City of a Million Dreams – Parading for the Dead in New Orleans by Jason Berry with Dr. Michael White, looks deeply into New Orleans’ unique funeral culture, celebrating life fervently at death. It’s about the African sources of jazz and blues, as heard across the U.S. this Labor Day weekend at festivals marking the end of of our summers.
Chicago Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, D.C. Jazz Festival, John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival (High Point, NC), Vail Jazz Party, Macinac Island Jazz Festival, Hot Jazz Jubilee (Sacramento), Smooth Jazz on the River Festival (Cairo, IL), 10th annual Montavilla Jazz Festival (Portland, OR), Women in Jazz Labor Day Weekend Concert (Austin, TX), Low Country Jazz Festival (Charleston, SC), Hingetown Jazz Festival (Cleveland, OH) . . .
Berry — an active JJA member (he recently presented the JJA’s 2023 Jazz Hero Award to preservationist Luther S. Gray), author (his documentary is based on his 2018 book), jazz scholar and investigative reporter focused on the crisis in the Catholic Church — and White, a leading clarinetist and educator who embodies practices and sustains the repertoire of the earliest New Orleans music-makers, book engagements for lecture-presentations of their documentary film. Editorially recommended.
