Klarinet Archive - Posting 000395.txt from 1995/01

From: David Lechner <dlechner@-----.NET>
Subj: Eric Dolphy again
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 01:25:08 -0500

Many thanks to all who contributed to the discussion on Albert system
clarinets -- such a wealth of information!

If I may pick up the Eric Dolphy/jazz bass clarinetists thread that was
running here a couple of weeks back, I have a couple of questions I'd
like to pose.

First off does anyone happen to know the make and model of Dolphy's bass
clarinet(s)? Did it have the standard range or did it have the extension
some of you have mentioned in previous postings?

Secondly, I have a puzzle that came to my attention while driving to work
this morning. I was listening to a tape of Dolphy's _Copenhagen
Concert_ for which I no longer have either playlist and personnel.
Unfortunately the album doesn't appear to be available currently except
as a used lp (if one could track it down). I believe the album must have been
a two record set, since the tape runs about 90 minutes. About half way
through side 2 (thus at the end of disk 2 side 1 or beginning of disk 2
side 2) there is a song in which after an extended piano solo and following
piano/bass/drums vamp, an alto sax solo begins and runs about 2 minutes
before the song ends. _Immediately_ before the alto begins, there are
three notes played by what can _only_ be a CONTRABASS clarinet (or
possibly a very stuffy bass sax) played in the low register. Okay, it stands
to reason that if Dolphy played bass clarinet he could well have played
contrabass, yet I've never heard of it before. Secondly, the alto solo
definitely _sounds_ like Dolphy and there isn't enough time for any
mortal musician to switch horns. So who's on first and what's on second?
Any ideas? Thanks!

--David Lechner
dlecher@-----.net
or lechner@-----.us