Klarinet Archive - Posting 000111.txt from 1999/07

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] sax trouble
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 1999 05:06:25 -0400

>From what I remember - I haven't seen a Grafton for about 20 years - the
plastic was much thinner than that of any plastic clarinet I've seen, and
saxes have lots of *large* holes, of course, which one would expect to
weaken the instruments structurally, other things being equal (which they
aren't with metal saxes).
Roger Shilcock

On Sun, 4 Jul 1999 LeliaLoban@-----.com wrote:

> Date: Sun, 4 Jul 1999 18:29:26 EDT
> From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] sax trouble
>
> BlueNote83 wrote,
> >Charlie Parker experimented with the Plastic saxophone earlier though.>
>
> Charlie Parker played just about everything. Apparently he'd run out of
> money and pawn his horn. Someone would buy him a new one. He'd run out of
> money and head for the pawn shop again. As a result, there are trainloads of
> alleged Parker saxes out there, usually with no provenance. I'd sure like to
> have a dollar for every time I've been offered "Charlie Parker's sax" at a
> flea market. Guess I must look like a born sucker, because usually it's a
> beat-up Bundy made years after Parker died.
>
> But he did play the acrylic Grafton by choice for awhile, and recently it
> sold (*with* provenance!) for over $200,000! Ken Wolman is right that
> Ornette Coleman played Graftons, too. Paul Lindemeyer writes, in
> _Celebrating the Saxophone_ (Hearst Books, 1996, p. 27, also the source of
> that incredible price on Parker's Grafton), that Coleman "wore out several"
> Graftons. Unlike plastic clarinets, the Grafton acrylic saxes, made in
> England, were a serious attempt to use new technology to make a top-quality
> professional instrument. Evidently the Graftons sounded terrific, but they
> lacked durability. I don't know why, since plastic clarinets seem just about
> indestructible, but the plastic in the Grafton saxes got brittle and broke
> after a few years, and that's why they disappeared from the market.
>
> BTW, going back to the original question, another way to get those low notes
> on sax is slap-tongueing, or combining slap with "spanking" the key. On some
> basses, I gather slap is the *only* way to get the low B and Bb. My bass
> plays the low notes okay with normal tongueing, but I used slap on a tenor
> sax that leaked, until I got it repadded. (Slap is also used as a jazz
> technique just for its special sound.) Instead of touching the reed with
> the tip of the tongue, you anchor-tongue that note and slap the reed hard
> with a big, fat, flat slab of tongue. Ugly note and likely to be off-pitch,
> but useful for color sometimes and better than a squeak or a silence on an
> instrument that's leaking. Slap works on clarinet, too, if you do it gently.
> Slapping a clarinet reed hard can split it.
>
> Tim Shaw wrote,
> >...[H]ave you ever heard the recordings by Adrian Rollini who must surely be
> THE GREATIST bass sax soloist of all time. Rollini stopped recording as a
> bass saxist sometime in the late 30's as far as I know (after that he went to
> UK & arranged & led orchs & played other instruments including xylophone!)
> but I don't think he's ever been equalled for technical virtuosity &
> imagination as a bass instrument virtuoso....>
>
> Glad to hear from another Rollini fan! Rollini's spectacular playing is one
> of the reasons I wanted to try to learn bass sax. I sure wish he'd recorded
> more on bass.
>
> I also think Art Springs, who composes and plays bass sax for The Nuclear
> Whales, is fantastic. He gives the lie to anyone who thinks bass instruments
> are slow and ponderous. The most recent Whales recordings include a
> contrabass sax, too. Wouldn't mind finding one of those in the corner of a
> junk shop. (I should live so long....) Sorry about all this off-topic
> stuff, but anyone who might be a closet contrabass maniac can find a lot more
> on Grant Green's site, www.contrabass.com, where there's information and a
> good, active mailing list. Several bass and contrabass clarinetists from
> this list also subscribe to that one, along with the contrabassoonists, tuba
> players, etc..
>
> Lelia
>
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