Customer Reviews

Jazz From the Soul of New Orleans

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just heard Dr. White's rendition of "Summertime" on a local Jazz station while driving the other day and I just about drove off the road! This is sensational!

Jazz From the Soul of New Orleans is music performed by musicians who really understand it, and you feel educated and inspired just by listening.

Unfortunately, I had never heard of Dr. Michael White and his original Liberty Jazz Band until a recent trip to New Orleans. Jazz was not the type of music I listened to a lot. During our stay in New Orleans, we were invited to a church service at which Dr. White and his Band were the guest musicians. I don't think there are words to adequately describe what I felt, listening to the band and Dr. White's Clarinet. My husband and adult daughter expressed the same feelings.
I have since purchased "A Song for George Lewis" and "Jazz From the Soul of New Orleans ". I am just as moved listening to them over and over as I was the first time I heard Dr. Michael White and his original Liberty Jazz Band.

Thinking how quiet the streets of New Orleans are after Hurricane Katrina, I wanted a CD that captured the heart and soul of New Orleans. Dr. White and the musicians in his group (all New Orleans natives) really do capture the true spirit of New Orleans jazz on this recording. The blending of different styles of jazz combined with Dr. White's superb clarinet make for enjoyable listening over and over. The quality and clarity of the recording is excellent--many of the other New Orleans jazz CDs are older remastered versions of analog recordings and lack the crisp sound found on this cd. This is a real gem!

I happened across Dr. Michael White and his Original Liberty Jazz Band at the Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans in early May, 2003. He is superb! From soulful strains on Summertime to lively numbers like Fidgety Feet to the bawdy Horn Man Blues (the one number with vocals, provided wonderfully by Thais Clark), this is a truly great album. Dr. White is one of the best jazz clarinetists I've heard, and when I played this CD for my parents (jazz lovers for 40 years), they loved it as well. Now I have to order it for them. You can't go wrong with this one.

I like this CD a whole lot, but more important, some very fine and well known straight ahead jazz players praise Michael White highly -- I heard them do so last week. I was on a jazz cruise last week (Nov. 2009)and there was a discussion group with Donald Harrison, Eric Alexander, Bobby Watson, adn Mike Kocour. Subject of traditional New Orleans jazz came up, and all were in agreement that Michael White is a great player, and his band is tops for this type of music.

Ira Spiro

Los Angeles

I had never heard of clarinetist Dr. Michael White or singer Thais Clarke when I heard a live version of the delightfully bawdy "Horn Man Blues" on the Sirius Real Jazz radio station. As soon as I got home, I looked them up and purchased this very enjoyable album from 2002 which features a variety of New Orleans Jazz music. This includes traditional jazz standards, a version of Gershwin's classic tune "Summertime", 2 religious hymns, 1 gospel-inspired song, 2 Blues, and 2 Afro-Caribbean tinged tunes.

To quote from the liner notes (written by Dr. White himself): "This mixture of familiar and original songs results from our desire to both preserve and expand the authentic New Orleans jazz tradition." But that does not mean that the performances are intended to exactly replicate the old-fashioned jazz of the early 20th century. Instead, the music is "contemporary" while remaining "true to the spirit of the local ancestral music".

The ensemble on this album essentially consists of a 3-man frontline (clarinet, trumpet, and trombone) backed up by a 4-man rhythm section (piano, banjo/guitar, drums, and the unusual bass violin). In some cases, Dr. White performs without the other horns or just with trombonist, Lucien Barbarin. Singers are featured on 3 of the songs. It is really quite nice to hear a contemporary jazz musician playing the clarinet which was originally very popular in Jazz, especially during the Big Band era, when Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and others were big stars. The clarinet sounds quite different -- warm and sultry -- from the trumpets, saxophones, and trombones which have dominated jazz since the 1950s.

I mentioned that I was inspired to buy this album after hearing the song "Horn Man Blues". This is sung by Thais Clark who the liner notes bill as the "current New Orleans Queen of the Lowdown Blues and star of the original hit musical One Mo' Time". (Note that this is not the live version I heard on the radio.) Ostensibly, Ms. Clark is just complaining about the trumpeter, trombonist, and clarinetist who have been her no-good boyfriends; but there are funny double entendre sexual overtones in most of what she sings that makes this song the highlight of the album.

I highly recommend this fun album for anyone who likes traditional jazz.

I think that Michael White is the greatest clarinet player alive and he shows why once again on this CD

I first heard Michael White at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans back in the late 1980's. I thought he was great then and he's even better now. I really enjoy listening to this CD.

I first came in contact with this CD at the radio station I volunteer at. I host a Friday night Jazz program, and just happened to pop this one in. Ever since, it has been a staple of my programming.