Klarinet Archive - Posting 000893.txt from 1998/07

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Benny Goodman/Jazz Clarinet
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 21:17:40 -0400

Must disagree. Benny played pretty much to the bitter end--I saw him in
concert in 1978, he was terrific. Pete Fountain is still alive and playing.
Bill (William O.) Smith played w/ Dave Brubeck in the 40's, and is still
alive and kicking butt. Eddie Daniels. Even R. Stolzmann attempts jazz.

There was a period--bebop--where clarinet was not the preferred instrument
for jazz. Let's face it--saxophone is (a) easier and (b) louder. But not
better. Benny himself made some recently released bebop sides, and Buddy
Defranco could match anyone. Even then, clarinet was used and used well.

kjf

-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Clayton [mailto:lisakc@-----.com]
Subject: Re: [kl] Benny Goodman/Jazz Clarinet

At 07:07 PM 07.23.98 -0400, you wrote:
>I just received my August 13, 1998 copy of the New York Review of Books
>in the mail. It contains an extremely informative article on Benny
>Goodman by Whitney Balliett, former jazz critic for the New Yorker. I
>wonder how many of you would agree with Mr. Bailliett's conclusion.
>
>"Goodman...died of a heart attack in June of 1986....To all intents and
>purposes, the jazz clarinet died with him."

It seemed to have gone into a coma around the the time of Bebop, that's for
sure. If you count the bass clarinet, then a *very* good case can be
argued that Eric Dolphy brought it back to life.

But the ol' corpus is showing some signs of life. Eddie Daniels and Don
Byron, of course. Little-known but absolutely incredible avant-garde
performers Ben Goldberg and Beth Custer. All of these musicians are
primarily clarinet jazzers and are reviving the concept of the clarinet as
a jazz instrument. So the body ain't dead; just very, very skinny.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/eguide/archive/1998/07/16/de
rk.dtl
for a great article on Ben Goldberg.

http://www.sirius.com/~b1custer/
for Beth Custer's site.

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