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2018 The Early Years of Jazz in New Orleans
001-2018-026
44:27 Master Camera files on Hard Drive, Mp4 Server on Cloud
2018-05-05
Dr Michael White and Gregg Stafford; Interviewer - Jason Berry
ABSTRACT: 01:31 Stafford introduces his family photograph from about 1904, featuring his grandmother’s uncle, Tom Matthews. 03:53 White gets into his musical lineage, including his ancestors who were playing jazz in the ‘20’s, who he only discovered once he was deep into music. He points out how incredible it is that he and Stafford had similar ancestors and wound up playing together. 09:00 Stafford reflects on Percy and Willie Humphrey. He worked with Willie, and often watched Percy as part of the Eureka Brass Band. 11:38 White reflects on the Humphreys. He knew Willie fairly well, playing with him once, and played with Percy for a few years. Whereas Stafford described Willie as a trumpet-like clarinet player, White describes Percy as a clarinet-like trumpeter. 13:33 White describes the role of a clarinet in a brass band, specifically playing jazz funerals. 14:53 Demonstration, funeral clarinet 15:45 Demonstration, funeral clarinet and trumpet 17:22 Stafford explains how he came to join the Young Tuxedo Brass Band in 1972, beginning with his accidental entrance into music, courtesy of his chosen elective being full in high school. 23:35 Stafford, now the leader of the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, says it’s on its third generation of players, working on the fourth. 25:05 White describes how he was inducted into brass bands, beginning with Doc Paulin’s. 29:37 Stafford describes the first time he saw/heard White, in a parade, and chronicles how they came to play together. 34:20 White introduces “I Saw Jesus Standing In The Water,” a tune he wrote specifically for Stafford to sing. 34:56 Demonstration, “I Saw Jesus Standing In The Water” 37:54 Berry plugs the upcoming Kickstarter for City of a Million Dreams, a film looking at the history of New Orleans through the lens of jazz funerals, starring White and Stafford. 39:15 White and Stafford describe what’s kept them in trad jazz; White explains that it’s a set of principles that he’s begun applying to his personal life and experiences the forefathers never had. Stafford says that the New Orleans spirit can be displayed in evolving music, but also that he takes seriously his connection to traditions, which he hopes won’t go extinct. 42:22 White expounds on the importance of dressing well, explaining it’s a tradition born from the earliest days of jazz, when black people were trying to advance the cause of social uplift and eradicate their own invisibility.
video recording
Public Access is available in the Archive due to copyright restrictions. Copyrights are retained by the participants. The video is available for viewing at the archive.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive