alvin Batiste provide a too-rare glimpse of a giant who has spent far too much of his career out of the limelight.

The cut titled “Edith” is in honor of Alvin’s wife; she also contributed lyrics to “My Life is a Tree” and served as music librarian during the sessions. Their son Maynard wrote the lyrics to “Ever Loving Star,” while the celebratory “Bumps” got its title from their grandson’s nickname. “I’ve always enjoyed the comfort and support of family,” Batiste noted. “I guess it’s a spiritual thing. Edith is one of 16 children, each of whom played something. We came up in high school together, when she was also playing clarinet. I included ‘I Wonder Where Our Love has Gone’ because that was one of the very romantic tunes we danced to when we were courting.”

Alvin and Edith, a noted poet in her own right had planned to release ‘Soulmates’ in June 2007.

Batiste was a member of the Rosicrucian Order AMORC, Traditional Martinist Order (TMO), Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, John Hays Society, and United States Army Reserve (1951 – 1955).

Receiving numerous awards and honors during his career that has spanned more than five decades, His work has won him Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the National Association of Jazz Educators’ National Humanitarian Award, the International Association of Jazz Educator’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Offbeat Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Arts Education, the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society’s Education Award and Southern University’s Distinguished Service Award. Batiste is also holder of the Louisiana Governor's 2005 Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education."

His students are presently very prominent in the world of music today as celebrated jazz musicians, composers, recording artists and educators. A limited list includes Randy Jackson (American Idol), Antonio York, Roland Guerin, Troy Davis, Donald Edwards, George Fontenette, Herman Jackson, Henry Butler, Branford Marsalis, Kent Jordan, Marlon Jordan, Donald Harrison, Jr., Chris Severan, Willie Singleton, Herlin Riley, Reginald Veal, Yolanda Robertson Windsay, Ernest Jackson, Margeret Valet, Jonathan Bloom, Coco York, Wes Anderson, Ed Perkins, Julius Farmer, Dennis Nelson, Kirk Ford, Al Rodriguez, Charlie Singleton, Monty Seward, Betsy Braud, Micheal Ward, Raymond Harris, John Gray, Quamon Fowler, Maurice Brown, Woddie Douglas, and many more.

He also provided spiritual and musical guidance to performing musicians in the immediate family including, Jonathan Bloom, Marc Chatters, Thelma Chatters, Cynthia Dolliole, Carolina Dolliole, Elton Heron, Reina Heron Soraparu, Kent Jordan, Marlon Jordan, Rachel Jordan, and Stephanie Jordan.

Batiste holds a Master’s degree of Music in clarinet performance and composition from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Southern University (both in Baton Rouge, Louisiana). A graduate of Booker T. Washington High School in New Orleans, Batiste began his professional career as a teacher at McDonough #35 High School in New Orleans, 1955-65.

He returned to Southern University in 1969 to create the Jazz Institute. Batiste’s Jazz Institute at Southern University has welcomed such artists as Cannonball Adderley, James Black, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, George Duke, Quincy Jones, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Ellis Marsalis, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Max Roach, Jimmy Owens, and a host of other jazz luminaries. The program continues today and has musically supported such artists as Branford Marsalis, and others. Batiste continued to perform with his group, the Jazztronauts.

Batiste most current position was that of lead teacher in jazz instrumental music at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA). He also has served as artist-in-residence for the New Orleans Public School system, and developed a multi-ethnic music curriculum.

Most notably, while transitioning from Booker T. Washington High School to Southern University in Baton Rouge, Batiste auditioned and was accepted to perform a guest soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic playing Mozart’s Concerto, the first time that a Black student ever had such an honor. It also earned Batiste the nickname, "Mozot." Years later, the Philharmonic debuted his North American Idio-syncrasies for Jazz Players. He was also commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts to compose a concerto for African instruments and orchestra.

Alvin Batiste’s body will lie in state for public viewing at the historic Gallier Hall, 545 Saint Charles Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70113 on Friday, May 11, 2007 from 12:00 noon to 7:00 pm, followed by a musical tribute where several New Orleans musicians will perform in memory of the man they called “Bat.”

Funeral service will be held at Gallier Hall, on Saturday, May 12, 2007 with public visitation from 9:00 am – 10:30 am. Final service begins at 11:00 am, to be followed by a musical procession immediately after the services. Arrangements by Duplain W. Rhodes Funeral Home, 1728 North Claiborne Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana 70116 (Phone: 504-943-3422).

Mr. Batiste is survived by his wife Edith, sons Alvin Batiste, Jr. and his wife Yolanda Jefferson Batiste, Maynard Batiste and his wife Sherie Clark Batiste, and his daughter Marcia Batiste Wilson. He was the loving child of the late Edgar Batiste and Bernice Rodney Brown, and the beloved brother of Mercedes Bullard, devoted grandfather of Alvin Batiste, III, Jocelyn Batiste, Jules Batiste, Anna Batiste, Marcus Williams, Marissa Batiste, Edith Smith, Mercedes Wilson, Elise Wilson, Maynard K. Batiste, Jr., Chanel Batiste, and Nile Batiste. Mr. Batiste was the brother-in-law of Osceola Jackson, Shirley Bloom, Elise Joseph, Wylene Heron, Kenneth and Hazel Chatters, Edward “Kidd” and Edvidge Jordan, George and Shirley Chatters, Maynard and Ursula Chatters, Jocelyn Chatters, and the Honorable Mayor William Bell & wife Judith Chatters Bell.

In lieu of flowers, the families respectfully request that you consider making a donation in honor of Mr. Alvin Batiste to the Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp, 1270 5th Avenue, Suite 8L, New York, NY 10029. All donations are for the New Orleans program.

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TO AL

Al, I find a need to express my sincere thanks for being able to relate my inner thoughts to you, one who has the insight to penetrate the inner beauty that binds us together forever.

You are my soul mate.

I, like you in my quest for spiritual enlightenment pour out my deepest yearnings to find the love of God that restores me with that quiet peace.

The bonds that we share are one of profound love. We are blessed, to be able to be of service to so many wonderful souls who are in need. May God forever guide our souls into the luminous light, that reflects the oneness of the universe.

Edith Batiste

-----------------------------------

Thanks To

Mayor C. Ray Nagin, City of New Orleans
New Orleans City Council
Marlin Gusman, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff
Festival Production Inc., New Orleans
Jazz Foundation of America
Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp
MusiCares
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation
New Orleans Arts & Cultural Host Committee
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts
Sunset Jazz in Frederiksted, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
Renew Our Music
The Sound Source
Gina Minor Allen
Lenox Davis
Rhonda Ford
Khalid Hafiz
Dee Lindsey
Collins Lewis
Jim Thorns
Cliff Robinson
Eric Waters

Jackie Harris, Funeral Coordinator
Jonathan Bloom, Musical Coordinator
Vincent Sylvain, Media Coordination
The New Orleans Agenda

Interment
Private Burial

In Charge of Arrangements
Duplain W. Rhodes Funeral Home New Orleans, Louisiana

Acknowledgements
The family of Alvin Batiste appreciates the many kind deeds and expressions of sympathy extended at this time of sorrow. Each smile and thoughtful gesture has served as a source of comfort and strength. May God bless you and yours. - Vincent Sylvain, The New Orleans Agenda

To all of you we would say like our father, “Welcome to Inner space as we listen to the music.”

To the numerous persons he would call “friends and family,” we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the manifested love and concern for our father, who is still our mother’s husband. Our entire extended family of Batistes, Blooms, Chatters, Herons, and Jordans feels your warm thoughts and prayers.

Remember, the legacy is only as good as its author and supporters. Thus it was you who have inspired our father to rise to a higher height of music; expressing Love, Light and Life!

On his behalf, we express Soul for Peace Profound. The Poet says “Music Came!”


The Batiste Family
May 9, 2007 - Vincent Sylvain, The New Orleans Agenda

Alvin Batiste carved his place in the jazz continuum by teaching others how to take their place there -- and by showing that those who teach can also play.

By Jason Berry


For most of his 74 years, Alvin Batiste was rooted by two passions: his wife, Edith, and his clarinet. Edith wrote poetry as they raised three children. His poetic voice was on the dark reed, full of soaring lines that summon comparisons to John Coltrane, the saxophone modernist famous for a style known as "sheets of sound."
The sounds of Batiste ended prosaically on the last Saturday night of Jazz Fest. His heart stopped beating as he dozed in front of a TV set. He had a major venue the following afternoon at the Fair Grounds for the new CD, Alvin Batiste on the Marsalis Music label's Honors Series, produced by Branford Marsalis. Along past midnight, Edith could not get him into bed. She called her brother, Maynard Chatters, a trumpeter and former band director at Dillard.

A younger trumpeter, Marlon Jordan, was driving home from a gig when his cell phone rang. His mother, Edvidge -- sister of Edith and Maynard -- reported the bad news. Marlon drove straight to uncle Alvin's just as his sister, Stephanie Jordan, the singer, was making her way to the Uptown house on Delachaise Street in response to a similar call.



Batiste blows his clarinet in the Jazz Tent as the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
By 3 a.m., 20 relatives had converged to sit with Edith and wait for Alvin's final departure.

Having vacated a FEMA trailer several months earlier, Alvin and Edith were back in the house, their second home, in the old hometown. They had spent more time here since his retirement in 2002 after three decades of teaching at the Jazz Institute (now named for him) at Southern University in Baton Rouge. Where other musicians might have savored the free time, Batiste plunged into post-retirement by teaching high school students at NOCCA.

Music was the center of gravity in the sprawling clan.

Edith and Edvidge Chatters married experimental jazzmen who became music professors -- Alvin and saxophonist Edward "Kidd" Jordan, the longtime director of the jazz program at SUNO.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, Kidd and Edvidge, Stephanie and her son, other Jordan and Batiste kin and Los Hombres Calientes percussionist Bill Summers went to the Batiste home in Baton Rouge. Marlon Jordan ended up on the roof of his house in eastern New Orleans for four days before being rescued by helicopter and evacuated to a military hospital in Birmingham, Ala., where he was treated for dehydration and broken ankles.

"I'm going to remember him showing me how to be a man and loving me as a nephew," Marlon reflected. "I was one of his students and got to see a different side by spending the night and eating with him and at family functions. I will miss him as more than a musician. He was like a second father. He would teach me every time he saw me. He'd say, 'Go get your horn' after Sunday dinner, and we'd practice duets."



Marlon, Stephanie, sibling Rachel Jordan (a violinist with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra) and their parents lived in eastern New Orleans. All had homes wrecked in the flood, but all are rebuilding and plan to move back.

Alvin Batiste played on several tracks on his niece's 2005 breakout CD, Marlon Jordan Introducing Stephanie Jordan: You Don't Know What Love Is.

Stephanie was barely a teenager when she saw a computer for the first time on a visit to the Batiste home in Baton Rouge. "Uncle Alvin had a keyboard attached to his TV and he was dealing with computer technology pre-DOS," she told Gambit Weekly. "He was always innovative. I think that's the one thing I learned from him -- always be aware of what's going on with the next thing -- expand the creative process. As a singer I will always take chances because of being around him. We've all learned to take chances, utilize technology, never be afraid of the next step. That's my approach to music. I'm not afraid of anything I want to sing."

If that sense of experimentation cut against a professorial stereotype, the reality is that Alvin Batiste, a large man with restless energy, limited his output as a recording artist precisely because of his teaching. Many artists strive to release a CD every year or two. (Wynton Marsalis has been known to do several in as many months.) Batiste had less than a dozen over more than 50 years of performing.

Still, the quality of his recording work seems destined for a boxed set to capture the arc of his journey through jazz impressionism.

"One of the fascinating things about Alvin is that he was a pioneer of modern jazz but stuck it out in the land of traditional jazz," says Xavier jazz professor and traditional clarinetist Michael White. "His accomplishment is even greater, when you consider that the clarinet is not well liked or accepted in modern jazz. For the longest time, he was one of the - Gambit Weekly

Alvin Batiste
Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste
(Marsalis Music)

Finally New Orleans is graced by a new record from clarinetist and composer Alvin Batiste. He's been called "the country's foremost jazz educator" by Thelonious Monk Jr., board chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Batiste is also regarded as the premier jazz clarinetist in the world today.

This is his first release since the self-produced Words, Songs, and Messages in 1999. Here Batiste is in his usual excellent form both as a player and a composer. His tone is beautiful and never falters. The flow of ideas from his instrument seems unending, especially as he solos over the dense drums and woodblocks of master drummer Herlin Riley on "Bumps," and on "Bat Trad," in which Batiste's melodic playing gets pushed by Riley's relentless cymbals with snapping snare drum accents. Although the clarinet has a reputation for being an instrument of traditional or swing jazz, Batiste plays it as modern as they come. In the opening, lilting playing of his composition "The Latest," Batiste's clarinet builds his solo to notes much higher than most clarinetists will attempt before bringing it back to the range of mere mortals. Most of the tunes are Batiste compositions except for a meditative version of Buddy Johnson's "I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone" and a pretty take on the standard "Skylark" featuring guitarist Russell Malone in a lyrical mode. The album finishes with a rousing version of Batiste's "Salty Dogs," and pianist Lawrence Fields and guest saxophonist/producer Branford Marsalis take spirited romps over the bluesy stomp before vocalist Edward Perkins repeats the lyrics that could sum up Batiste's attitude on this record: "I am free/Salty Dogs don't bother me/Got my head in the right place/with the human race/so you see/I am free." -- Kunian

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2007-04-17/cd-reviews.php

- Gambit Weekly

By John Swenson






On the morning of May 6, the last day of the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the musicians’ grapevine was burning with the news of clarinetist and educator Alvin Batiste’s death. Batiste was scheduled to play that day at the Jazz Tent in support of his new album, Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste, and many of the musicians who’d known him over the years planned to be there to visit him. Now they were making plans to mourn him and celebrate his life.



“I got calls from a whole bunch of people at the same time, five people called within five minutes,” recalls Maurice Brown, who played the opening set at the Jazz Tent that day.



“It was overwhelming. I was preparing for my gig at Jazz Fest and the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I remember it was like time stopping for a moment, I mean, that was going to be one of the highlights of Jazz Fest for me, to see Mr. Bat and catch up with him. Once I got to the festival and all the cameras were there and people wanting to interview me, it hit me that this was really happening. It’s funny, on Saturday I was playing with Roy Hargrove and I saw Al’s picture at the Jazz Tent and I was looking at the picture and I felt like a little kid getting ready for Christmas.”



Brown, who studied with Batiste during the 35 years he taught at Southern University in Baton Rouge, decided to play a new song he’d been writing for Batiste, “Bat’s Ordeal.”



“I had been working on it over the last year and hadn’t had a chance to play it in front of people, so I decided to do it at the last minute after I’d heard about what happened,” Brown says.



He returned to that Jazz Tent stage later that day along with other Batiste students, from his latest class of NOCCA seniors to such stars as Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr., to pay tribute to the late master. An atmosphere of anticipation filled the tent as the crowd buzzed and musical luminaries hugged each other backstage.



The tribute opened with a set from three of Batiste’s teenage NOCCA students—pianist Conun Pappas, bassist Max Moran and Joe Dyson on drums. Their crackling rhythmic poise and collective dexterity as an ensemble, along with vocalist Ed Perkins, on “Clean Air” from the recent album was fitting testimony to Batiste’s talents as a composer and teacher. Branford Marsalis joined the group on alto saxophone for the spirited “Salty Dogs.”



The emotional high point of the tribute came early in the show when Batiste’s niece and nephew, vocalist Stephanie and trumpeter Marlon Jordan, performed.



“That wasn’t planned,” says Marlon Jordan. “Branford’s manager sent a car for us and some of the family members who wanted to be there. It was a sad time, but we decided to go out there and play for Uncle Alvin. We were supposed to do ‘Skylark,’ which is on his last record, but Stephanie didn’t feel like doing that. She wanted to do [Shirley Horn’s] ‘Here’s to Life’ because she thought it was more fitting to welcome him to the new place he was going.”



The band played the opening theme, and when Stephanie half-whispered the words “No complaints,” musicians and listeners alike lost it and began weeping.



“I was so emotional,” says Marlon, “I was just trying to maintain my composure.



“He was my Uncle Alvin. He’s known me since I came out of the womb. To me he was more than Alvin Batiste, the educator. To me he was Alvin Batiste, my uncle who could make me laugh. I was just thinking about how he’s not here anymore. I don’t know what to do to get over that loss.”



Marlon spent four days stranded on his roof with two broken ankles during the flood while his family collected at Uncle Alvin’s place in Baton Rouge, fearing he’d been lost in the deluge.



“I felt bad for my mother because she didn’t know where I was,” he says. “When I saw everybody, they were so relieved I was still here. It was a bad experience, but it showed me that the human spirit can rise above everything.”

Jordan said Batiste’s teaching helped him survive that ordeal.



“It’s life lessons, so many things I learned from Uncle Alvin,” he says. “Every time we would get together, every Sunday we would talk, even when I was like 11. Our family is very creative, very strong and we always get together. He taught me lessons about being a man, taking care of your kids, trying to survive. There’s a thin line between being a jazz musician and being a homemaker, and a whole lot of things that go with that.”



Batiste’s influence and reputation resonated far more deeply with the musicians’ community that included so many of his students over four decades of teaching than it did with the general public, which rarely got to hear the tragically under-recorded clarinetist. Literally thousands of his students in a wide array of disciplines carry his lessons with them in their daily lives.



In January 2004, Alvin Batiste received OffBeat’s Best of th - OffBeat Louisiana Music & Culture Magazine, Volume 20, No. 6.

Few musicians are more deserving of honors than Alvin Batiste, the subject of a new volume in Marsalis Music’s Honors Series. As an instrumentalist, a composer and an educator, he has been a central figure in shaping modern music for the past half century, and the ten tracks on Alvin Batiste provide a too-rare glimpse of a giant who has spent far too much of his career out of the limelight.

Batiste was born in New Orleans in 1932, and is among the rare artists who have created a modern approach to improvising on the clarinet. “My dad played the clarinet,” Alvin explains, “and was a boyhood friend of the great Edmond Hall as well as a fan of Benny Goodman. I wasn’t that interested in learning the instrument when he bought one for me, until I heard Charlie Parker’s recording of ‘Now’s the Time’ at a friend’s house. You could only find records like that in one or two stores in New Orleans at the time, and my reaction was, ‘What was that?’ I started practicing seriously at that point.”

After applying himself in a high school that also produced his future colleagues Harold Battiste and Ed Blackwell as well as trombonist Benny Powell, Batiste entered Southern University in Baton Rouge, where he majored in music. The Civil Rights era was dawning, and white musicians like trombonist Frank Rosolino still had to sneak over from the segregated Louisiana State University campus to jam with Southern students, but the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education gave Batiste a glimpse of new opportunities. “I was a senior getting ready to graduate when the Supreme Court outlawed school segregation, which led my clarinet teacher to entice me to apply to play with the New Orleans Philharmonic. I won the audition to play the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, a gig that fell on the same night I was working with [trumpeter] Melvin Lastie, [tenor saxophonist] Nat Perriliat, [pianist] Ellis Marsalis and [bassist] Richard Payne. I wore my tux to the band’s gig, and invited all of them to what was their first symphony concert. Melvin, who was so impressed, just kept looking at me and saying ‘Mozart,’ but he pronounced it ‘Mose Art,’ which is the way we’d say it in the community.” And while many in New Orleans began calling him Mozart, Batiste’s intimates are more likely to refer to him simply as Bat.

Batiste took to the road briefly after college, including a stint with Ray Charles where he played baritone sax as well as piano when Charles was not on stage. He also did some jamming in Los Angeles with the then-unknown Ornette Coleman, but was quickly lured back home by the rich New Orleans music scene. Batiste began doing blues gigs with Guitar Slim, which the clarinetist recalls as “a rude awakening, because Slim played everything in F#, which is a rough key for the clarinet.” There were also rhythm and blues jobs with Buddy Stewart, big band music with George Williams and the modern jazz Batiste loved with friends Battiste, Marsalis, Payne and Blackwell in a group that came to be known as the American Jazz Quintet.

Returning home also gave Batiste the opportunity to enroll in the newly integrated LSU, where he became one of the first African-Americans to earn a Masters degree in both performance and composition. It was also at this point that he became interested in a career in education, after some student teaching and an offer to become the band director at a New Orleans high school. “I finished my degree, then took the band director’s job, and the first year was rough. They didn’t have uniforms for the band director, so I had to wear a student uniform. I was also frustrated by what I thought was indifference, until some older colleagues made me realize that a student who is looking out the window may be taking in more than one who looks you straight in the eye. After that first year, with both the joy and the dues you pay in helping other people, I never considered teaching to be a drag. In fact, from an aesthetic perspective, nothing is better than being able to teach and play.”

From that point forward, Batiste made his mark as one of the most important figures in the field of jazz education. In 1969, he founded a jazz studies program at Southern University, the first of its kind at an historically black campus (“I was ahead of Donald Byrd at Howard by a few months”); and two years later set the process in motion for the creation of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, which led to a decade of commuting between the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge and NOCCA. Between the two programs, an incredible array of talented artists benefited from Batiste’s instruction, and from the textbook he wrote, The Root Progression System. At the same time, Batiste was composing ambitious works for orchestra, including “North American Idiosyncrasies,” “Planetary Perspective,” “Musique D’Afrique Novelle Orleans” (recorded for India Navigation Records in 1984) and three operas.

With all of this activity, the - Marsalis Music

Finally New Orleans is graced by a new record from clarinetist and composer Alvin Batiste. He's been called "the country's foremost jazz educator" by Thelonious Monk Jr., board chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Batiste is also regarded as the premier jazz clarinetist in the world today. This is his first release since the self-produced Words, Songs, and Messages in 1999. Here Batiste is in his usual excellent form both as a player and a composer. His tone is beautiful and never falters. The flow of ideas from his instrument seems unending, especially as he solos over the dense drums and woodblocks of master drummer Herlin Riley on "Bumps," and on "Bat Trad," in which Batiste's melodic playing gets pushed by Riley's relentless cymbals with snapping snare drum accents. Although the clarinet has a reputation for being an instrument of traditional or swing jazz, Batiste plays it as modern as they come. In the opening, lilting playing of his composition "The Latest," Batiste's clarinet builds his solo to notes much higher than most clarinetists will attempt before bringing it back to the range of mere mortals. Most of the tunes are Batiste compositions except for a meditative version of Buddy Johnson's "I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone" and a pretty take on the standard "Skylark" featuring guitarist Russell Malone in a lyrical mode. The album finishes with a rousing version of Batiste's "Salty Dogs," and pianist Lawrence Fields and guest saxophonist/producer Branford Marsalis take spirited romps over the bluesy stomp before vocalist Edward Perkins repeats the lyrics that could sum up Batiste's attitude on this record: "I am free/Salty Dogs don't bother me/Got my head in the right place/with the human race/so you see/I am free." -- Kunian

- Gambit Music Weekly

Clarinetist Alvin Batiste, whose life as a music educator has taken precedence over his recording career, is heard on one of his rare trips to the studio in this latest addition to the Marsalis Music Honors series. It’s a treat for listeners as well as fans of the clarinet, an often-treacherous instrument not generally employed in modern jazz—and Batiste has largely tamed his instrument’s maverick tendencies.

Recorded in June of last year in New York City, Batiste brought along a rhythm section of pianist Lawrence Fields and bassist Ricky Rodriguez, relative unknowns, as well as veteran drummer Herlin Riley, one of his former students at Louisiana’s Southern University. And he added singer Edward Perkins on four tracks, as well as guest guitarist Russell Malone for four and producer Branford Marsalis, another former student, on soprano, alto and tenor saxes for individual tracks.

Batiste’s darkly mellow clarinet sound is beautifully displayed throughout but is especially glowing on his own “Bumps,” as well as his tribute to his wife, “Edith.” And he clearly relishes a couple of standards, Hoagy Carmichael’s “Skylark” and Buddy Johnson’s “I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone.” Other tracks of note include “Everloving Star,” written by his son, Maynard, and “My Life Is a Tree,” where Batiste has set music to his wife’s lyrics.

Fields and Rodriguez, young players included in the session at the behest of producer Marsalis, show that there’s plenty of latent talent in the hinterlands ready to enter the scene. Having guest artists such as Malone and Marsalis along for the ride certainly added variety to the session, as well as some really fine solo moments. The vocals by Perkins are inoffensive but also not very necessary.


-Will Smith
- JazzTimes Magazine

By Keith Spera

The final day of the 2007 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival celebrated the life and music of Alvin Batiste more poignantly than anyone imagined.

The modern jazz clarinetist, composer and educator was scheduled to share a two-hour set Sunday with veteran drummer Bob French at the AT&T/WWOZ Jazz Tent. Special guests Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. would sit in as a tribute to Batiste and French, two musicians whose influence far outstripped their fame.

But 13 hours before the performance, Batiste's wife and constant companion, Edith, checked on her husband as he sat in front of a television in their Uptown home. He did not respond. He had died of an apparent heart attack at age 74.

So Sunday's show functioned as a jazz funeral, but an especially joyous one.

"It's so profound that the Creator chose this day to take him," said drummer Herlin Riley, a former Batiste student. "Because now we could all get together in a celebratory fashion and pay homage to him."

Batiste was born in New Orleans in 1932. He was introduced to the clarinet by his father, who played traditional jazz. Batiste's modern approach to the instrument was derived in part from Charlie Parker albums.

He went on to largely define the improvisational role of the clarinet, an instrument generally associated with traditional jazz, in modern bebop. Along with Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, drummer Ed Blackwell and others, he helped establish the modern jazz community in New Orleans.

He composed orchestral works and three operas, as well as the textbook "The Root Progression System." He toured with or wrote songs for Ray Charles, Billy Cobham and Cannonball Adderley, among many others.

In college, he became the first African-American soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra. He earned a master's degree from Louisiana State University in performance and composition.

Enduring legacy

Student teaching as part of that program introduced him to a new calling in the classroom. His most enduring legacy may be the scores of students he instructed. He co-founded the jazz studies program at Southern University of Baton Rouge, among the first of its kind in the nation, and was instrumental in the formation of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, where he continued to teach.

Indicative of his legacy, all three NOCCA seniors who performed as Batiste's band on Sunday have received scholarships to music conservatories.

"He was the ultimate educator, performer, mentor," said Astral Project saxophonist and Loyola professor Tony Dagradi. "He was all that rolled into one. There's nobody else in the world who did it as well as Alvin."

At Southern, Batiste's students included future "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, pianist Henry Butler and saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. Batiste famously dismissed Branford Marsalis from the Southern jazz band, believing he had not yet committed himself to the music. Marsalis later credited that dismissal with helping him focus on his career.

Batiste taught Riley, who went on to play with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, at Carver High School.

"He was a perpetual student and a perpetual educator," Riley said. "He would practice every morning when he woke up. He was still searching, still looking for something new in the music. And when he found it, he passed it on."

Connected to the music

Both French and Batiste recently issued CDs through Branford Marsalis' record label. Batiste took great pride in his new CD, "Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste." Consisting mostly of his original compositions, it features Marsalis and Riley. Riley recalled that, after the band recorded the song "Clean Air," Batiste shed tears of joy.

"The music touched him that way," Riley said. "He had that kind of connection to the music."

Word of Batiste's passing spread quickly among musicians. WWOZ-FM dedicated much of its Sunday broadcast to his music. Artists ranging from Allen Toussaint to modern jazz trumpeter Maurice Brown acknowledged Batiste's legacy on stage at Jazzfest.

The day's ultimate tribute turned out to be the show he would have starred in.

When he first received the news early Sunday, Jazz Tent coordinator Greg Davis briefly considered canceling the show. Then Davis, the co-founding trumpeter of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, just as quickly realized that the show must go on, if with a slightly different tone.

"Some folks were making contingency plans about whether we should go on," Davis said. "But this was going to turn into a real tribute to someone people genuinely loved. These musicians really loved Bat."

'We decided to keep on'

Batiste's band of NOCCA students -- bassist Max Moran, 18, pianist Conun Pappas and drummer Joe Dyson, both 17, and NOCCA graduate and alto saxophonist Khris Royal, 20 -- received word of his passing early Sunday.

They assembled in a trailer behin - New Orleans Times-Picayune

(5-12-07) Batiste was scheduled to perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Sunday.

Batiste taught music at Southern University in Baton Rouge, where her created the Batiste Jazz Institute and currently at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts where served as lead teacher in jazz instrumental music.

Several well-known musicians studied under Batiste while at Southern University: Randy Jackson, Donald Harrison, Henry Butler, Kent Jordan, Micheal Ward, Herlin Riley, Cameo and Brandford Marsalis.

Batiste toured with Ray Charles in 1958, but was considered an obscure legend until he made three albums with Clarinet Summit in the 1980s -- a quartet also including John Carter (news, bio, voting record), David Murray, and Jimmy Hamilton.

An early album billed Batiste as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz."

Below from a report in the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Alvin Batiste, the veteran modern jazz clarinetist, composer and educator, died early Sunday of an apparent heart attack, hours before he was scheduled to perform with Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Marsalis' record label released Mr. Batiste's latest CD, "Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste," weeks ago. Consisting mostly of Mr. Batiste's original compositions, it features two of his better-known former students, Marsalis and drummer Herlin Riley.

Mr. Batiste was born in New Orleans in 1932. He was first introduced to the clarinet by his father, who played traditional jazz. Mr. Batiste's modern approach to the instrument was formed in part by listening to Charlie Parker albums. Alvin Batiste whistles away on the clarinet as he and the Jazztronauts work the BellSouth/WWOZ Jazz Tent on Friday during the second week of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The fest opens today at 11 a.m.; warm temperatures and partly sunny skies are forecast.

He went on to largely define the improvisational role of the clarinet, an instrument generally associated with traditional jazz, in modern bebop. Along with Ellis Marsalis, Harold Battiste, drummer Ed Blackwell and others, he helped establish a modern jazz community in New Orleans.

He composed orchestral works and three operas, as well as the textbook "The Root Progression System." He toured with or wrote songs for Ray Charles, Billy Cobham and Cannonball Adderley, among many others.

In college, he became the first African-American soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra. He earned a master's degree from Louisiana State University in performance and composition. Student teaching as part of that program introduced him to a new calling in the classroom. His most enduring legacy may be the scores of students he instructed in the ways of modern jazz.

He co-founded the jazz studies program at Southern University, among the first of its kind in the nation, and was instrumental in the formation of the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, where he continued to teach.

At Southern, his students included "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, pianist Henry Butler and saxophonist Donald Harrison Jr. Mr. Batiste famously dismissed Branford Marsalis from the Southern jazz band, believing he had not yet committed himself to the music. Marsalis later credited that dismissal with helping him to focus on his career.

Today at 3:35 p.m., Mr. Batiste was scheduled to perform in the AT&T/WWOZ Jazz Tent at Jazzfest alongside Marsalis, Connick and drummer Bob French, another Marsalis Music honoree. The set, however, turned into a tribute to Mr. Batiste, with the crowd spilling out of the tent long before the concert began.

WWOZ DJ and documentarian David Kunian got on stage first to announce that Mr. Batiste "had left us."

Kunian said that Herbie Hancock had just a few weeks ago called Mr. Batiste the "world's greatest jazz educator" for his role as a teacher at SUNO, in New Orleans public schools, and at NOCCA, whose staff he joined at the age of 70.

Stephanie Jordan and her brother, trumpeter Marlon Jordan, also took the stage for a touching performance on Mr. Batiste's behalf. The packed crowd, clad in wild print shirts and straw hats, jumped to their feet to give the pair a standing ovation.

Jordan said Batiste was her uncle, and had introduced her mother and father.

"When you think of the word love, think of Alvin Batiste," she said. "When you think of the word kindness, think of Alvin Batiste. When you find yourself giving unconditionally with your entire heart, then you know you have been touched by Alvin Batiste."

- New Orleans Times-Picayune