Klarinet Archive - Posting 000515.txt from 2000/05

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bass Clarinet CDs (was [kl] Hi)
Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 22:10:08 -0400

At 03:56 PM 5/8/00 -0400, Lelia wrote:
>Has anyone mentioned Eric Dolphy yet? His main instruments were bass
>clarinet and alto sax. He also played tenor sax, flute and ocasionally a=
few
>other things. He played free jazz and post-bop in the 1950s and early=
1960s.
> Maybe he's too *old* for some people on this thread, but IMHO, Dolphy is=
=20
> one
>of the musical pioneers behind some of the new approaches to jazz *and*
>classical bass clarinet playing.

I was so naive at one point that I embarrassed myself on this very list=20
because I was not aware that Dolphy had died many years ago. In fact, I=20
really found out about Dolphy via someone else on Klarinet and have had a=20
chance since to listen to what he did with the bass clarinet. I don't=20
think it's quite an exaggeration to say he basically invented the=20
instrument as a jazz horn...or for a kind of music that a lot of people=20
probably haven't caught up with yet. It's at moments ugly (de gustibus),=20
at moments beautiful (ditto), sometimes you get the feeling he was out=20
there figuring out the capabilities of the instrument while he was playing=
=20
it. The inevitable question arises about setups...I can approximate that=20
hard sound only with a Vandoren B46 and a 1@-----. It can be a=
=20
brutal sound if you really bear down on the instrument and push the tone.

> (I think I hear strong echoes of Dolphy in
>Michael Lowenstern, for instance, although Lowenstern, who studied with
>Charles Neidich and John Bruce Yeh, among others, has a far more polished
>technique.

I own the Lowenstern recording (how many bass clarinet solo disks ARE there=
=20
really???) and yes, now I can hear some of the similarities.

>A stylistic innovator, Dolphy got booed off the stage
>a few times by ambushed audiences. ;-) He participated in the "Third
>Stream" fusion of jazz and classical with Gunther Schuller.

This surprises me somewhat. He was playing around the same time as guys=20
like Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Ornette Coleman. Unless they got booed off=20
the stage too. I remember spending an absolutely interminable evening with=
=20
a woman I was dating in early 1968, listening to her collection of Kirk=20
records. Can you spell "This relationship has no future"? I hated the=20
stuff. Maybe I wouldn't now. There are things about Dolphy as I've heard=
=20
him over the last year that I find very hard to like, so I don't pretend I=
=20
do. But what he does on the bass when he plays "God Bless The Child" is=20
one of the wonders of the earth. And the person on the list introduced me=
=20
to a song/musical thing aptly called "Aggression" which approaches what=20
sounds like a manic attack via the instrument.

>IMHO, the best introduction to Dolphy is "Out to Lunch," from 1964...

A great place to start, yes.

>There's a fantastic live take of "God Bless the Child" ...

I'm not sure which one I own out of the several he did. Whichever...it's=20
spectacular.

There a story I heard that after Dolphy died, his widow gave his bass=20
clarinet to John Coltrane, and that there is a track on one of Alice=20
Coltrane's recordings where John C. plays Dolphy's bass.

He wasn't Feidman, Bok, or Rusche but God, could he play that thing....

Ken

----------------------
Kenneth Wolman http://www.rio-cardoner.com
"i had not really expected to find any of the art world populated with=20
ex-murderers fascists green berets and now i know that you can find=
=20
anything in the art world and they can even become prophets' -- David=20
Antin, "Tuning"

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