Klarinet Archive - Posting 000321.txt from 1997/06

From: mdelceg@-----.nz (Michael Delceg)
Subj: Improvisation
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 02:58:25 -0400

Sorry about the previous posting. I don't know how that happened; I meant
all that to be cut.
I haven't improvised on Mozart, but I've played jazz for a few decades. The
subject is vast and opinions are many and divergent. A useful limitation
(for me, at least) would be the problems of playing jazz on the clarinet
and particularly the bass clarinet as opposed to other instruments. One
comment made was that improvising on Mozart on clarinet was linear and thus
would not include any reharmonization. At least in modern jazz this is not
at all true; musicians regularly imply chord substitutions or extentions by
the scales that they choose in their phrasing. So does this mean that it
won't work for Mozart? I feel that some tunes like Monk's Epistrophy are
perfect for bass clarinet, while there are others I wouldn't like to even
try, but this has more to do with the timbre of the instrument matching the
feel of the tune than harmonic niceties.

Another key difference is swing. You either do or you don't, and I don't
know how much of it can be taught or practiced to proficiency. Certainly it
is painfully obvious when players who have grown up playing on the beat try
to synchopate in a studied way rather than letting the time flex in their
phrasing to add rythmic richness the way a natural jazzer would, who has
grown up exposed to jazz playing. Even then it is difficult for older
musicians to adapt their rythmic vocabulary to switch from dixieland to
bebop or rock. One obvious conclusion is that teachers who don't expose
their students to all of these variations will impoverish them musically
(Do I feel it getting warm in here?).

Mike

   
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