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| Claude Luter, the man who brought real jazz in Paris, is dead  Outstanding French jazz musician Claude Luter died on Friday, October, 6 at a hospital outside Paris. He was 83. Clarinet player Luter first made his name performing New Orleans-style jazz in Paris during World War II, and went on to accompany Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet in the 1950s. French culture minister Renaud Donnedieu De Vabres says, "For me as for so many, the name of Claude Luter will be forever associated with Saint Germain des Pres in the post-war years, with its innumerable jazz clubs... Now and forever he will be remembered as one of the remarkable men who symbolised this highly talented epoch."Born July 23, 1923 in Paris, Luter was a trumpeter who later took up the clarinet and saxophone. Luter's popularity surged after the war, as France discovered jazz. His band, the Lorientaise, charmed Paris' intellectual elite. Claude met Satchmo at the Nice Jazz Festival in 1948. The following year, he began accompanying Sidney Bechet, like Armstrong one of the fathers of New Orleans jazz. Luter played in clubs in New Orleans and around the world. He took part in a tribute to Bechet in 1997 in New Orleans and attended a 1970 tribute to Armstrong in Los Angeles. Luter's last public appearance was in September this year. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |