Klarinet Archive - Posting 000654.txt from 1996/12

From: "David B. Niethamer" <niethamer@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Don Byron's BUG MUSIC
Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 20:33:34 -0500

>I'd like to recommend Don Byron's new record, called Bug Music (after
>a Flintstones episode that laughed at the Beatles fad), which
>features early music by Ellington and two lesser-known "30s-'40s
>bands, those of John Kirby and Raymond Scott

I can second this recommendation - it was on the store PA at Tower when I
went in looking for other stuff, and I walked away with a copy.
>
> As usual, Byron plays his (Buffet) clarinet magnificently. I
>really wish I'd made the effort to see him and his band do this music
>recently at the Bklyn Academy of Music.

I saw DB live last spring here in Richmond. He plays incredibly well,
with great control, and lots of colors. He also knows so much literature
that his references in solos are spectacularly amusing. In the midst of
one increasingly wild improv, we got an extended quote from the Overture
to the Barber of Seville! He's also a charmingly funny stage host. At the
concert I heard, he came on stage alone, and did a solo improvisation on
the "Goldfinger" theme, then announced in his best FM radio voice "That
was 'Melancholy Baby'...".

I don't know that I mentioned it because I've been so busy, but I heard
about 2/3 of a Klezmer Conservatory Band concert a few weeks ago, and was
mildly disappointed. The clarinetist (I've forgotten her name) was pretty
good, though she seemed to use the same bag of tricks all concert, and
after while it got kinda dull. The violinist and leader (Hankus Netsky
wasn't there) was great. But the music seemed over-refined - a bit on the
canned side - and the amplification was overbearing in a hall that didn't
really need it at all. Fun, interesting, but not a life-altering
experience.

David
(who has survived 16 Nutcrackers + 2 rehearsals, and a 5 day Christmas
visit from his parents!)

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
niethamer@-----.edu
dbnclar1@-----.com
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/