GABBF `saint' went marching in but spirit will be here next weekend

By HERB BROCK
Staff Writer

A saint went marchin' in this past March in New Orleans. But don't be surprised if his spirit is in that number this month in Danville.

Under the leadership of Milton Batiste Jr., Dejan's Olympia Brass Band has become a favorite at the Great American Brass Band Festival as well as one of the most popular New Orleans brass and jazz bands around the world. And one of the band's most popular numbers, wherever it has performed, has been "When the Saints Go Marching In."

When Olympia performs that piece and the many others that jazz up the crowds at the festival this coming Friday through Sunday, Batiste will not be there ‹ at least not in body. Nor will Nowell Joseph "Papa" Glass. Batiste, trumpeter as well as leader, and Glass, a drummer, both have died ‹ Batiste on March 29 at age 66, and Glass three days later at 73.

But while Batiste may not be on stage or in the parade, festival-goers and band members alike will sense his presence. At least that's what his widow believes will occur.

"I truly believe Milton will be in Danville, along with Papa Glass, in spirit, and people who love him should really feel his spirit when they play ŒWhen the Saints Go Marching In,'" Ruby Batiste said from her home in New Orleans.

Fans also will get that sense of Batiste and Glass being around the festival when a special ceremony will be held during which a compact disk titled "Highlights of 2000," a compilation of performances from last year's festival, will be dedicated to the memories of the two men.

Memories are sweet music to Ruby Batiste now, who still uses the present tense in referring to her late husband.

"He is a lovely, loving man. I mean, he was," she said. "It's just so hard to say goodbye when you've been married to someone 47 years like we have been."

Their musical romance began in a small Louisiana town not far from her hometown in Natchez, Miss., and his hometown of New Orleans. The two, both coming off of teen-age marriages that had failed but produced one child each, met at a dance.

"It was a dance club and Milton and his group were performing," said Batiste. "I came with friends just to dance and have a good time. I left in love. I fell in love with him and his music right then and there."

And it's a good thing she adored both the music and the man because she learned early on that she couldn't have one without the other.

"We've lived a musician's life and that means a lot of travel, a lot of late nights, but a lot of fun and excitement," said Batiste. "He wrote, sang and played music. Music was his life, but I felt lucky that I was able to occupy a part of that very busy, musical life."

But her husband didn't always have an instrument in his hand. When he wasn't performing at a gig, he often could be found holding a fishing pole.

"Music was definitely his first love, along with me," said Batiste with a chuckle. "But fishing was a close second. He loved to go out to a creek, sit on the banks or get into a boat and fish all day long. It relaxed him."

He took along a bunch of fishing buddies, including some band members. But sometimes, he took his wife.

"He usually got a few guys together. But if he couldn't, then I was elected," Batiste said with a laugh. "I'm not a great fisherman but it gave me a chance to be with him."

While her husband was often too busy performing to have the time to catch other jazz and brass band individuals and groups play, he tried to squeeze in an opportunity here and there to see them and he listened to them on the radio and bought their records, said Batiste.

"Milton particularly loved jazz and brass but he enjoyed all kinds of music and a lot of different musicians," she said. "And he loved teaching music, especially jazz music, to kids. He really felt an obligation to pass on the torch to new generations, to keep traditional jazz and brass alive for decades to come."

The torch was passed onto Milton Batiste from African-American jazz and brass musicians in the predominately black neighborhoods of New Orleans. The people were poor but their musical tradition was rich and made their city world-famous for its pure, authentic, home-grown American music.

According to an article by Times-Picayune music writer Keith Spera that appeared in the New Orleans daily on March 30, Batiste, who was born in the city on Sept. 5, 1934, emerged as a rising jazz talent as a teen-ager. In the 1950s, he played trumpet with his own rhythm and blues band, Milton Batiste and the Toppers. Like a lot of groups of that time and place, the Toppers moved between R&B and jazz. Batiste also played with the Tuxedo and Eureka bands, two of the most active traditional brass bands of that era.

But it was when a defunct New Orleans brass band was revived that Batiste made his musical mark. The Olympia Brass Band, which had been formed in 1883, had faded from the city's music scene. But in 1956, saxophonist Harold Dejan, who had performed in the band before World War II, re-formed the band and rechristened it Dejan's Olympia Brass Band. Three years later, he recruited Batiste to the band and, as they say, the rest was musical history.

Over the next more than four decades, Olympia became famous at home for leading the city's jazz funerals and gained renown around the country and the world as arguably New Orleans' best as well as most active traditional brass and jazz bands.

Whether it was performing at Preservation Hall or in a concert in Europe or during a jazz funeral, Olympia "carried the flame for the brass band tradition" and has "stuck to a traditional repertoire of standards," Spera wrote in the Times-Picayune.

Batiste, who took over leadership of the band in 1980 as Dejan's health declined, always thought of himself more as a member of the band than its leader, but musicians and music critics alike credited him with guiding the band to its status as a world-class group.

"He was an icon of jazz funerals, a jazz ambassador for the city," said Damon Batiste, a distant cousin of Batiste's who is a percussionist with the Batiste Brothers, a New Orleans band.

Gregg Stafford, leader of the Young Tuxedo Brass Band and the Jazz Hounds, also of New Orleans, said Milton Batiste was not just a great band leader but one of the best trumpet players around. "He was a powerful trumpeter. He had the true sound," Stafford said.

And, as his widow said, perhaps Batiste's greatest accomplishment was passing on his talent for and love of brass and jazz to young people.

"If it wasn't for him opening doors, we probably wouldn't be doing what we're doing," said Philip Frazier, leader of Rebirth brass band of New Orleans. "He was a big influence for us younger cats."

And one of those "younger cats" is Batiste's own son, Richard Matthews, who is grand marshal of Olympia. Matthews will be here in Danville for the brass band festival next weekend but he will be more than just a grand marshal. He will be a living, flesh-and-blood legacy of his late father.

Ruby Batiste has never been to the festival and will not be able to be here this year. But she said she will be here in spirit -- right next to Milton's.

"Milton always loved the festival there in Danville. Everyone was grand to him," she said. "He was always proud to be part of starting something and seeing it become one of the best brass festivals anywhere."

The highlight of his band's performances at the festival?

"Oh, when they play `When the Saints Go Marching In,' of course," said Batiste. "He loved playing that number and the crowd loved dancing to it and singing along. This year, he'll be playing and dancing right along with them, along with Papa Glass and the other saints who'll be there in spirit."