Unfinished Blues...Memories of a New Orleans Music Man
Harold R. Battiste Jr. is a retired composer, arranger, musician, and music professor. He was a producer, conductor, and musical director for studio, stage, motion pictures, and television with credits in jazz, classical, blues, and pop. Battiste has been awarded ten gold records from ASCAP. He has helped to shape the careers of many artists, including Sam Cooke, Sonny & Cher, Cannonball Adderley, Dr. John, the O'Jays, Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo, and Ornette Coleman. He assisted in creating the respected jazz studies program at the University of New Orleans with renowned pianist and music professor Ellis Marsalis. Battiste is a graduate of Dillard University with a bachelor of arts in music. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Dillard University with a bachelor of arts in music. In 2008 he was awarded in honorary doctorate of humane letters from Dillard University. He lives in New Orleans. Karen Celestan handles community relations and policy in government affairs for Tulane University. She was senior director of university communications for Dillard University, publications and media coordinator for Festival Productions, Inc. (which produces the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and other events), and a copy editor for the New OrleansTimes-PicayuneandLouisiana Weekly. Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including theTimes-Picayune, Gambit, Louisiana Weekly,and several literary magazines and poetry collections. Celestan is a graduate of the University of New Orleans with a bachelor of arts in communications and English, and Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina, with a master of fine arts in creative writing. She lives in New Orleans.