Articles

Evan Christopher: The Remembering Song

By Dan Bilawsky

All roads lead to New Orleans for clarinetist Evan Christopher. Christopher left sunny California in the mid-'90s and arrived in NOLA, ready to absorb from--and contribute to--the rich musical environs that only the Crescent City could claim. His initial stay lasted two years, but the city drew him back again in 2001. After Hurricane Katrina came to wreak havoc a few years later, Christopher--like many other musicians from the region--was a man without a home. He spent some time traveling ...

Evan Christopher's Django a la Creole: Finesse

By Raul d'Gama Rose

The epithet “flawless technique" does not even begin to describe Evan Christopher's manner of playing, perhaps, the most challenging reed instrument: the clarinet. His polished intonation is marked by the perfect annunciation of the notes that gush forth from his clarinet sometimes at great speed. His rhythmic attack is so full of surprise, especially when he injects elements of Brazilian and other Latin American colorings into the long, loping lines he plays. He has a spiritual connection with Django Reinhardt ...

Evan Christopher: Django a la Creole

By Gina Vodegel

For clarinetist Evan Christopher, Django a la Creole is the result of a forced journey from his home in New Orleans. In what might be seen as a positive aftermath of the Katrina disaster in 2005, Christopher temporarily relocated to Paris, focusing his actions on raising awareness for the musical culture that had put New Orleans on the map rather than that of Katrina. His “Django a la Creole" project debuted in August 2007 with concerts in Great Britain and ...

Sidney Bechet Society Concert with Evan Christopher, NYC

By Daniel Kassell

Creole a la Django Thalia Theater, Symphony SpaceNew York City September 15, 2008

It is unusual for the clarinet, the smallest and hardest-to hear-instrument in a jazz ensemble, to be in the forefront. But Evan Christopher has brought the musical stick front and center in the various sized ensembles he has led in New Orleans and Paris.

Sidney Bechet, one of jazz history's most forceful clarinetists, had few rivals and was ...

Evan Christopher: Delta Bound

By Jim Santella

The clarinet and New Orleans share a long tradition of rhythmic swing and lyrical adventure. Long before Pete Fountain and Larry Shields, there were trad jazz pioneers including Lorenzo and Louis Tio, Lorenzo Tio Jr., Albert Nicholas, Alvin Batiste, Johnny Dodds, Barney Bigard, Omer Simeon, Jimmy Noone, Tony Scott and Sidney Bechet. The instrument, with its throaty, wooden timbre, allows emotions to be bared and feelings set free when in the hands of a master. Delta Bound recalls the masters ...

Evan Christopher, et al.: The Sidney Bechet Society Jam Session Concert

By C. Michael Bailey

There is not enough of this music recorded.

If Wycliffe Gordon is not the best DAMN trombone player performing in jazz today, I will eat my hat. If you do not believe me, just cue up track four on this new Nagel Heyer trip down memory lane and listen to “Basin Street Blues." Gordon provides a seven-minute clinic on the entire history of the trombone, starting from when it evolved from the medieval sackbut to the evening this disc ...