Clinics (with Nicholas Payton) and Concerts.

Big doings in the Tulane Music Department. A bunch of us 'jazz insurgents' have been scheming and plotting to bring more jazz to the department and the Tulane campus in general, and this year some of those efforts are paying off. Beginning Wednesday February 4th, our jazz piano instructor, Jesse McBride, will be curating a music series Wednesday nights at the Rat, the bar in the basement of the Student Union building on the Tulane University campus. The schedule is as follows: February 4th: Clyde Kerr Jr. February 18th: Adonis Rose March 4th: John Doheny and the Professors of Pleasure March 18th: Harold Battiste April 15th: Stefon Harris April 22nd: Fredrick Sanders April 29th: Tim Warfield Downbeat is at 8:00p.m. and admission is absolutely free. That's a helluva price to catch some very heavy cats. Trumpeter Clyde Kerr Jr. has been a mover and shaker on the scene in New Orleans since the 70s, both as a session player (just about everything that had brass on it in the 70s, from the Meters to the Nevilles to Allan Toussaint, Clyde played on) and as a straight-ahead jazz player (I'm particularly fond of his work on Alvin "Red" Tyler's Rounder release from the early 90s, "Heritage"). As an educator he's taught some of the cream of the crop of contemporary New Orleans trumpet players, most notably Nicholas Payton and Marlon Jordan. Drummer Adonis Rose has recorded and performed with Wynton Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Harry Connick Junior, Nicholas Payton, Gerald Levert, Chaka Kahn, and Public Enemy. The Professors of Pleasure are Tulane University's flagship faculty band, and feature Jesse McBride, piano, Jim Markway bass, John Dobry guitar, Geoff Clapp drums and yours truly on tenor and alto saxophone. Harold Battiste has worn many, many hats during his long and industrious career, from pianist, composer and saxophonist,to record label owner (AFO records, New Orleans first black-owned co-operative record label) record producer (Sam Cooke, Dr. John, Sonny and Cher) musical director (Sonny and Cher again, in both their touring band and their long running hit television show) and jazz educator (University of New Orleans). He has also been mentor and "life coach" to many, many young New Orleans musicians (including our own Jesse McBride) and has recently assembled and published a treasure trove of New Orleans modern jazz compositions by masters such as Ellis Marsalis, James Black, Nat Perrilliat, Alvin Batiste and Melvin Lastie under the rubric "The Silverbook." Vibraphonist Stefon Harris has recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson, Charlie Hunter, Joe Henderson, Steve Coleman, Joshua Redman, Kurt Elling, Greg Osby and many, many others, as well as releasing six albums under his own name. His latest on the Blue Note label, "African Tarantella," features Steve Turre, Derrick Hodge and Terreon Gully. Pianist Fredrick Sanders is originally from Dallas, and has played with Roy Hargrove, Dr. John, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. He has released two CDs as leader ("East of Vilbig" and "Soul Trinity") and played on the Professors of Pleasure's first release, earning him the title "Professor of Pleasure Emeritus." Saxophonist Tim Warfield is a veteran of the Nicholas Payton and Marlon Jordon bands, and was featured on the 1991 Island/Antilles release "Tough Young Tenors." Warfield’s first recording, "A Cool Blue," was selected as one of the top ten recordings of the year in a 1995 New York Times critic’s poll, as was his 1998 recording Gentle Warrior (featuring Cyrus Chestnut, Tarus Mateen, Clarence Penn, Terell Stafford, and Nicholas Payton), proclaiming him possibly the most powerful tenor saxophonist of his generation. In 1999, he was awarded “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” in DownBeat Magazine’s 49th Annual Jazz Critic’s poll And... On February 4th and 5th, from 3:30 to 5:00p.m., the Tulane Jazz Performance Studies department will present Nicholas Payton conducting clinics. The clinics are absolutely free and are open to the general public, and will be held in the music dept. bandroom on the Tulane campus, which is room 260 in the Dixon Annex. If you are a young jazz musician in the New Orleans area you cannot afford to miss these events. There's just no rationale for it, unless you've got a gig or something. Be there, or be square.