Klarinet Archive - Posting 000448.txt from 1995/02

From: Syd Polk <jazzman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Syd Polk's comments on Bird and Diz
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 20:56:49 -0500

On Feb 28, 8:22pm, "Michael A. Cassara" wrote:
} Subject: Syd Polk's comments on Bird and Diz
} Syd said
} >The main reason trumpets and saxophones were the primary bebop instruments
} >was because Dizzy Gillespie played trumpet and Charlie Parker played
} >saxophone. Since these two basically invented the genre, everybody
} >emulated them. If Bird had been a clarinet player, things would be
} >different.
}
} >For those of you who poo-poo the influence of two men, keep in mind
} >that soprano saxophone in modern jazz was unheard of until John Coltrane
} >recorded an album where he played it ("My Favorite Things"). Suddenly,
} >everybody and his dog were buying sopranoes.
} >
} >Syd Polk
}
}
} Syd,
} I am confused by your post. If Bird had played the clarinet we would not
} know bop as it is known today. Instrumentation is often taken for granted
} when writing stylistic approaches. Bird was Bird. If he played the
} clarinet do you think play with the same instrumentation and have it sound
} somewhat good?
} Choosing your instrument and who you play with is almost as important as
} what you say when you play. When Coltrane picked up the soprano he was
} finding a voice that he could use for that setting. He felt that the
} soprano sax was best to play My Favorite Things with. Ornette Coleman
} started playing trumpet as was well know for creating styles of free form
} jazz on alto sax. He had no formal training. I know very little on this
} part of his career. I'm certain however he was looking his musical voice.
} One of the factors attributed to the dying out of the Bird-Diz era of bebop
} is the fact that after many years it has gotten somewhat repetitive and
} people frankly got sick of it. Do not get me wrong, I love playing tenor
} and letting loose on Ornithology or something, but I find that I would
} rather concentrate on finding my own voice.

I am not disputing that Bird, Diz and Trane each found instruments to
express their own internal musical voices. What I am saying is this:
the subsequent people trying to play in that style tended to choose
similar instruments, mouthpieces, reeds, etc. There was MUCH copycatting
of early bebop (and still a lot in jazz) because the idiom is so
difficult to master. You have to copy players for a long time before
you have a broad enough basic bebop vocabulary to improvise. By playing
the instruments of the masters, you can copy them and study them
easier than playing the same music on something else. I am not
discounting that the bebop "sound" is somewhat defined to be
a quintet with bass, piano, drums, trumpet, and sax, but
if Bird had played the same music on clarinet, and he had been
as succesful with it as he was with sax, we would be discussing why
saxophone is a dead instrument now.

} I personally feel the clarinet is best used in jazz when it is able to show
} its bright and wonderful woody tone. This is why I'm so crazy over Eddie
} Daniels. This is my interpretation of the instrument and how I would like to
} use it. I usually grab my tenor and start to blow. I'm not saying the
} tenor doesn't have a pleasant side. I am simply stating that I like that
} sound better.
} Non musically, people have a tendency to yell if they are upset about
} something. If you could catch that screaming voice in a jar and play
} music with it, could you take the same voice and play the adagio of K.
} 622? As Dan Leeson stated a few months ago in the midst of the Stoltzman
} controversy, These are all matters of opinion. These are my opinions.
}
} Michael A. Cassara,
} Cleveland, Ohio
}-- End of excerpt from "Michael A. Cassara"

The problem with the Mozart example is that the intent of the composer
tends to come out more than the intent of the player, no matter how
far out the player is. That is the whole idea behind classical music:
reproduce the music as the composer intended. (At least, that's what
conducting books say)

Jazz, on the other hand, is much more of a music where the performer
conveys his moods. Since the player is the composer of most of the
music (at least in bebop), his style, expressions, emotions, etc.
all will come through much more than the composer of the tune.
After all, is anybody really playing a song about an Indian maiden
when they take Cherokee at half note equals 300?

I am not saying that is impossible to express, for example, rage
when playing the Adagio of the Mozart K. 622. I am saying that
it is more difficult to express rage their than when playing
Cherokee at half note equals 300.

Just my $.02.

Syd Polk