Harold Battiste is concerned about the future, and particularly what will survive. The saxophone player has spent a lifetime in music and has been a talent scout, an arranger, a composer, a musical director and a teacher. He founded AFO—the first record label owned by African-American musicians—but as he ages, he worries about the music that will be lost, particularly New Orleans’ post-bop jazz.

To help prevent that from happening, he has written and published The Silverbook, a co...