Claude Luter, 83; Horn Player Brought New Orleans Jazz to Paris
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Claude Luter, 83, a horn player who hobnobbed with Louis Armstrong and was one of France’s most celebrated jazz musicians, died Friday in Paris.
Best known for boosting the transatlantic transfer of New Orleans-style jazz to Paris, Luter suffered complications after a fall and died at a hospital outside Paris, said his son, Eric.
A trumpeter who later took up the clarinet and saxophone, Luter met Armstrong at the Nice Jazz Festival in 1948. The following year, he began accompanying Sidney Bechet, like Armstrong one of the fathers of New Orleans jazz.
Luter was born July 23, 1923, in Paris and discovered jazz in his adolescence. He built his reputation at private gatherings during World War II. His band, the Lorientaise, charmed Paris’ intellectual elite after the war.
As recently as 2005, Luter played twice a month at a Paris club, the Petit Journal.
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