Dr. Michael White - Tricentennial Rag '2018

Tracks list

Dr. Michael White is a multifaceted, multi-talented New Orleans-based musician
who hasnt gotten nearly enough exposure outside of his native Crescent City. A
musicologist, jazz historian, educator, clarinet player, and bandleader, White
and his band make an annual trip to New Yorks Village Vanguard jazz club to
perform on and around New Years Eve. But owing to his responsibilities as a
professor at Xavier University, he and his band dont get out of town that much.

White began playing clarinet in classical music settings, but eventually, the
jazz bug overtook him and he began performing around New Orleans with various
brass bands. Most notably, White hooked up with Doc Paulin, who led a ten-piece
brass band. To offset the feast or famine nature of his income as a musician, he
began teaching Spanish at Xavier University in 1980. In recent years, hes been
teaching New Orleans music and culture under an endowed chair at Xavier.

While the blues is fundamental to everything White does as a musician, the more
he learns about New Orleans music and other music of the American south, the
more he likes to push himself and his bandmates in different directions.

It is Whites crystal-clear-toned clarinet playing that can be heard on Wynton
Marsalis critically hailed 1989 release, The Majesty of the Blues (Columbia
Records). More recently, White worked with Marsalis, the artistic director for
jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York, on A Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton, a
series of concerts that were performed there. White also served as musical
director for concert tributes to King Oliver and Sidney Bechet that were
collaborations with Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

White began playing clarinet as a youngster, but didnt make his professional
debut until he was in his late teens with Paulins brass band. He cites as
primary influences many New Orleans clarinet players: Sidney Bechet, Johnny
Dodds, Barney Bigard, Paul Barnes, Willie Humphrey, and George Lewis. Raised on
classic R&B and early rock & roll, he became aware of Benny Goodman while
studying clarinet in his teens, but was more interested in the long clarinet
tradition in New Orleans.

White had a musical revelation in 1975 when he first put a needle down on a
recording by clarinetist George Lewis. He proceeded to wear out the grooves on
the record, and listened to it for days on end. Later he learned that one of his
relatives was on the Lewis recording.

He formed his first group, the Original Liberty Jazz Band, in 1981. He continues
to lead that band as well as two smaller groups, the Liberty Brass Band and the
Michael White Quartet.

White has recorded two critically acclaimed albums for the New Orleans-based
Basin Street Records label, Dancing in the Sky (2004) and Jazz from the Soul of
New Orleans (2002). Both ventures freely mix blues tunes with more traditional
sounding New Orleans jazz numbers, and both will appeal to fans of blues and
jazz. An earlier release, A Song for George Lewis, was released in 2000, also
for Basin Street. With Antilles Records, White released New Years Eve Live at
the Village Vanguard and Crescent City Serenade, both in the 90s.

White has made strides since the mid-90s in taking his brand of the New Orleans
jazz and blues clarinet tradition to other cities around the U.S., Canada, and
Europe. Ultimately, hes equally at ease at home in a small club, house party, or
wedding in New Orleans as he is out on a concert hall stage. ~ Richard Skelly

Tracklist:
01. Dr. Michael White - Frenchmen Street Strut
02. Dr. Michael White - Blues on the Bayou
03. Dr. Michael White - Tricentennial Rag
04. Dr. Michael White - On Mardi Gras Day
05. Dr. Michael White - I Saw Jesus Standing in the Water
06. Dr. Michael White - Loneliness
07. Dr. Michael White - What I Wouldnt Do to Be with You
08. Dr. Michael White - Instigators Lament
09. Dr. Michael White - Sassy Creole Woman
10. Dr. Michael White - Mandeville Stomp
11. Dr. Michael White - When the Saints Go Marching In

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