CARRYING THE SOUND – Jazz clarinetist Evan Christopher knits Orleans and New Orleans in a concert this month.
Written by Anne IerardiJIM MCGUIRE PHOTOS
Nauset Regional Middle School hosts the first New Orleans to Orleans Festival (NO2O) April 10 to 12 with music, food, film, and art. A highlight will be the appearance of world-renowned jazz clarinetist Evan Christopher. Once I realized New Orleans was not on Eastern Standard Time, I caught up with Evan on the phone.
Not only is place an important aspect of literature but it is also has significance for music. There are the places where we find ourselves and the places where we are drawn to be. For Evan Christopher that place is New Orleans.
“After university (in his native California) where I learned the fundamentals of the classical clarinet, I moved to New Orleans,” he said. “I was touring there by bus and I knew I had to return. The energy level of the city is amazing. Two factors drew me: everything there is crooked like the streets, and the humidity in the air. That heaviness I discovered is great for the clarinet. Sound travels differently and I believe this distinctness contributes to the uniqueness of the New Orleans sound. I see it as a ‘sound’ or an ethnic style not so much a genre of jazz.”
I asked Evan to explain what makes New Orleans music special. “The two important things to communicate are: how the music is connected to one’s sense of life, as nothing significant happens without the connection to live music,” he said. “Secondly, a very distinctive vocabulary in how these musicians approach their individual sounds and how they relate to each other. Finding your own voice is central.”
Evan found his voice through other musicians in New Orleans including his mentor, bass player Marshall Hawkins. Evan tours throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan and appears at the Newport Jazz Festival. He has been a featured soloist with groups including the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and has recorded with pianist Dick Hyman and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. His group Django à la Créole fuses Gypsy Swing with New Orleans rhythms. Their second CD, Finesse, was voted best jazz recording of 2010 in London’s Sunday Times. A recently released CD, Django a la Creole: Live!, highlights the best of their 2012 concerts.
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