REG'S CORNER

My Life With Barry Harris In the fall of 2006,  I arrived in New York City with hopes for helping a dear friend recover from cancer. The lady was someone I had known most of my live. Growing up in a small town has its advantages and the family legacy is always present. "Girl, I know your Mama, are you  Miss So and So's child, Polly?"This is what is to be expected and life goes on in perpetual motion in a small town. New York had been a place I always wanted to see so this chance encounter of fate had made it so deliberately fitting. While myself and dear friend knew we had to get around town for her treatments and appointments and such we just jumped head in feet first. It was quite a challenge but not inhumanly impossible for the two of us. We quickly learn taxi haling and train and bus routes. The best part of discovery is just the walking. How did New Yorkers walk so eagerly is quite a mystery to probably the better of us, there is much to sightsee as tourist but we we

Photos provided by Upsplash Photos provided by Upsplash   Most of us in the jazz world know the name,Batiste.We listen to the cool sounds of the entertainer Jon Batiste who is associated with the young music lions coming out of New Orleans today.You know  the ones,Trombone Shorty,Kermit Ruffin,Ivan Neville,Kent Jordan,the Dirty Dozen Brass Band,Christian Scott,and the famed Marsalis Brothers. What do these family of players have in common you ask? Well,other than their approximation to a close knit and very closed unit of musicians from Nawlins' as we say down South ,the proverbial answer is one man they call "Bat". Alvin Batiste,jazz clarinet player virtuoso and the inventor of the "Cosmic Hipness".  Alvin "Bat" Batiste was an educator, bandleader, composer and a mentor to hundreds of maybe thousands young musicians around the world. “Bat" won the Downbeat Jazz Poll Clarinetist of the Year so many times. And rightfully so I might add that most w