Klarinet Archive - Posting 000242.txt from 2000/01

From: c.plattner@-----.at (Christian Plattner)
Subj: Re: [kl] Jazz mouthpieces
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 05:08:48 -0500

Dear Sheldon,

your question is not silly at all ! - but of course it can not be answered
in one sentence.
Generally speaking, there is a trade-off between speed of articulation on
the one side and what could be termed "big tone" on the other.
In the historical transition from the New Orleans and Chicago styles
(played in the 1920's) to swing (roughly: 30's jazz) to bebop (basically
the jazz style of the 1940's) there was a need for a lighter tone to match
the increasingly faster meters played. A sound ideal employed by the likes
of Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet and - to a lesser amount - the one used
by the generation of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman would have been to
"heavy" and would have sort of "outweighed" the new style elements.
This is of course not to say that the next generation did not have a good
sound (as some puritan critics sayed), it was just a different voice to
fit a new language.
So to play bebop and its derivate styles, you would be looking for a
mouthpiece with a less open facing (and probably also with a shorter
facing length) than the JB5, which indeed is very good for traditional
jazz (by the way: it was developed by Kenny Davern, IMHO a player you just
have to have listened to).
Choosing a mouthpiece like the less-open VanDorens (say the B45 and B46)
or other types that go for less open facing will fit the the modern styles
better, limiting the use of vibrato and tone modulation, but enabling more
precise articulation at higher speeds.

Cheers,

Christian Plattner

sperintl@-----.es writes:
>I have sort of a silly question because the topic is so broad. But here
>goes.
>
>What is a good mouthpiece for modern jazz?. I realize that there are
>many styles of jazz clarinet. Certainly a mouthpiece suitable for
>traditional jazz (translation: Dixieland) is not automatically
>appropriate for neo bop. Eddie Daniels' tone often sounds sax-like.
>What does he use? Don Byron? Buddy De Franco?
>
>I use the VanDoren 5JB with the VanDorenOptimum ligature and like the
>big tone (on my Prestige).
>
>Any comments?
>
>Sheldon Sper
>

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