Dr. Michael White: Dancing in the Sky

Dancing in the Sky is about as close to old-time New Orleans jazz and its closely related forms as you can get these

days. Dr. Michael White, a professor of African-American music and Spanish and a long-time performer of New Orleans-style clarinet, enlisted some of the Crescent City’s finest classic players, along with the modernist trumpet star Nicholas Payton, to enliven 11 of his original compositions and the standards “Down By the Riverside” and “Amazing Grace.”