Acclaimed musical composer and teacher Roger Dickerson spent two days on Austin Community College campuses visiting with students, faculty, and staff informally to entertain and inform members of the college community about his hybrid African-American blues and jazz tunes from Orleans and classical, mostly European concert music. These elements of New Orleans’ creole culture
Dickerson was born and raised in New Orleans. His mother was a housewife and his father earned a living as an auto mechanic–not the kind of background one might expect would produce a classical music performer and composer. But Dickerson took to the piano at a young age, drawing heavily from the musical resources that New Orleans provided. He organized and led a band of his own, calling it “Roger Dickerson and His Groovy Boys.” As a young scholar, Dickerson attended Dillard University in New Orleans, where he earned a bachelor’s degree, and then Indiana University, where he received a master’s degree in music composition. Dickerson also studied in Vienna as a Fulbright Scholar. He taught music theory, composition, orchestra, and piano at Xavier, Southern, and Dillard universities.
Dickerson’s most significant compositions were “New Orleans Concerto,” composed for the Bicentennial celebration of the United States, “Orpheus an’ His Slide Trombone,” and the Louis Armstrong requiem “A Memorial Service for Louis.” Dickerson’s appearances at ACC were billed as “informances,”acknowledgement, of his musical skills and pedagogical instincts.
Source: Speak-easy, September 26, 1978