Klarinet Archive - Posting 000696.txt from 1998/04

From: DGross1226 <DGross1226@-----.com>
Subj: Re: The "Other" Eddie Daniels
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 10:25:20 -0400

In a message dated 98-04-13 23:52:57 EDT, you write:

<< Most of us have not played a live gig with Eddie Daniels. So what's your
point? >>

Like Karen who noted when she was "...in college (in '90) he performed
Solfegetto Metamorphisis with our Wind Ensemble and did a master class for the
HS students who were on campus that day for a band festival. Those of us who
were clarinet and sax players got to have lunch with him. He did a FANTASTIC
job and then did an
encore...he had already done a concert that afternoon with our Concert Jazz
Band. He not only is a great player, but a great person! "

A few years later, Eddie Daniels performed the Weber Concertino plus the
Solfegetto with the Caltech/Occidental College Concert Band. Whether he was
having a bad day(s) or whatever, he consistently derided the ensemble, made
the conductor's life miserable, "played" to an entourage of "groupies" who
were following him around, and exhibited the most elitist, boorish,
egotistical behavior I have ever witnessed by a guest artist. Sure wasn't the
same person that Karen described.

Perhaps Mr. Daniels suffered by comparison with some of the guest artists
we've had including folks like Jim Self (LA studio tuba player who played the
Strauss horn concerto on his tuba and was the "voice" of the mother ship in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind), Alan Vogel (principal oboist with the LA
Chamber Orchestra, and Richard Todd (principal hornist also with the LA
Chamber Orchestra who played the Strauss horn concerto on the horn) to name a
few off the top of my head. Basically the "review" of his performance was
"lots of technique, not much music." However, I will concede that his
performance with the jazz bands was nothing short of amazing, but then I'm a
legit player.

Don Gross
La Canada, California

p.s. Connie Josias can also add a few footnotes to the above, but he's doing
too well following his coronary episode last December, I hate to put all his
good cardiac rehab work to the test!