Tom Sancton and Dr. Michael White Set for THE JAZZ REVIVAL REVISITED as Part of 'Drummer and Smoke' Series, 3/23

By: Feb. 28, 2014
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New Orleans -- As part of our Drummer and Smoke series, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival will present "The Jazz Revival Revisited" featuring Tom Sancton and Dr. Michael White. This event is part of our Sunday Panel Series and will happen at 2:30 P.M. March 23 at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe. Get your tickets here by purchasing a panel pass for that day.

These two leading exponents of the traditional New Orleans clarinet style will celebrate the music of George Lewis. After his first recordings with trumpeter Bunk Johnson in the 1940's, Lewis spearheaded the so-called jazz revival of the 1950's and 60's. With his lyrical tone and pulsing drive, he won fans around the world, touring widely in the U.S., Europe and Japan, making more than a hundred recordings, and inspiring generations of younger musicians to take up the banner of traditional jazz. Among them: Tom Sancton and Michael White.

Introduced to Preservation Hall by his father in 1962, Sancton was enthralled by Lewis's sound and soon began taking clarinet lessons with the master. He lovingly chronicled this apprenticeship in his 2006 memoir Song For My Fathers. In his parallel career as a journalist, Sancton served as an editor and Paris Bureau Chief for TIME Magazine from 1979 to 2001. He moved back to New Orleans in 2007 to take up a position as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane, where he has taught creative writing. He now appears regularly at such venues as Preservation Hall and the Palm Court Jazz Café.

Michael White, a relative of several early generation jazzmen, cut his teeth playing parades and funerals with Doc Paulin's Brass Band. Although he received a Tulane Ph.D. in Spanish (hence the "Dr." title), he has pursued a distinguished career in music, both as a jazz performer and composer, and as a historian and lecturer on the subject. White has performed in over two dozen countries and made more than sixty recordings. He is currently the Keller Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Xavier University, where he produces regular programs on New Orleans music and culture.

For their Drummer and Smoke program, Sancton and White will discuss the Lewis legacy and perform a selection of tunes associated with this legendary New Orleans jazzman.



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