New Orleans jazz musician, Tom Sancton, plays tune for healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus

Tom Sancton is a Dixieland clarinetist who studied with the late great clarinetists George Lewis and Willie Humphrey when he was a teenager. He leads the New Orleans Legacy band and has played many times at Preservation Hall and at JazzFest and the French Quarter Festival. He is also past Bureau Chief in Paris for Time magazine and an accomplished author. He lives part-time in Paris and part-time in New Orleans.

He is in town now, and while all the festivals and his gigs have been canceled, he is still sharing his talent and joy of music with us during this challenging time.

Sancton’s good friend and LCMC Health Medical Director of Care Transformation, Dr. Jay Kaplan, asked him if he would record a short piece for our medical staff, and Sancton whipped out his clarinet and recorded a video without a second thought.

“I’m going to play this little tune for all of the doctors and nurses and medical professionals who are out there on the front lines fighting the Coronavirus every day, all over the world, but especially here in our hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana,” said Sancton. “This little tune has a message that I think we can all use today, and it’s called ‘When Your Smiling.’”

Kaplan and Sancton grew up in New Orleans and then went to college together. They have continued to be friends through the years, getting together when he and his wife are in town.