Claude Luter

Clarinetist Claude Luter towered over the landscape of the postwar Paris jazz scene. A longtime confederate of American bandleader Sidney Bechet, he championed the sound and spirit of traditional jazz into the 21st century. Born in Paris on July 23, 1923, Luter was the son of a professional musician and began his own career as a trumpeter before making the switch to clarinet. After discovering New Orleans jazz as a teen, he began playing private parties and clubs during the Nazi occupation, and post-liberation, emerged as a fixture at the Lorientais, one of the Latin Quarter's...