Alvin Batiste

Alvin Batiste was a New Orleans clarinetist often referred to as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz.  He was a true Renaissance man- considered a music pioneer, master teacher, outstanding composer, arranger, an inspiring mentor, as well as a stellar performer. He was also an explorative, avant-garde player who wrote countless musical arraignments but remained under-recognized and under-recorded throughout his career.

Batiste, who was a childhood friend of Ed Blackwell and spent time in Los Angeles in 1956 playing with Ornette Coleman, could have “made it big” as a performer and recording artist. Instead, he chose the life of an educator in Louisiana.

He was the first African-American student to perform as a guest soloist playing with the New Orleans Philharmonic on Mozart’s Concerto.  He also played with the Ray Charles Orchestra and the American Jazz Quintet and recorded with AFO Records, the company credited with New Orleans Modern Jazz. He was a member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Music Fraternity, performed on two Julian Cannonball Adderly recordings, and made three albums with Clarinet Summit in the 1980s (a quartet also including John Carter, David Murray, and Jimmy Hamilton). He was later commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts to compose a concerto for African instruments and orchestra. He went on to record only a handful of albums/CD’s between the 1980’s and his death in 2007; his last release- Marsalis Music Honors Series- Alvin Batiste, in which he played with Branford Marsalis and many other notable jazz musicians.   

Alvin’s career spanned more than five decades during which he received countless awards and honors. These include:

• The National Association of Jazz Educators’ National Humanitarian Award
• The International Association of Jazz Educators’ Lifetime Achievement Award
• Offbeat Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Art Education
• Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Art Education
• The Southern University Distinguished Service Award
• Southern University’s Jazz Institute (founded by Batiste) renamed the Alvin Batiste Jazz Institute
• The Louis Armstrong Award
• National Black Music Caucus Outstanding Achievement Award
• Big Easy Awards- 1995 Jazz Artist of the Year
• The Jay Hay Fellows Award
• The Artist Fellowship Award by the Louisiana Division of the Arts

Through out his career, Alvin played and explored in several musical streams; jazz, classical, gospel, blues, diasporan (Cuba, Brazil, and African) and computer-based music. He performed regularly at a variety of local venues between New Orleans and Baton Rouge including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, He hosted the radio show Jazz Sessions at WBRH and conducted workshops/seminars at various universities including Harvard http://www.myspace.com/alvinbatiste/music 
http://www.alvinbatiste.net/University, Yale University, University of Michigan, Michigan State, UCLA, University of Paris, and University of Bamako (Mali). He appeared in concert throughout West Africa, Europe, and the United States including Carnegie Hall.

Ray Piper

Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1950 he began playing and studying guitar at age 15. He played professionally in Melbourne for 5 years before going to L.A. to study with jazz great Joe Pass in 1973-74. He immigrated to Canada in 1975 performing in various bands while studying jazz, composition and arranging at Vancouver Community College and Capilano College. He then went on to study composition, electronic music and music for dance and theatre for three years at Simon Fraser University.


Ray has travelled to Brazil many times, concentrating on exploring different areas of the country and their unique musical styles. He studied there with great Brazilian guitarists Marco Pereira, Cristina Azuma and Paulinho Noguera as well as Celso Machado in vancouver. In 2007 he returned to Brazil and attended the choro festival in Sao Pedro and then went and studied at Escola Portatil in Rio for three months with Mauricio Carrilho, Rogerio Caetano, Luis Flavio and other teachers at the school. He also worked on composition with Marcilio Lopes and Rogerio Souza and wrote choro works as well as attending regular choro circles playing 7 string guitar. His compositions draw on the many different styles of music found all over Brazil and the many musicians he performed with and who inspired him there especially the choro players.

He returned to Brazil in 2009 to record the CD “Ray Piper Sabor Do Rio” which was a culmination of the previous trip and was recorded in Rio and completed in Vancouver. He wrote additional material for the CD which was recorded with Ronaldo do Bandolim, Marcilio Lopes, Rogerio Souza, Eduardo Neves, Jorge Helder, Erivelton Silva, Jorginho Silva, Durval Pereira , Kiko Horta, Jaimie Vignoli, Tom Keenlyside, Michael Creber, Joao Hermeto and Fernanda Cunha who wrote the lyrics to the Bossa Novas. The tunes he composed reflect a jazz player's love of the music and people of Brazil.


Ray has performed throughout North, Central and South America and Australia at concerts, clubs and festivals, He has performed regularly at the Vancouver International Jazz festival, Victoria International Jazz festival has appeared at the Film Festival, Sea Fest, Harrison festival of the Arts. Has been featured on CBC's Hot Air with Neil Ritchie and West Coast Groove. His first CD Ray Piper and Fantazea was nominated for a West Coast music award.