Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Clarinetist Alvin Batiste died May 6 of an apparent heart attack. He was 74.
Batiste died only hours before he was scheduled to perform with Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis on the final day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Marsalis’ record label, Marsalis Music, released Batiste’s latest CD, Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste, just a few weeks ago. Marsalis also plays on the album.
A longtime teacher at Southern University in Baton Rouge, he created the Batiste Jazz Institute—one of the first programs of its kind in the nation—and taught jazz at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.
His students included Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Kent Jordan, Michael Ward, Herlin Riley, Charlie Singleton, Woodie Douglas and others.
“He was not only a teacher, he was my father away from home,” Butler said. “He taught us about music, the history of music and the business of music. The ones who had the benefit of learning from him are better musicians and better people today.”
After festival spokesman Matthew Goldman proclaimed that “the show will go on” for its final day, The Times-Picayune reported that the day was filled with tributes from the likes of Bob French, Connick, Marsalis and more. French focused most of his set on the second part of a jazz funeral, when the tempo picks up and the musicians set free the spirit of the departed.
As an all-star jazz jam closed the Jazz Tent later in the evening, nearly two dozen musicians and singers gathered onstage for a joyous “I’ll Fly Away.” Jazz Tent decorum was set aside as people danced in the aisles and stood on chairs.
“Although he’s physically not here, I really believe this is what he would have wanted,” Greg Davis said to The Times-Picayune. “This way, his fans got to share in the tribute.”
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
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