In junior high, Gregory Agid was a reluctant student of the Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong Jazz Summer Camp. His mother, for the first few days at least, had to literally drag him out of bed.

But his ambivalence about jazz in general, and the clarinet in particular, disappeared once he met Alvin Batiste. The renowned clarinetist, composer and educator, affectionately known as Mr. Bat to his students, served as an instructor at the camp that summer.

“I didn’t really care about the clarinet until I met Alvin Batiste,” Agid said this week. “He was the one that ignited a fire in me, and made me passionate about it.”

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