Klarinet Archive - Posting 000510.txt from 1995/04

From: John Baetens <JSBtens@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: From classical to jazz
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 21:08:11 -0400

Very interesting piece by Neil on Jazz vs Classical. I agree that the Jazz
medium is certainly as challenging technically and musically as classical. I
also agree that Eddie Daniels is perhaps the best at being able to integrate
the two disciplines, at least as far as clarinetists are concerned. I would
like to clear something up about Eddie. Although he started professionally
as a tenor sax player, he was originally a clarinetist as far as I'm
concerned. He did start his music training briefly on alto sax, but switched
to clarinet as a pre-teen. He studied clarinet at the High School for The
Performing Arts in New York, and received an MA in clarinet performance at
Julliard. So his training is pretty much on clarinet. The reason he got his
professional start on tenor sax is that no one was interested in Jazz
clarinet at that time. Once he got a name for himself, he went back to his
first love, and the rest is history.