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Michael White (clarinetist)
Encyclopedia
Michael White is a jazz
clarinet
ist, bandleader
, composer
, jazz historian
and musical educator. Scott Yanow
, a jazz critic, said in a review that Michael "displays the feel and spirit of the best New Orleans clarinetists."
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 onstage performing in Jackson Square in the French Quarter
. He began working with the musician regularly following the encounter. A staunch jazz tradionalist, White can be heard on the 1989 album "The Majesty of the Blues" by Wynton Marsalis
. Wynton also appears on White's 1990 album titled "Crescent City Serenade", along with musicians Wendell Brunious
and Walter Payton.
Dr. White has led several bands in the New Orleans area, and has accompanied various artists on other recording projects. Since 1979 he has played in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band
, founded by clarinetist John Casimir
sometime in the 1940s. During the 1980s he also 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 shortly after. 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
. The "Dancing in the Sky" album is mostly original compositions by White.
In 1981, White founded The Original Liberty Jazz Band with the express intent of preserving 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. On May 13, 2006 White performed "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" at the Tulane University
commencement ceremony. Former Presidents George H. W. Bush
and Bill Clinton
were in attendance at the ceremony. Mr. Clinton was moved to make a remark about the performance during his speech.
, now teaching African-American Music at Xavier University of Louisiana
, a member of Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCU). 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
.
district of New Orleans, near the London Avenue Canal
, before the catastrophic flooding of most of New Orleans due to the Federal levee failures
during Hurricane Katrina
in 2005. White was a substantial collector of jazz artifacts and history in New Orleans for 30 years, but lost nearly everything in the flooding. He had owned the original sheet music of Dead Man Blues by Jelly Roll Morton
, a clarinet mouthpiece by Sidney Bechet
, and had a collection of an estimated 5,000 records and LP
s. He lost it all in the flooding. White feels that jazz music in New Orleans will become strengthened by the experience of Katrina, that a sense of fervor has and will rise out of the catastrophe. White is related to early jazz notables Papa John Joseph
and "Kaiser" Willie Joseph, among others. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_5_28/ai_n15727924/pg_3
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
ist, bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, jazz historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and musical educator. Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow
Scott Yanow is an American jazz commentator, known for many contributions to the Allmusic website, for writing ten books on jazz and for reviewing jazz recordings for over 30 years.-Biography:...
, a jazz critic, said in a review that Michael "displays the feel and spirit of the best New Orleans clarinetists."
Career
Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band
The Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, also known as the Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, was a New Orleans brass band created by Danny Barker notable for spuring the revival of participation in the city's brass band tradition by a new generation....
, established by banjoist Danny Barker
Danny Barker
Danny Barker , born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz banjoist, singer, guitarist, songwriter, ukelele player and author from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band...
. He was discovered by Kid Sheik Colar, who heard him onstage performing in Jackson Square in the French Quarter
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
. He began working with the musician regularly following the encounter. A staunch jazz tradionalist, White can be heard on the 1989 album "The Majesty of the Blues" by Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
. Wynton also appears on White's 1990 album titled "Crescent City Serenade", along with musicians Wendell Brunious
Wendell Brunious
Wendell Brunious is an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.Brunious's father was John "Picket" Brunious, who was a trumpeter who studied at Juilliard, played with the Onward Brass Band, Young Tuxedo Brass Band, and Paul Barbarin, and arranged for Billy Eckstine and Cab Calloway...
and Walter Payton.
Dr. White has led several bands in the New Orleans area, and has accompanied various artists on other recording projects. Since 1979 he has played in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band
Young Tuxedo Brass Band
The Young Tuxedo Brass Band is a brass band from New Orleans, which was influential on the New Orleans jazz scene in the years after World War II....
, founded by clarinetist John Casimir
John Casimir (clarinetist)
John Casimir was a New Orleans jazz clarinetist and bandleader, best remembered as the leader of The Young Tuxedo Brass Band for some 20 years up to his death....
sometime in the 1940s. During the 1980s he also led a band called The New Orleans Hot Seven. Performing "A Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
" in concert with them at the Lincoln Center in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1989 led to a favorable review by Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
in the New York Times shortly after. On May 25, 2004, a selection from White's album "Dancing in the Sky" ("Algiers Hoodoo Woman") was broadcast on NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's All Songs Considered
All Songs Considered
All Songs Considered is a weekly online multimedia program started in January 2000 by NPR's All Things Considered director Bob Boilen. At first, the show featured information and streaming audio about the songs used as bumper music on All Things Considered. The program has turned into a source of...
. The "Dancing in the Sky" album is mostly original compositions by White.
In 1981, White founded The Original Liberty Jazz Band with the express intent of preserving the musical heritage of New Orleans. The group has performed an end-of-year concert at the Village Vanguard
Village Vanguard
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...
every year since the early 1990s. On May 13, 2006 White performed "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" at the Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
commencement ceremony. Former Presidents George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
were in attendance at the ceremony. Mr. Clinton was moved to make a remark about the performance during his speech.
Jazz festivals
Jazz festivals White has performed at:- New Orleans Jazz & Heritage FestivalNew Orleans Jazz & Heritage FestivalThe New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, often known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana...
- French QuarterFrench QuarterThe French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
Festival - Satchmo Summerfest
- AsconaAsconaAscona is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore.The town is a popular tourist destination, and holds a yearly jazz festival, the Ascona Jazz Festival....
Jazz Festival - Chicago Jazz FestivalChicago Jazz FestivalThe Chicago Jazz Festival is a popular and well-known four day free celebration of jazz at Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. It is run by the Jazz Institute of Chicago during Labor Day weekend, integrating both world-famous and local artists...
- Toronto Jazz Festival
- North Sea Jazz FestivalNorth Sea Jazz FestivalThe North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam...
- In 2010 Michael will be performing at New Orleans' Voodoo ExperienceVoodoo ExperienceVoodoo Experience, also commonly referred to as Voodoo or Voodoo Fest, is a multi-day music and arts festival held in City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana. It was first held on Halloween weekend in 1999. It has since moved between the weekend before Halloween and Halloween weekend throughout the years...
Education
White is also a college professor who formerly taught SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, now teaching African-American Music at Xavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana , located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college with the distinction of being the only historically black Roman Catholic institution of higher education...
, a member of Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
(HBCU). 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
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
concerts relating to traditional New Orleans jazz, often working with Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
. White has also served as a commissioner for the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park is a U.S. National Historical Parkin the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, near the French Quarter. It was created in 1994 to celebrate the origins and evolution of jazz, America’s most widely-recognized genre of music.The park consists of ...
.
Personal life
Dr. Michael White was living in a one story home in the GentillyGentilly, New Orleans
Gentilly is a broad, predominantly middle-class and racially diverse section of New Orleans, Louisiana. The first part of Gentilly to be developed was along the Gentilly Ridge, a long stretch of high ground along the former banks of Bayou Gentilly...
district of New Orleans, near the London Avenue Canal
London Avenue Canal
The London Avenue Canal is a drainage canal in New Orleans, Louisiana, used for pumping rain water into Lake Pontchartrain. The Canal runs through the 7th Ward of New Orleans from the Gentilly area to the Lakefront....
, before the catastrophic flooding of most of New Orleans due to the Federal levee failures
Levee failures in Greater New Orleans, 2005
In 29 August 2005 there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans, Louisiana, and its suburbs following passage of Hurricane Katrina and landfall in Mississippi. The levee and flood wall failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish...
during Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in 2005. White was a substantial collector of jazz artifacts and history in New Orleans for 30 years, but lost nearly everything in the flooding. He had owned the original sheet music of Dead Man Blues by Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
, a clarinet mouthpiece by Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
, and had a collection of an estimated 5,000 records and LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
s. He lost it all in the flooding. White feels that jazz music in New Orleans will become strengthened by the experience of Katrina, that a sense of fervor has and will rise out of the catastrophe. White is related to early jazz notables Papa John Joseph
Papa John Joseph
Papa John Joseph was an early New Orleans jazz string bass player.Joseph was born in St. James Parish, Louisiana and moved to New Orleans by 1906.He played with Buddy Bolden early on...
and "Kaiser" Willie Joseph, among others. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_5_28/ai_n15727924/pg_3
Discography
| Year | Album | Notes | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast" | - | Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP... |
| 2005 | "Songs of New Orleans: Preservation Hall Jazz Band" | Preservation Hall Preservation Hall Preservation Hall is a noted jazz performance hall located at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It hosts nightly concerts featuring a rotating roster of bands. The bands of Preservation Hall typically perform jazz in the New Orleans style.Despite the fame of the... album |
Preservation Hall Records |
| 2004 | "Dancing in the Sky" | Basin Street Records | |
| 2002 | "Jazz From the Soul of New Orleans" | - | Basin Street Records |
| 2000 | "A Song For George Lewis George Lewis George Lewis may refer to:*George Lowys or Lewis , mayor of Winchelsea*George Lewis , track and field athlete from Trinidad and Tobago*George Lewis , New Orleans jazz clarinettist... " |
- | Basin Street Records |
| 2000 | "A Tribute to Johnny Dodds Johnny Dodds Johnny Dodds was an American New Orleans based jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist, best known for his recordings under his own name and with bands such as those of Joe "King" Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Lovie Austin and Louis Armstrong. Dodds was also the older brother of drummer Warren "Baby"... " |
- | Jazz Crusade Records |
| 2000 | "Dance @ the Dew Drop" | - | GHB Records |
| 2000 | "Shake It and Break It (expanded reissue)" | - | 504 Records 504 Records 504 Records is a record label founded by Mike Dine in 1978 that specializes in New Orleans traditional jazz.The name is inspired by the New Orleans telephone area code.... |
| 1992 | "New Year's Eve Live at the Village Vanguard" | - | Antilles Records Antilles Records Antilles Records was an American record label that was a subsidiary of Island Records.Its jazz catalog is now managed by Verve Records.-Discography:*1001 Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity 1981*1002 Biréli Lagrène- Routes To Django 1980... |
| 1990 | "Crescent City Serenade" | - | Antilles Records |
| 1989 | "The Majesty of the Blues The Majesty of the Blues The Majesty of the Blues is a 1989 jazz album by Wynton Marsalis.Marsalis wrote all the selections on the album, in addition to playing trumpet.... " |
- | Columbia Records Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
| 1987 | "Shake It and Break It" | - | 504 Records |
| 1984 | "T'Ain't Nobody's Business" | - | 504 Records |
| 1983 | Jazz Continues: Young Tuxedo Brass Band | - | 504 Records |
Awards
- 1994 - Royal Norwegian Musical Medal (NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
) - 1995 - Chevalier of Arts and Letterso (FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
)