Klarinet Archive - Posting 000217.txt from 1996/06

From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Jazz Clarinetisits?
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 18:06:17 -0400

At 09:33 AM 6/7/96 -0500, Edwin Lacy wrote:
>On Sat, 1 Jun 1996, Gene Keyes wrote:
>
>> I think there is an another important here, beside the obvious ignorance of
>> your band director.
>
>Let's suppose for a moment that the student who posted the question
>played the banjo, or bagpipes, or the sitar. Imagine that she goes to
>her school's orchestra director and announces that she wants to play in
>the orchestra. No doubt, the reply would be that there are no parts for
>her instrument in the orchestra. Would that make the orchestra director
>such a lowlife as the ill-fated jazz band director of this discussion? I
>rather doubt it.

What about an Alto Saxophone player who wanted to play with the orchestra.
There is plenty of the orchestral music that has Alto Saxophone in it, but
it's not commonly known. Should a student be doomed never to play in an
orchestra? I think not. Most likely, a compromise would be worked out
allowing the saxophone player at least a chance to play in an orchestra.

>There have been many replies pointing out that Benny Goodman, Woody
>Herman, Artie Shaw, etc., played in jazz bands. This is technically NOT
>true. They LED jazz bands, and for the most part, they stood in front of
>the band and played solos on the clarinet. They were not integral parts
>of their own bands. Jimmy Hamilton, clarinet soloist of Duke Ellington's
>band _was_ a member of the band - on tenor sax! Wilbur Schwartz, lead
>clarinet with the Glenn Miller band, did play the lead woodwind parts on
>the clarinet, but the Miller band had private arrangers who wrote those
>parts expecially for him. He also played saxophone.

On the contrary, Jimmy Hamilton was hired to play the clarinet. He doubled
on the tenor sax. Both ensemble wise and solo wise he was primarily there
to play clarinet. Barney Bigard was also hired for the same reason. Both
men were only (relatively) so-so tenor players.

>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.

This I have to agree with. It is, however, relevant to the general
misconception that clarinet isn't a jazz instrument.

>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
>exceptions to this, but probably 95% of published arrangements are for
>this instrumentation. Jazz composers write their music with the
>expectation that it will be played by this instrumentation, and by only
>one player per part. And, this is how it sounds best. Of course, one
>can transpose some of these parts for other instruments, but the sound
>will be something other than what the composer/arranger intended, and
>probably something other than the sound that both the composer and the
>jazz band director have in mind as a concept of jazz sound. It was
>probably necessary for jazz to progress to this point in order for it to
>continue to mature as an art form. After all, no one seems to consider
>it such a crime that the orchestra and the concert band also have a
>generally accepted prescribed instrumentation.

Right, and the band sounding good is the most important issue. Who cares if
the students learn anything. Ahem. I apologize for the sarcasm, but I have
had personal experience with band directors who have exactly this attitude.

There's simply no reason a musician (regardless of instrument) should be
denied the opportunity to learn to play jazz. If there isn't enough money
to have
more than one ensemble, then (qualified) students should be able to play
jazz. Period. And I only say qualified in that they needed to be skilled in
their instrument, not that they play the "right" instrument.

>Also, don't forget that there are 17 other people to take into
>consideration here - the 17 members of the band. The director has a
>certain obligation to them, as well. He is probably trying to teach them
>something about jazz, too, so that they will have the necessary tools and
>skills to be able to play in other jazz bands later in life. Please
>consider how they are affected if parts designed for certain instruments
>are played on other ones. All considerations of blend, balance,
>intonation, and tone quality are now changed.

The more variety of musical settings a musician is exposed, the better.
It's up to the band director to balance the settings so that everyone gets a
chance, not just those playing the currently annointed "jazz" instruments.

> The solution for the student who originally posted the question is to
> stop setting up a situation of conflict with the director over something
> which is not within his control, and learn to play one of the instruments
> which are customarily used in jazz. It would be a relatively simple
> matter for her to acquire the necessary skills to play the saxophone in a
> jazz setting. It is _not_ true, as some have suggested, that learing the
> saxophone is "easy" - that is, if the intention is to learn to play it well.

The clarinet *is* customarily used in jazz. Even in jazz bands. Just
because the teacher has only seen watered down high school big band charts
doesn't make it ok for the teacher to discourage a student (*any* student)
interested in playing jazz. A little work and the teacher could find
something that would at least give the student a chance to play a little jazz.

>In summary, I would like to suggest that before we are so quick with the
>"knee-jerk" reaction of castigating the jazz band director that we
>consider the situation in more detail, and in light of existing customs
>and practices in jazz.

If, indeed, the director did say something like "the clarinet is not a jazz
instrument" then I feel the knee-jerk reaction was called for. First, it's
simply an uninformed opinion. Second, what if the director told this to
someone who could have been the next Benny Goodman, Buddy DeFranco, Eddie
Daniels, etc?

Interestingly enough, I learned to love playing classical music (playing in
general, even) by playing jazz! It saddens me to think of what might have
happened if I didn't have a teacher in high school who was open to
non-standard instrumention. I did end up doubling on saxophone somewhat
later, but I learned to play jazz on the clarinet.

-Adam
amichlin@-----.edu
amichlin@-----.com