Alvin Batiste

1932 - 2007

About

Alvin Batiste (1932-2007) was the first African-American student to perform as a guest soloist playing with the New Orleans Philharmonic on Mozart’s Concerto.  He also played with the Ray Charles Orchestra and the American Jazz Quintet and recorded with AFO Records, the company credited with New Orleans Modern Jazz. He was a member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity, performed on two Julian Cannonball Adderly recordings, and made three albums with Clarinet Summit in the 1980s (a quartet also including John Carter, David Murray, and Jimmy Hamilton). He was later commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts to compose a concerto for African instruments and orchestra. He went on to record only a handful of albums/CD’s between the 1980’s and his death in 2007; his last release- Marsalis Music Honors Series- Alvin Batiste, in which he played with Branford Marsalis and many other notable jazz musicians.  Alvin’s career spanned more than five decades during which he received countless awards and honors, the highest of which include The international Association of Jazz Educators’ Lifetime Achievement Award and the Alvin Baptiste Jazz Institute. Through out his career, Alvin played and explored in several musical streams; jazz, classical, gospel, blues, diasporan (Cuba, Brazil, and African) and computer-based music. He performed regularly at a variety of local venues between New Orleans and Baton Rouge including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, He hosted the radio show Jazz Sessions at WBRH and conducted workshops/seminars at various universities including Harvard University, Yale University, University of Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA, University of Paris, and University of Bamako (Mali). He appeared in concert throughout West Africa, Europe, and the United States including Carnegie Hall.

Related Information

http://www.alvinbatiste.net/bio.htm, http://articles.latimes.com/2007/may/07/local/me-batiste7

Works by Alvin Batiste