Klarinet Archive - Posting 000604.txt from 1998/04

From: "Jason Hsien" <jasonavhs@-----.com>
Subj: Re: The Infinite vs. Buffet R-13 & E-12
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 05:02:14 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
|Here's a question that bothers me -- why is the clarinet so rare in modern
|jazz? The trumpet and saxes survived into today's jazz idion, or idioms,
|but the clarinet was for a couple of decades almost the defining sound of
|exciting swing music, and now it seems to me it's been all but abandoned.

In regards to that huge first part I snipped, I probably couldn't, and i am
self-admittently going to say that I am not big on clarinet jazz (sorry!)

In regards to the part I included, I always was told that the clarinet was
more of a bebop-esque jazz instrument and not the more modern big band jazz
instrument (not saying that it wasn't, just rare) The clarinet sound wasn't
as loud, and I guess the keywork was too complex to do all the stuff jazz
musicians are supposed to do easily. I've never personally had to experience
this for myself, most likely due to the two facts that I am only beginning
to learn the mechanics of jazz music and I am not playing a clarinet when I
do.

but has anyone noticed a resurgence of other woodwinds into modern jazz (ie-
flues, piccolos, bass clarinets, oboes). No, they are not as popular as the
saxes, but they are crawling into the "jazz idiom" and into the niche the
clarinet has struggled to stay in for all this time, which, I feel, is
really taking a toll on the clarinet community.

but hey, who knows? Perhaps the next big pop music craze will be all about
clarinets. I mean, how many people in the 50's of rock-and-roll could ever
imagine angry-woman singers and all the various colors of the
alternative-r&b-rap genre could take off so well...