Klarinet Archive - Posting 000127.txt from 1996/06

From: Mike Lockhart <mikel@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Jazz Clarinetisits?
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 11:35:05 -0400

>On Sat, 1 Jun 1996, Gene Keyes wrote:
>
>> I think there is an another important here, beside the obvious ignorance of
>> your band director.
>
> Ed Lacy replied
>...
>Also, the fact that the clarinet is used in Dixieland jazz is irrelevant
>here - unless the school has a Dixieland band rather than a standard "big
>band" jazz ensemble.
>
>It's not the director's fault that jazz has evolved to the point that
>there is now a widely accepted instrumentation for jazz bands. (5 saxes
>- 2 altos, 2 tenors, baritone; 4 trumpets; 4 trombones; and a rhythm
>section consisting of piano, guitar, bass and drums) There are
>...

I thought my post did point out the changes in jazz over the last few
decades has seen the demise in clarinets in jazz bands. I guess another
solution that I would reccomend is to start a dixieland jazz band! That way
the student could learn to play some jazz, whilst keeping alive a musical
tradition which, sadly, has fewer and fewer adherents as the year goes by.

By the way, the Goodman small groups (trio, quartet, septet) can be
classified as jazz. In his earlier years, Goodman played in some pickup
bands in the jazz idiom of the time, playing under various pseudonyms
(because of recording contracts), one of which was "Shoeless Joe" Jackson.

Mike
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Mike Lockhart
14202 Piping Rock, Houston TX 77077
mikel@-----.com
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