Klarinet Archive - Posting 000464.txt from 2003/11

From: "Trish Mendenhall" <trishm@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Sax, jazz/blues....tone?
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 07:49:23 -0500

(Annie and Rupert, I'm sorry if I am misinterpreting your intentions - I'd
be happy to see clarifications from either of you if I am.)

I felt that Rupert actually misinterpreted what Annie was saying to suggest
that tone wasn't important, when what she was really saying was that in
jazz, what is considered "good tone" can vary widely, and that no one
perfect setup exists to produce some mythical "jazz tone" for everybody.

However, I didn't see ANY disdain at all in either post - I interpreted
Rupert to mean that a *specific* tone wasn't important, not that you didn't
need to care about good tone. Annie was providing illustration for her
point regarding setups and using her own experiences to do so. The same
case is regularly presented for why there is no single perfect setup for
everyone who plays "classical" music on a regular basis on this distribution
list.

In fact, I think Annie in some ways validates what you're saying by
suggesting that the player of jazz is a bit more free to play with a tone
that he or she finds most pleasing, not constricted to a certain "sound"
(thus opening the possibility more of the "illegitimacy" that you associate
with bebop, for example). That's not a denigration of the importance of
good tone in whatever style of music you play, just an acknowledgement that
"good tone" for jazz can vary in ways that aren't as common in the classical
world, and tends to be a lot more personal in nature, rather than driven by
a particular "school".

Annie prefers her tone with more classical roots, but with a bit of jazz
styling, if you will, by adding a judicious amount of vibrato and bending.
She isn't in any way suggesting that her particular preference is the only
correct one, or that the classical tone she prefers is the only true
interpretation. In fact, she says the following:

"...I have always said, play on the mouthpiece that produces the type of
tone that you like. If you can bend notes the way you like, it doesn't
matter what kind of mouthpiece you play on.
I used to like the Vandoren 5 RV Lyre mouthpiece. Now I like the
Clark Fobes San Francisco and the Vandoren M-30. Playing jazz has a more
to do with playing the melody line as though you were a singer than it
does with selecting a "jazz" mouthpiece. Maybe even playing that melody
several different ways and styles."

Again, it looks to me as if Annie's take is that some golly-gee whiz-bang
"jazz" mouthpiece isn't necessarily going to give you what you want, it's
more important that you pick a setup that does what you want *when YOU play
it*. She wasn't saying a thing about tone. She was pointing out the ability
to really play in the style will have more effect than picking a mouthpiece
purely because it's supposed to be good for jazz for some top jazz player
without seeing if it works *for you*.

Trish

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Stuart [mailto:estuart@-----.net]
Subject: RE: [kl] Sax, jazz/blues....tone?

After reading this thread, what I see is an understated distain for music
not classical. Its amazing to read so many people on this list expound on
the importance of their tone as they play classical and then read that tone
is not a big issue when playing jazz. When I read interviews of *real* and
*successful* jazz musicans they are continually talking about what they went
through to develop their own distinctive tone.

[snip]

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org