A music master, composer, arranger, educator and performer - Alvin Batiste defies description.He is a Renaissance Man for the 21st Century.He is a Music Pioneer who has contributed to every genre.He is simply "Batiste" - one of the most distinctive and virtuosic of modern jazz clarinetists, and his name alone has become synonymous with taking the music to the next level and the next generation.Although sometimes called a "New Orleans clarinetist" (his Columbia album even billed him as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz"), in reality Alvin Batiste is an avant-garde player who does not fit easily into any classification. Under-recorded throughout his career, Alvin Batiste was a childhood friend of Ed Blackwell and he spent time in Los Angeles in 1956 playing with Ornette Coleman.Clarinetist and composer Batiste first received international attention after he appeared on two Julian Cannonball Adderly recordings. Batiste has just completed the musical score to Vu-Dou Macbeth an Operatic choreo-drama by librettist Lenwood O’Sloan. Batiste performs throughout American Inner city school districts using the principles in his book entitled: The Root Progression System: The Fundamentals of African American Music.Receiving numerous awards and honors during his career that has spanned more than five decades, His work has won him Fellowships from the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the National Association of Jazz Educators’ National
Humanitarian Award, the International Association of Jazz Educator’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Offbeat
Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Arts Education, the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society’s Education
Award and Southern University’s Distinguished Service Award. Batiste is also holder of the Louisiana Governor's 2005 Award for "Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education."
His students are presently very prominent in the world of music today as celebrated jazz musicians, composers,
recording artists and educators. A limited list includes Randy Jackson, Antonio York, Roland Guerin, Troy Davis, Donald Edwards, George Fontenette, Herman Jackson, Henry Butler, Branford Marsalis, Kent Jordan, Chris Severan, Willie Singleton, Herlin Riley, Reginald Veal, Kent Jordan, Yolanda Robertson Windsay, Ernest Jackson, Margeret Valet, Jonathan Bloom, Coco York, Wes Anderson, Julius Farmer, Dennis Nelson, Kirk Ford, Al Rodriguez, Charlie Singleton, Monty Seward, Betsy Braud, Micheal Ward, Raymond Harris, John Gray, Quamon Fowler, Maurice Brown, and many more.Batiste is currently the lead teacher in jazz
instrumental music at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA). He holds a Master’s degree of Music in
clarinet performance and composition from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Music
Education from Southern University.Marsalis Music’s latest release "Honoring Alvin Batiste" will be available April 10th, 2007. Batiste, and wife and poet Edith Batiste, will also release "Soulmates" in June 2007.-------------------------------------------------------
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following piece is an excerpt from the book companion included in the "New Orleans Heritage Jazz: 1956-1966" 4-LP boxed set, released by Opus 43 Records in 1976.)ALVIN BATISTE is a clarinetist and jazz educator. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Southern University and his master’s degree from Louisiana State University (both in Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Batiste returned to Southern in 1969 to create the Jazz Institute. He also has served as artist-in-residence for the New Orleans Public School system, and developed a multi-ethnic music curriculum…In his musical career, Batiste has performed with the Ray Charles Orchestra, Larry Darnell, Joe Jones, Smiley Lewis, Joe Robichaux, Guitar Slim and George Williams. He also played with the American Jazz Quintet.Most notably, while still a student at Booker T. Washington High School, Batiste was a guest soloist with the New Orleans Philharmonic playing Mozart’s Concerto in Bb, the first time that a Black student ever had such an honor. It also earned Batiste the nickname, "Mozot." Years later, the Philharmonic debuted his North American Idio-syncrasies for Jazz Players. He was also commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts to compose a concerto for African instruments and orchestra.Batiste’s Jazz Institute at Southern University has welcomed such artists as Cannonball Adderley, James Black, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, George Duke, Quincy Jones, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Ellis Marsalis, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry and a host of other jazz luminaries. The program continues today and has musically supported such artists as Branford Marsalis, and other artists. Batiste continues to perform with his group, the Jazztronauts.Batiste, a native of New Orleans, was born on November 7, 1932. He transitioned this life on May 6, 2007.
