Five years ago, I wrote about Tom Sancton’s book Song For My 
Fathers being assigned reading for Tulane University’s incoming students. That venerable school chose it to give the freshmen a shared intellectual experience that would stimulate discussion. Not incidentally, it would also acquaint them with a profound aspect of the culture and caché of Tulane’s home, New Orleans.
A respected correspondent, an overseas bureau chief and a clarinetist who mastered the traditional music of his hometown, Sancton has now adapted the book as a theatrical experience. The stage presentation will run in a St. Charles Avenue theater for two weekends this month. This preview is enough to make me want to drop everything and hurry down to a place that, during my eight years there, got into my blood and won’t get out.
For Sancton in a different context—trading fours with Wynton Marsalis at the 2002 Marciac Festival in France—go here. Sancton, clarinet; Marsalis, trumpet; Charles Bremner, piano; Adrian Dearnell, bass; Philippe Camus, drums.