Klarinet Archive - Posting 000500.txt from 2001/04

From: Bobngayenewman@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Highest Clarinet Notes -- ReReReVisited
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 23:30:18 -0400

Y'all -- My humble advice is to watch in person, or get a video of -- Kenny
Daverne and Alan Vache'. I played a gig with Daverne several years ago and
asked him how in the hell he was hitting F and G above C3 (the so-called
highest note on the clarinet). He was very polite and a real gentleman, but
said, "Bob, that's my schnook and I'm not telling anybody that."

I understand, however, Alan Vache' studied under Daverne and I know he has
mastered the altissimo region up there in the stratosphere very well,
presumably with Daverne's training -- although I'm not sure of the Daverne
connection.

If you watch Daverne closely, it's not difficult to see what fingering he's
using because he is a master of "flying fingers." As was Artie Shaw.
Certainly a fairly stiff reed is a requirement, although Benny Goodman was
notorious for using soft (2,2.5) reeds. The note he hit (most likely
accidentally) at the end of his Sing, Sing, Sing chorus at Carnegie Hall in
1938 was B3 (solid) up to D3 (squeak?).

Bob

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