Time of My Life: A Jazz Journey from London to New Orleans (American Made Music Series) - Hardcover

Wilson, Clive

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1496821173 ISBN 13: 9781496821171

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 2019

Synopsis

New Orleans is a kind of Mecca for jazz pilgrims, as Whitney Balliett once wrote. This memoir tells the story of one aspiring pilgrim, Clive Wilson, who fell in love with New Orleans jazz in his early teens while in boarding school in his native England. It is also his story of gradually becoming disenchanted with his family and English environment and, ultimately, finding acceptance and a new home in New Orleans.

The timing of his arrival, at age twenty-two, just a few weeks after the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the end of legal segregation, placed him in a unique position with the mostly African American musicians in New Orleans. They showed him around, brought him into their lives, gave him music lessons, and even hired him to play trumpet in brass bands. In short, Wilson became more than a pilgrim; he became an apprentice, and for the first time, legally, in New Orleans, he could make that leap.

Time of My Life: A Jazz Journey from London to New Orleans tells the story of Wilson’s journey as he discovers the contrast between his imagined New Orleans and its reality. Throughout, he delivers his impressions and interactions with such local musicians as “Fat Man” Williams, Manuel Manetta, Punch Miller, and Billie and DeDe Pierce. As his playing improves, invitations to play in local bands increase. Eventually, he joins in the jam and, by doing so, integrates the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, which had been in continuous existence since 1911. Except for a brief epilogue, this memoir ends in 1979, when Wilson assembles his own band for the first time, the Original Camellia Jazz Band, with musicians who had been among his heroes when he first arrived in New Orleans.

About this title

Book Description

An insider’s riff on his jazz journey across oceans to the city that invented the music

Love for the city of New Orleans and its music flows through this book like a beautiful melody. Those who share these passions will want to have this memoir from legendary trumpeter Clive Wilson on their bookshelf. (Thomas Brothers, author of Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans and Help! The Beatles, Duke Ellington, and the Magic of Collaboration)

Clive Wilson’s Time of My Life tells the seemingly unlikely tale of an Englishman who crosses the color line and becomes accepted as a first-call traditional jazz trumpeter in New Orleans. It’s an informative and entertaining memoir, full of new insight into the city’s jazz scene from the mid-1960s on. (Bruce Boyd Raeburn, curator emeritus, Hogan Jazz Archive, Tulane University, and author of New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History)

Time of My Life: A Jazz Journey from London to New Orleans by Clive Wilson is a conscientious and enjoyable story of an Englishman’s half-century of immersion in the music and culture of New Orleans. As such, it is a fine tribute to that music and culture. Wilson’s memoir of a career as a trumpeter and bandleader (which includes opening for Louis Armstrong in 1970) offers valuable perspectives on the preservation of early jazz. (Paul Devlin, editor of Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones and Murray Talks Music: Albert Murray on Jazz and Blues)

About the Author

Originally from England, Clive Wilson arrived in New Orleans in 1964 and eventually settled there, studying trumpet with such legends as Kid Howard, DeDe Pierce, Punch Miller, and Alvin Alcorn. He gained further experience as a member of the Young Tuxedo Brass Band and Papa French’s Original Tuxedo Jazz Band. Today he remains a performing musician in New Orleans.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1496821173
• ISBN 13: 9781496821171
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 202