Two exceptional New Orleans musicians, clarinetist Fvan Christopher and Tom McDermott, recently gathered at The Bistro at Grand Center to play an unusual array of jazz and jazz/tinged music: Brazilian choros, Martiniquan biguines, French musettes, Scott Joplin rags, original tangos and New Orleans and modern jazz.

Several songs of the set were Jelly Roll Morton classics, a pianist born in New Orleans on 20th October 1890, who helped the evolution of Jazz in a tremendous way. And of course with Tom McDermott being influenced by the legendary talent of Professor Longhair, Dr. John and James Booker, the musical lineage was evident! Listening to Evan work his magic on the clarinet transported this writer back to an afternoon at the Jazzfest in New Orleans, as Pete Fountain held an entire crowd spellbound, yet Evan Christopher's sounds were uniquely his very own!

Evan Christopher is without exaggeration one of the finest living jazz clarinetists. A California native, he has resided in New Orleans off and on for the last 10 years. Among his credits are three years with Jim Cullum's band in San Antonio, with regular national radio broadcasts as the band's featured clarinetist on the NPR show: Riverwalk, Live From The Landing, work with George Wein's Newport All-Stars and several appearances with Dick Hyman at his 92nd Street Y Series in NYC.


Tom McDermott grew up in SL Louis and performed at many of the ragtime festivals on the Goldenrod Showboat before moving to New Orleans in 1984. In the last 20 years he has played a wide variety of gigs in the Crescent City and around the world: Carnegie Hall with the Dukes of Dixieland and over a dozen trips to Europe. He has mastered rag. trad jazz and the musk of such New Orleans R&B figures as Professor Longhair, Dr. John and James Booker.

Their 2002 release, "Danza," recently received a four-star review in the January issue of downbeat magazine, and in October they played at the second annual Jambalaya Jazz Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Special thanks goes out to producers Harold Lazaroff and Dawn Deblaze for bringing such talented artists to town, the Bistro on Grand for providing such an intimate venue for this performance, and all the sponsors & community partners that helped make this event possible.