Klarinet Archive - Posting 000000.txt from 1996/06

From: "Joie Canada , Jcanada713@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Jazz Clarinetisits?
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 01:15:40 -0400

Mention Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Pete Fountain, all the
klezmer (Jewish jazz) bands in the world who have a clarinet handy---etc,
etc, etc. What kind of jazz is your instructor talking about that has no
clarinets?

We used clarinet in our high school pep band which was strictly a jazz band
for basketball games since so many members of the regular band were on the
team or cheerleaders and couldn't play in the band and do the sports at the
same time. Our pep band was about 10 piece and worked from charts taken
from fake books. We took requests and people danced during halftime. This
was a long time ago and maybe the kind of music you are playing is not for
dancing. As a player who doubles on soprano sax I know that the sax is a lot
easier to take into extreme key signitures than a clarinet and can play a lot
louder but loud and extreme are not necessarily musically speaking. All New
Orleans style jazz needs a clarinet, and Big Band sound lacks a great deal in
the absence of the instrument. There are certain styles based on a strictly
sax type of sound, but to really learn jazz playing, I feel that at least
some of the sax players should also play clarinet and flute for special
effects. You miss out on a lot sticking to the strict brass-sax-percussion
sound.

Joie