TOM SANCTON PERFORMANCES APRIL-MAY 2018

April 25: Palm Court Jazz Cafe, 1206 Decatur Street, New Orleans. With Lars Edegran band featuring Topsy Chapman,  8 p.m. - 11p.m.

April 26: Palm Court Jazz Cafe, 1206 Decatur Street, New Orleans. With Clive Wilson Serenaders featuring Butch Thompson. 8 p.m. - 11p.m.

April 27: Jazzfest, Economy Hall Tent, with Clive Wilson's Serenaders featuring Butch Thompson. Time TBA.

April 29: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter Street, with the Wendell Brunious Jazz Band. 7-10 p.m.

May 4: Brennan’s on Royal Street, with the Seva Venet trio.
4-7pm.

May 6: Jazzfest, Economy Hall Tent, with New Orleans Legacy Band. 1:40-2:40 p.m.

May 8: Palm Court Jazz Cafe, 1296 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran All Stars, 7-10 p.m.

May 12: Palm Court Jazz Cafe, 1296 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran All Stars, 7-10 p.m.

May 13: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter Street, with the Wendell Brunious Jazz Band. 7-10 p.m.

ORSON VIDEO OF SONG FOR MY FATHERS E-EDITION

Richard Mason and Benjamin Morse, creators of the Orson interactive e-edition of my book Song For My Fathers, have just posted a short video about it on youtube. It's an excellent introduction to the new world of interactive books that Orson has invented. I was thoroughly bowled over by what they and their tech people did with my book. They took it from a static print version to a multidimensional experience combining musical performances, interviews, videos, and dozens of rare photos--not to mention an audiobook track synched to the text. The Orson edition of Song for my Fathers is currently on offer for half price ($12) throughout the summer. Have a look: https://youtu.be/YwEsCFqOdFc

SONG FOR MY FATHERS --THE INTERACTIVE E-BOOK VERSION

 AT LAST! The new improved interactive e-book edition of SONG FOR MY FATHERS is now available for iPad downloads. In addition to the full text of this coming-of-age-in-New Orleans jazz memoir, there is an audio narration, some 100 vintage photos, musical performances, interviews, plus rare video footage of jazz funerals, parades, and recording sessions from the 1950s and 60s. Anyone who liked the print edition (and has an iPad) will get a real kick out of this multidimensional you-are-there version.

Here's how to get it: 1) go to Apple App store, 2) find and download "eLume" app from Orson and Co., 3) go on the app and choose SONG FOR MY FATHERS among their offerings, 4) pay and download the package--takes about 10 minutes, 5) enjoy!

For inquiries and download help: info@orsonandco.com

PUNCH MILLER'S LUCKY ESCAPE

Photo of burnt-out club, La. Weelky 5/4/1940

Trumpeter Punch Miller was a great teacher and a great raconteur. One amazing story he told me involved the Walter Barnes orchestra. Punch had played with them in Chicago, but quit the band in 1940 just before they went south for a gig in Natzhez, were they all burned up in a dance hall fire. I recently ran across an article in the Louisiana Weekly that described the disaster in these grisly terms: "More than 200 baked humans have been taken out of this land of the dead, the Rhythm Club, where they suffocated and died when someone flung a lighted cigarette into the Spanish moss-covered ceiling...all of the instruments used by the Walter Barnes band were destroyed except the piano." (My profile of Punch Miller, including his account of the fire, appears in SONG FOR MY FATHERS, chapter 11.)

OPENING OF THE GEORGE AND JOYCE WEIN HERITAGE CENTER

Old friends: with George Wein at the gala. photo by Deborah Ross

Last Thursday, Sylvaine and I attended the grand opening gala for the George & Joyce Wein Heritage Center on N. Rampart, the new headquarters of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. The new multimillion dollar center, including a state-of-the-art concert hall, was officially inaugurated that afternoon by George and Mayor Mitch Landrieu. In addition to great food and drink, and some funky music by John Cleary, George Wein himself played the piano and sang an improvised blues narrative about the history of Jazzfest, which he founded in 1970. He brought down the house. For me it was a particularly moving occasion, as George, now 89, has been a friend of mine and my family's since this first visit here in 1962. It was great to meet up with him on Thursday night and an  honor to show him a photo by my wife Sylvaine, which was acquired by the Foundation as part of their permanent collection.

[See Keith Spera's article about the new center in the Times-Picayune: http://www.nola.com/jazzfest/index.ssf/2014/12/multi-million-dollar_george_an.html]

TOM SANCTON'S PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE - DECEMBER-JANUARY

Wednesday, December 9:
• Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with Lard Edegran, 6:30 - 7:30 pm.

• Palm Court, 1206 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Saturday, December 13:  Monteleone Hotel, with Clive Wilson Serenaders, 9:30 - 11:30. (Private reception)

Sunday, December 14: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St.with the New Orleans Legacy band. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, December 16: Palm Court, 1206 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, December 31: New Year's Eve Gala at the Palm Court, 1206 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Barbara Shorts. 9:00  - 12:30

Sunday, January 4: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St.with Wenell Brunious. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, January 7: Palm Court, 1206 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Sunday, January 11: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St.with the New Orleans Legacy band. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, January 14: Palm Court, 1206 Decatur St., with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Thursday, January 15: Pavillion of the Two Sisters, Botannical Garden, City Park, with the Lars Edegran band. 6:00 - 7:00 pm.

Sunday, January 18: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St.with Wenell Brunious. 8 - 11 pm.

Tom Sancton Website: tomsancton.com
Tom Sancton FB page: https://www.facebook.com/tom.sancton
"Song For My Fathers" FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Song-for-My-Fathers/945467905483373

"EVERYTHING'S LOVELY"-DEJAN'S OLYMPIA BAND

Harold with me, at 16, blowing behind him. © Sancton Coll.

One of the greatest learning experiences I had growing up was marching and playing with Harold Dejan's Olympia Brass Band. Harold, a soft-spoken, good-humored alto sax player, had a favorite saying: "Everything's lovely!" I built up my chops playing eight-hour parades and funerals with the Olympia, I learned a lot of great music, and got an inside view of the back streets and neighborhoods that, in those Jim Crow days, were largely unknown to whites. Harold opened the door to a different world.

Here's what I wrote about Harold's band in "Song for My Fathers":

By far the funkiest of the marching groups was Harold Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band. Harold had a day job as a driver and delivery man for the Lykes shipping line, but his real love, and genius, was running the Olympia. Harold had a favorite saying—”Everything’s lovely”—and when you hung out with him and his band, everything was lovely and life was fun.

         Harold was one of the younger jazz musicians, probably in his late 50s when I met him. He was short, broad-shouldered—he used to be an amateur boxer—and a bit paunchy. He had a smooth, gentle voice and a ready laugh that always made you happy to be around him. People called him the Duke.

Olympia on Parade. Photo © Tom Sancton, 1962

        Harold played an alto sax with a transparent red plastic mouthpiece. To tell the truth, Harold was not a dazzling instrumentalist. In fact, he never played anything but straight melody. That was surprising, since he had played with some famous bands in his youth—reading bands that required high-level musicianship. So I couldn’t figure why he never ventured past the melody line or displayed any kind of technique.

         He explained this to me one day when I asked his advice about clarinet playing. “Tommy, I’m a tell you how it is,” he said with a loud sniff. I think he had some kind of allergy, because he wore reddish-tinted glasses and was always sniffing and blowing his nose. “You take me—I can run scales and arpeggios all up and down my horn. But you’ll never hear me do that. You know why? Because you gotta let the people know what you playin’. Out on the street, folks don’t want to hear all that fancy stuff. What they loves is the melody.”...

The Olympia musicians were the most unselfconsciously funny people I had ever met. They were always kidding each other, bragging about their sexual prowess, their drinking capacity, their luck at the race rack, or telling hilarious stories about one another... (Read the rest in Chapter 15 of "Song")

Please check out my SONG FOR MY FATHERS page on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Song-for-My-Fathers/945467905483373?ref=br_tf

JAZZ IN A LITTLE TOWN IN GERMANY

Sylvaine and I are just back from a great weekend in Germany. We took the TGV train to Frankfurt. Trevor Richards met us there and drove us to the charming village or Bad Homburg, a former royal spa. I played a concert that night in the chapel of the local chateau along with Trevor (drums), Colin Dawson (tpt), John Service (tbn), Simon Holliday (pno) and Cliff Soden (bass). The hall was packed, the acoustics were beautiful, and the two sets went by all to quickly.

The next day, Trevor drove us to Frankfurt for some sightseeing in Europe's financial capital, much ravaged by WWII bombing but still presenting some majestic pre-war architecture along with an impressively restored old town center.






We stayed that night at Trevor's house in a small village some 100 km from Frankfurt. He lives in a converted former schoolhouse with his partner Almut, whose talents in the garden and the kitchen (wild boar ragout!) contributed to a delightful visit.

CLOSING THE CIRCLE WITH SAMMY RIMINGTON

June 1962: Jim Robinson, George Lewis, Sammy Rimington
Photo by Tom Sancton (Sr.)

In the summer of 1962, a young English clarinet player appeared in Preservation Hall, instrument in hand, and sat in with the George Lewis band. He had learned to play by copying George's records and he did it so well that all the veteran jazzmen at the Hall were amazed by his playing. So was I. I was in the audience that night, all of 12 years old, recently introduced to this music by my father, and enthralled with the whole scene. Sammy was about 20, but looked younger. My father befriended him and showed him around town. When Sammy returned to London, he sent me one of his old clarinets. I hadn't thought of playing an instrument before that, but Sammy's gift put me on the road to becoming a jazz musician myself.

May 2014: Me and Sammy at Economy Hall tent. Photo by Turk Enustun

Sammy and I have met up many times over the intervening years, but our latest encounter, at Jazzfest 2014, was special. Sammy told me he was having trouble with the clarinet mouthpiece he has had for some 20 years. He suspected it had warped and it had a small chip on the edge. Over dinner at our apartment last week, I gave him one of my extra mouthpieces, a Vandoren 5JB model that many jazz players use. Sammy tried it and liked it. When I heard him play at the last day of Jazzfest, I was thrilled by his tone and volume. I was especially pleased by the idea that Sammy had given me my first clarinet and I was able to reciprocate more than half a century later, closing the circle.

Sammy's set at Jazzfest, May 4, 2014: (l to r) Chuck Beatty, Seva Venet, Sammy, Ronell Johnson

WHEN KID ORY SHOOK OUR HANDS, 1971

Kid Ory, surrounded by (l to r) Bonnie Bagley, Jim Klippert, Tommy Sancton

Jazzfest 1971 was an unforgettable occasion for me. My Boston-based Black Eagle Jazz Band was invited to play at the second Jazzfest. We had just recorded for Sire Records (the album eventually came out on the NBEJB label) and were thrilled by George Wein's invitation to play in New Orleans. Three of us almost missed the plane from Boston, arriving at the Jung Hotel at the last minute. We rushed onstage and played our hearts out for an hour and a half. The audience was enthusiastic, and I remember festival producer Wein jumping up and playing with us on the last few numbers. We played "Ice Cream" as en encore and got a standing ovation. As we left the stage, we received an unexpected honor: the legendary Edward "Kid" Ory, who'd been listening from the front row, came up and congratulated us on our performance. As I shook his hand, I marvelled at the thought that he had shaken hands and played with Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, King Oliver, virtually the whole Pantheon of early jazz legends. The moment has lingered in my memory ever since, part myth, part dream, part…did that really happen? Last month during French Quarter festival, I met a man named Dick Hill who not only remembered the moment, but had photographed it. I just received his prints from this memorable occasion. God! The memories, the memories...

JUMPING, JIVING, AND WAILING WITH WENDELL BRUNIOUS

The gig at Preservation Hall last Sunday was something special. Trumpeter Wendell Brunious led the group and really took charge on the bandstand, calling great tunes, making the announcements, telling jokes, and singing a bunch of songs (including two of his own compositions). He even did the whistling part on Professor Longhair's "When You Go to New Orleans." His trumpet playing was smart, slick, and swinging—at one point he departed from his usual style to imitate the staccato bleats and jabs of Kid Thomas Valentine on "Old Gray Bonnet." Other tunes included "Royal Garden Blues," "Bye and Bye," "Burgundy Street Blues," "When You're Smiling," "Whoopin' Blues," and "Please Don't Talk About Me" (featuring the irrepressible Ronell Johnson on trombone and vocal). A special treat was the piano work of Tom Hook, who also sang three Louis Prima songs from his "Jump, Jive, and Wail" show at the World War II museum. By the end of the night, I was energized and ready to go another three sets. I had so much fun I'm planning to go sit in with Wendell and Tom Hook tonight on their regular Tuesday gig at Dos Jefes on Tchoupitoulas. 

GIGLIST - JANUARY 2014

Sunday, December 29: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with Clive Wilson's New Orleans Serenaders. 8 - 11 pm

Sunday, January 5: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with the New Orleans Legacy Band. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, January 8: Palm Court, with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Sunday, January 12: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with Lars Edegran All Stars. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, January 15: Palm Court, with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Thursday, January 16: Jazz at Twilight, Pavilion of the Two Sisters, City Park, with the New Orleans legacy Band. 6 - 7:45 pm.

Sunday, January 19: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with the New Orleans Legacy Band. 8 - 11 pm.

Tuesday, January 21: Columns Hotel, with John Rankin and the Classic Jazz Trio. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, January 22: Palm Court, with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Wednesday, January 22: Palm Court, with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.

Sunday, January 5: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with the Lars Edegran All Stars. 8 - 11 pm.

ADIEU, GEORGE BUCK

Photo by Tom Jacobsen

We held a jazz funeral parade for George H. Buck, Jr., on Saturday, December 20. The procession went from the Charbonnet Funeral Home on Claiborne and St. Philip, through the Treme neighborhood to St. Mary's Church on Chartres Street, then on to the Palm Court for a reception hosted by George's widow, Nina Buck and his son George S. "Bo" Buck.

It was a moving and stately event, reminding me of George Lewis's funeral in 1969, at which I played the Eb clarinet with the Olympia Brass Band. This band, put together by Lars Edegran, was composed mainly of musicians who play at the Palm Court and/or recorded for George's G.H.B. label. Here is a list of the personnel, as best  I can remember: Clive Wilson, Leroy Jones, Herlin Riley, Tobias Dolle, trumpets; Craig Klein, Lucien Barbarin, Robert Harris, Katja Toivola, trombones; Tom Fischer, James Evans, saxophones; Tim Laughlin, Evan Christopher and myself, clarinets; Kerry Brown, Walter Harris, Herman Lebeaux, Shannon Powell, drums; Lars Edegran, Seva Venet, banjos; Jeffrey Hill, sousaphone.

As the antique horse-drawn hearse advanced, the band played a medley of traditional hymns and dirges. Among them:  Closer Walk, The Old Rugged Cross, Bye and Bye, Lead Me Savior, In the Sweet Bye and Bye, Abide With Me, followed by the more up tempo Second Line. At the church service, which attracted a full house of attendees, the Rev. William Maestri gave the eulogy and Topsy Chapman sang "Amazing Grace" and "His Eye is on the Sparrow."
It was a fitting tribute for a man who shared his passion for traditional jazz with so many people and did so much to record, preserve, and diffuse New Orleans music around the world. R.I.P., George Buck, and thank you.

For more information about George H. Buck and the George H. Buck, Jr. Jazz Foundation:
jazzology.com

TOM SANCTON GIGLIST - DECEMBER 2013

With Charlie Fardella and Ronell Johnson at Palm Court. Photo: Eliot Kamenitz

Wednesday, December 11: Palm Court, with Lars Edegran's Palm Court All Stars, featuring vocalist Topsy Chapman. 8 - 11 pm.
CONCERT CANCELLED DUE TO THE DEATH OF PALM COURT OWNER GEORGE H. BUCK.

Sunday, December 15: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with Tommy Sancton's New Orleans Legacy Band. 8 - 11 pm.

Sunday, December 22: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with Lars Edegran's All Star Band. 8 - 11 pm

Wednesday, December 29: Preservation Hall, 726 St. Peter St., with Clive Wilson's New Orleans Serenaders. 8 - 11 pm

"LAFAYETTE, THEY ARE HERE!" JAMMING WITH THE VINTAGE JAZZMEN

Had a ball sitting in with the Vintage Jazzmen of France at Maison last Friday. The band, led by trumpeter Dan Vernhettes, was in town for a series of appearances in connection with Dan's new book, "Jazz Puzzles," a beautifully illustrated and well-researched collection of essays and anecdotes related to the history of New Orleans jazz. The band played at the National Jazz Park in the Old U.S. Mint on November 12, at the Palm Court on November 14, and at Maison on the 15th.

I was especially glad to see the guys and jam with them because this was my regular band when I lived in France. My friendships with some of the musicians, notably clarinet/trumpet player Michel "Boss" Quéraud, go back more than four decades. In addition to being a superb musician, Boss is a talented illustrator, who drew the cover of Dan's book.
After the gig, we retreated to Fiorella's on Decatur for some down home New Orleans food.

A MEMORABLE NIGHT AT PRESERVATION HALL—AND A ROB RYAN SIGHTING AT MS MAE'S

Photo © 2013 by Sébastien Chaillot

Memorable night at Preservation Hall on Sunday. The place was packed with crowds so exuberant (or drunk) that the whooping and hooting from the front row sounded at times like a pep rally at a high school football game. The band, led by Lars Edegran, was in especially good form. Personnel included Ronell "Who Dat" Johnson on trombone, Clive Wilson on trumpet, Walter Harris on drums, Richard Moten on bass, and yours truly on clarinet. Among the numbers we played: There'll be some Changes Made, Who's Sorry Now?, China Boy, Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, High Society, Song of the Wanderer, Basin Street, Poor Butterfly, and, Ronell's specialty, Make Me a Pallet on the Floor. Things got really wild during the last set when members of the Kinfolk Brass Band showed up and jammed with us on a window-rattling rendition of The Saints. Quite appropriate, considering what was happening down in the Superdome last night.
Torn between my musical obligations and my devotion to the Saints, I kept ducking out during the breaks to watch the Saints-Cowboys game in the bar across the street. Every time I poked my hear in there, Drew Brees had thrown another touchdown pass. When I went over there after the last set, I couldn't believe the final score of 49-17. I got a little Saints lagniappe on my drive home: at the corner of Magazine and Napoleon, I spotted the Saints' silver-locked defensive coordinator Rob Ryan heading into the door of Ms Mae's all-night bar. Apparently this has become a ritual for Ryan after Saints home games. May he continue to have cause to celebrate.

BOB GREENE, 1922-2013

I was saddened to learn that my friend, pianist and writer Bob Greene, passed away on October 13. Bob was a specialist on the music of Jelly Roll Morton, a lover of traditional jazz and New Orleans culture, and a world traveler with friends all over the globe. I first met him at Preservation Hall in the mid 1960's when he came down for a visit while working as a writer for Voice of America. He sat in with the band and I played with him on a couple of jam sessions. I was a young teenager then and he was in his mid-40s, but we hit it off right away. On a subsequent visit he treated me to a memorable round of oysters at the Desire café on Bourbon Street; I think we went through three dozen apiece. Years later, when I lived in New York, Bob and I teamed up to form a regular Tuesday night quartet at the Cajun Bar and Restaurant on 16th street. We would also meet up for dinners at PJ Clark's from time to time. When I was assigned to Paris as a TIME correspondent in the 1990's, Bob visited our house and filled it with his music, his infectious laughter, and his stories, all fuelled by gin and tonics that he liked on the stiff side.
I lost touch with him for a few years—there were some ruffled feelings over my failure to acknowledge a book he had sent me—but we patched it up two years ago when he invited me to play with him, Sammy Rimington, and Stanley King at a "History of Jazz" show he wrote and performed at Preservation Hall. We had a nice reunion over lunch at Manale's on Napoleon Avenue, reminisced, and promised to reprise the show the following year. He never made it back to New Orleans. He developed a serious heart problem and underwent surgery for an experimental heart valve replacement. The operation was successful, but he was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year.The doctors gave him between 6 months and a year to live. He made 9 months.
My personal memories of Bob aside, he led a remarkable life as a writer and musician. In the early 60s he worked as a speech writer for the State Department, where he had occasion to encounter President John F. Kennedy. Several years later, he worked with Edward R. Murrow for the Voice of America. He spent many years working on a biography of his uncle Paul Blum, a founder of the OSS, precursor of the C.I.A. (http://www.amazon.com/Blum-san-Scholar-Soldier-Gentleman-Spy/dp/0966406419) As a pianist, he worked with many of the best known musicians on the New York scene, recorded at Preservation Hall with trombonist Jim Robinson, and for a number of years toured with a show he wrote and directed called "The World of Jelly Roll Morton."
Bob was a larger-than-life character who touched the lives of many people around the world. I am happy to have known him. And I will miss him.

[A nice interview/profile with Bob appeared on the Sag Harbor Express blog in 2011:
http://sagharboronline.com/sagharborexpress/arts/a-jamming-weekend-here-high-profile-musicians-make-local-stops-10806]

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: thoughts on Nicholas Payton's anti-"jazz" crusade

Interesting interview with Nicholas Payton in the San Jose Mercury News, talking about his new album "Sketches of Spain" and his views, opinionated as always, on many subjects. I was struck in particular by his vehement objections to using the term "jazz." Interviewer Richard Scheinin summarized his opinion as follows:

"Payton (a jazz-Grammy winner) argued that jazz died half a century ago -- and that the word "jazz" is a racist term imposed on black musicians by white marketers. He prefers to call it by another name: #BAM, or Black American Music."

Payton himself elaborates on this theme in the Q & A:

"Jazz is the white appropriation of black American music. It's a caricaturization of the music that Bolden and King Oliver and Armstrong and others created, and the first documented jazz recording was by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. And as for "Dixieland" -- we know the connotation that "Dixie" has to the Confederate South and slavery. And "jazz," the word itself, is of dubious origin at best...And a lot of the early musicians refuted the title. They didn't want the association with the word." [The whole interview is available at: http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_24232584/nicholas-payton-speaks-about-jazz-and-bam]

My personal view on all this:

 It is totally pointless to get hung up on nomenclature--what you call a thing. "A rose by any other name..." as Shakespeare put it. Terms like "rock n'roll" and "rhythm and blues" were also coined by white marketers of essentially black music. So what? Are we going to rename those genres too? And if you're going to call jazz "Black American Music," you are implicitly excluding anyone who's not a black American from the club. Stan Getz, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, and Django Reinhart wouldn't have any place under that tent. What if we decided to call Classical music White European Music? Where would that leave Wynton Marsalis's superb baroque trumpet recordings, or the operatic work of Jessye Norman or Leontyne Price? Jazz (a century-old term I will continue to use) is an inclusive music, a music that communicates across racial barriers, cultural boundaries, over oceans and continents. Today it is a world music. If that were not the case, it would have died in the 1920s. Whatever you choose to call it, the only thing that really matters is the music itself. And when Nicholas Payton lets his horn do the talking, all I can say is "Amen."

TOMMY SANCTON PERFORMANCE UPDATE

Still in Europe until October 1. Just a handful of concerts on tap over here. Will resume regular Preservation Hall and Palm Court gigs after I return.

Friday, August 30: Le Gramophone, Marly-le-Roi (France), with Enzo Mucci, bass, and Christophe Davot, guitar. 8:00 - 11:00 pm


Saturday, Sept 21: Veerhuis (Belgium), with the Fondy Riverside Bullet Band. 8:00 - 11:00 pm

Wednesdy, October 8: The Columns (New Orleans), with John Rankin. 8:00 -11:00 pm

TOMMY SANCTON GIGLIST - JULY - SEPTEMBER 2013

I'll be spending the entire summer in Europe, so my usual appearances in New Orleans are suspended until the end of September.

Here's a short list of my European concerts this summer:

Monday, July 1: Zofingen (Switzerland) Jazz Festival with The Vintage Jazzmen of France

Thursday, July 4:  Castello Colloredo (Italy) with Luciano Invernizzi's New Orleans Jazz Band.

Saturday, July 6: Baden-Baden (Germany) with the Trevor Richards Jazz Band.

Friday, July 12:  Le Gramophone, Marly-le-Roi (France), with Enzo Mucci and Gilles Chevaucherie.

Thursday, Aug 1 / Friday Aug 2: Femø Jazz Festival (Denmark), with The Vintage Jazzmen of France

Friday, August 30: Le Gramophone, Marly-le-Roi (France), with Enzo Mucci, bass, and Christophe Davot, guitar.