Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man celebrates New Orleans composer, producer, arranger, educator and jazz ambassador Harold Battiste Jr. Chasing the dream from New Orleans to Los Angeles and back, Battiste thrived in the jazz, blues and pop scenes. The creative force behind a bevy of number-one hits Barbara George s I Know (You Don t Love Me No More), Joe Jones s You Talk Too Much, Sam Cooke s You Send Me and the sage who launched the careers of Dr. John and Sonny & Cher, Battiste worked behind the scenes of the music industry for more than half a century. With Unfinished Blues , his voice is heard, unfiltered, at last. Battiste's musical sensibilities were formed and his racial consciousness raised in the churches, classrooms and jazz joints of New Orleans. A graduate of Dillard University s music education program, Battiste confronted discrimination as a teacher in Louisiana s segregated public school system. In the early 1950s he founded All for One, the nation s first African American musician-owned and -operated record label. His commitment to education and uplift has never wavered: in recent decades he worked alongside lifelong friend and fellow musician Ellis Marsalis to build the renowned jazz studies program at the University of New Orleans. He can count among his friends and protégés many of today s leading young jazz musicians Nicholas Payton, Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, Victor Goines, Jesse McBride and other members of a next generation keeping the New Orleans sound alive. 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 Orleans Times-Picayune and Louisiana Weekly . Her work has appeared in a number of publications, including the Times-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.