Xavier Gets Back To African Roots Through Jazz
NEW ORLEANS - A concert and discussion entitled The African Roots of New Orleans Jazz will be held at the Xavier University Center Ballroom on Wednesday March 30, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
This program will present an overview showing how early New Orleans jazz and popular social club parades and funerals are transformations of musical, dance and celebratory practices commonly found in West Africa.
The majority of enslaved people brought to New Orleans were from West Africa and they maintained a long standing custom of musical celebration and dance that are the roots and foundation of several local traditions like the second line, social club parades and funerals as well as jazz itself.
The program will be hosted by clarinetist, historian and Xavier professor, Dr. Michael White. It will also feature White’s Original Liberty Jazz Band, West African Master musician and dancer Seguenon Kone and local percussionist Luther Gray and his African drum ensemble, Bamboula 2000.
