Quotes:
"Personality is a mask you believe in."
Michael White
| Quotes By: Dr. White |
| Artist: Dr. Michael White |
Similar Artists:
Barney Bigard,
Sidney Bechet,
Bob Wilber,
Albert Nicholas,
Jimmy Hamilton,
Alliance ,
Pee Wee Russell,
Preservation Hall Jazz Band,
Heritage Hall Jazz Band,
Kenny Davern,
Tony Scott,
Boilermaker Jazz Band,
Wynton Marsalis
Influenced By:
Stuff Smith,
Sun Ra,
Thelonious Monk,
Duke Ellington,
John Coltrane,
Charles Mingus,
Stéphane Grappelli,
Eric Dolphy,
George Lewis
Worked With:
- Born: October 29, 1954, Houston, TX
- Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Jazz
- Instrument: Clarinet
- Representative Albums: "Dancing in the Sky," "New Year's Eve Live at the Village Vanguard," "A Song for George Lewis"
Biography
Dr. Michael White is a multifaceted, multi-talented New Orleans-based musician who hasn't 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 York's Village Vanguard jazz club to perform on and around New Year's Eve. But owing to his responsibilities as a professor at Xavier University, he and his band don't 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, he's 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 White's 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 didn't make his professional debut until he was in his late teens with Paulin's 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 Year's 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, he's 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 J. Skelly, All Music Guide
| Discography: Dr. Michael White |
| Wikipedia: Michael White (clarinetist) |
For other persons named Michael White, see Michael White (disambiguation).
| Dr. Michael White | |
|---|---|
 Dr. Michael White at the 2007 Satchmofest
|
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Michael White |
| Born | November 29, 1954 |
| Origin | New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Jazz Dixieland |
| Occupation(s) | Clarinetist Educator Bandleader Composer Jazz historian |
| Instrument(s) | Clarinet |
| Label(s) | Basin Street Records Antilles Records 504 Records |
| Associated acts | Preservation Hall Jazz Band Chester Zardis Lucien Barbarin Wynton Marsalis Young Tuxedo Brass Band |
Michael White (born 29 November 1954 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is a jazz clarinetist, 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."[1]
Contents |
Career
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.[2] 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.[3] 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. [4][5] 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.[6] 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.[7]
"It was played the way Dixieland bands have always done it. At first low, weeping, sorrowful."
– former U.S. President Bill Clinton[8]
Jazz festivals
Jazz festivals White has performed at:
- New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
- French Quarter Festival
- Satchmo Summerfest
- Ascona Jazz Festival
- Chicago Jazz Festival
- Toronto Jazz Festival
- North Sea Jazz Festival
Other endeavors
Education
White is also a college professor who formerly taught Spanish, now teaching
Personal life
Dr. Michael White was living in a one storey home in the Gentilly 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 LPs. He lost it all in the flooding.[11] 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.[12] White is related to early jazz notables Papa John Joseph and "Kaiser" Willie Joseph, among others. [1]
Discography
| Year | Album | Notes | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast" | - | Nonesuch Records |
| 2005 | "Songs of New Orleans: Preservation Hall Jazz Band" | Preservation Hall 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" | - | Basin Street Records |
| 2000 | "A Tribute to Johnny Dodds" | - | Jazz Crusade Records |
| 2000 | "Dance @ the Dew Drop" | - | GHB Records |
| 2000 | "Shake It and Break It (expanded reissue)" | - | 504 Records |
| 1992 | "New Year's Eve Live at the Village Vanguard" | - | Antilles Records |
| 1990 | "Crescent City Serenade" | - | Antilles Records |
| 1989 | "The Majesty of the Blues" | - | Columbia Records |
| 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
External links
Notes
The discography used allmusicguide.com as one guide.
References
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Dancing in the Sky". http://www.allmusicguide.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hnfwxqqaldse. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
- ^ "Basin Street Records Bio". http://www.basinstreetrecords.com/. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ 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 0306810034.
- ^ "All Songs Considered, Episode 64". http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc64/#white.
- ^ "Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band". http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2006/New_Orleans/Participants/index.html.
- ^ Chinen, Nate. "Ring Out, Ring In, And You Can Choose the Beat". http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A05EED81F31F93AA15751C1A9609C8B63. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ Nead, Arthur. "Tulane Commencement 2006". http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=6744. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
- ^ "Ibid"; Nead, Arthur
- ^ "Ibid" Burnett, John
- ^ "[http://www.fleurdelis.tulane.edu/bios/bio_White.html Dr. Michael White, Jazz Musician, Professor, Xavier University]". http://www.fleurdelis.tulane.edu/bios/bio_White.html. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ Burnett, John. "Lost Jazz Treasures Live on in Clarinetist's Music". http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5685274. Retrieved on 2007-05-29.
- ^ Fensterstock, Alison. "Basin Street Blues". http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2006-05-02/feat5.php. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
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Mentioned in
- Rhythm Logic (Jazz Band, '90s)
- Werewolf (1970 Album by The Fourth Way)
- One Night Stand (1976 Drama Film)
- The Railway Station Man (1992 Drama Film)
- Michael White (Jazz Artist, '60s-2000s)
- Never Get Out of the Blues Alive (1972 Album by John Lee Hooker)
- Projections (1968 Album by John Handy)
- The 2nd John Handy Album (1966 Album by John Handy)
- The Elements (1973 Album by Joe Henderson)
- So Far Away (1993 Album by Michael White)
- Jerry Hahn & His Quintet (1998 Album by Jerry Hahn/Michael White/Noel Jewkes/Jack De Johnette/Ron McClure)
- Shake It and Bake It (2000 Album by Michael White)
- Eyvind Kang (Avant-Garde Artist, '90s, 2000s)
- Original Soundtrack from "Tune in Tomorrow" (1989 Album by Wynton Marsalis)
