Alvin Batiste

Although often labeled a "New Orleans clarinetist"—with his Columbia release even promoting him as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz"—Alvin Batiste actually operated as an avant-garde stylist who resisted easy categorization. His career remained markedly under-recorded, yet he had been a boyhood companion of Ed Blackwell and joined Ornette Coleman for sessions in Los Angeles during 1956. Instead he elected to build a teaching career in Louisiana. Occasional forays into the studio yielded little-noticed AFO ("all for one") quintet sides cut in New Orleans, guest spots on a pair of Cannonball Adderley sessions, and a 1958 road stint alongside Ray Charles, yet he stayed a largely hidden figure until the 1980s, when he participated in three Clarinet Summit albums alongside John Carter, David Murray, and Jimmy Hamilton. As a leader he issued Bayou Magic on India Navigation in 1988 and followed it with the Columbia project Late in 1993. Songs, Words and Messages, Connections surfaced in 1999, and Marsalis Music Honors Alvin Batiste appeared in 2007. An intrepid and still insufficiently acknowledged voice, he continued to explore until heart failure claimed him in May 2007, only hours prior to a scheduled performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.