Conversation with Andrew White

Larry Appelbaum talks with multi-instrumentalist, composer, author and publisher Andrew White, touching on the artist’s studies in classical music and jazz at Howard University, Tanglewood and the Paris Conservatory, and nearly 60 years of performing and recording with musicians from Stevie Wonder to the JFK Quintet, the 5th Dimension and Weather Report. White was known for an encyclopedic knowledge of the music of John Coltrane, and for his 840 transcriptions of Coltrane’s improvisations. Appelbaum discusses the art and practice of transcription with the artist, and the more than 2,500 self-produced recordings and publications he distributed through his company Andrew’s Music. They review the history of the Washington, D.C. jazz scene in which Andrew White was such a remarkable figure. This conversation was made possible by the Reva & David Logan Foundation, as part of the Library of Congress Jazz Scholars program. For transcript and more information, visit