Tom Sancton

Tom Sancton
Birth name Thomas Alexander Sancton
Also known as Thomas Sancton, Jr.
Tommy Sancton
Born 1949
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Origin New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres New Orleans jazz
Occupation(s) Clarinetist
Writer
Educator
Instruments Clarinet, saxophone
Associated acts Preservation Hall
Lars Edegran
The New Orleans Legacy Band
The Vintage Jazzmen of France
Website tomsancton.com

Thomas Alexander Sancton (a.k.a. Tom, Tommy) is an American writer, jazz clarinetist and educator. From 1992 to 2001 he was Paris bureau chief for TIME Magazine, where worked for 22 years,[1] and has contributed to publications including Vanity Fair, Fortune, Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal.[2] His acclaimed memoir, Song for My Fathers: a New Orleans Story in Black and White (2006), recounts his early life among traditional jazzmen in his native New Orleans. He taught journalism at the American University of Paris from 2002 to 2004. In 2007 he was named Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane University,[3] where he taught creative writing until 2011.

Biography

Sancton grew up in New Orleans and attended local public schools. He began playing the clarinet aged 13, after being taken by his father, Thomas Sancton, Sr., to hear traditional New Orleans jazz at Preservation Hall. He took his first lessons with George Lewis, whose playing he cites as a particular inspiration.[4] Since then he has recorded over a dozen albums, and performed regularly at Preservation Hall and the Palm Court Jazz Cafe with his New Orleans Legacy Band. He has appeared numerous times at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the French Quarter Festival. In January, 2012, he was featured in a Carnegie Hall concert marking the 50th anniversary of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Sancton studied American History and Literature at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude in 1971. He subsequently took a doctorate (D. Phil) in Modern History at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, winning the Gilbert Chinard Award for studies in Franco-American history for his thesis, 'America in the Eyes of the French Left, 1848-1871'. Other honors and distinctions include an Overseas Press Club Award (1987), a citation for "outstanding musical contributions" by the Preservation Resource Center (2012), and a 2014 decoration by the French Culture Ministry as a Knight (Chevalier) in the Order of Arts and Letters.[5]

He is the coauthor of the international bestseller Death of a Princess: The Investigation and author of the political thriller The Armageddon Project.

Bibliography

Discography

References

  1. ↑ WAISers: Tom Sancton
  2. ↑ Tom Sancton - SONG FOR MY FATHERS
  3. ↑ New Orleans Native Returns as Mellon Professor
  4. ↑ Sancton, Tom (2006). Song for My Fathers. Other Press. ISBN 978-1590512432.
  5. ↑ "Tom Sancton becomes a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres," New Orleans times-Picayune, June 2, 2014. http://www.nola.com/society/index.ssf/2014/06/tom_sancton_becomes_a_chevalie.html#comments
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