Klarinet Archive - Posting 000385.txt from 2004/07

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Amplification of music (somewhat OT)
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 23:51:33 -0400

Karl Krelove asked:

<<<Why do arrangers write in ways that won't work acoustically?
Incompetence, carelessness, or a wish to create an electronic sound from the
start?. . . Given that it was a jazz-based group and not a rock-based one,
what is actually different in the arrangements. I ask this because I've only
heard the old ("old school") bands on recordings and I've never actually
heard a modern pro band playing without lots of electronics.>>>

Short answer - electric basses, trumpets, and records.

Long answer - developments in technology allowed large jazz band music to
evolve. One by-product was volume.

In the '50s, Woody Herman had a bass player named Chuck Andrus that they
called "Charlie The Arm" based on his ability (or attempt) to balance
Woody's brass section with an unamplified upright bass. With the direction
that the large jazz bands were going, electric basses became a necessity.

The direction was loud, and a big reason was trumpets. About the time of
the Second World War, trumpets got a whole lot louder. The Conn 22B ("New
York Symphony") was a "standard" model before the war, much like our Buffet
R-13; it had a bore of .438 and a nice compact sound. Right about 1940,
symphony trumpet players started using the today-standard "medium-large"
bore of ~.458; the standard orchestral axe now is a Bach C with a bore of
462, used with a mouthpiece about the size and shape of a toilet bowl.
Blame George Mager, Carl Gustat, Harry Glantz and Bud Herseth; the row
behind us is louder than it used to be. I think Gus Mahler would approve.

On the jazz side, things got a whole lot louder too. Louis Armstrong played
about 50% louder than other trumpet players of his era - his tone and
stamina were legendary. In 1948, Charlie Barnet had a trumpet section
composed of Rolf Ericson, John Howell, Doc Severinsen, Ray Wetzel and a
(very) young Maynard Fergusson. These guys played the book up an octave and
brought the house down. Dizzy had chops both high and bizarre. When
Maynard moved to the Kenton Band, Ellington hired Cat Anderson, Woody hired
Bill Chase, and the arms race was on. What's the motto,
"higher/faster/louder"?

Today, the trumpet in a big band is a four-octave instrument, and that top
octave is LOUD. Some folks don't like that, and think that if you have to
mike the saxophones the band is too loud. Others like Big Brass and don't
mind a little sound reinforcement - cutting off the trumpet at high C is
like taking twenty keys off the piano.

Today, if you don't have to mike the saxes, your trumpets are weak.

In addition, people have become much more discerning over what they listen
to in live performance. The reason for this is pretty simple - the bulk of
music that people listen to now is recorded. On any good recording, no one
misses a note and the balance is almost always perfect. The use of sound
reinforcement is the attempt to replicate the perfect balance of the
recording studio for every member of the audience.

Sometimes the sound guy is an idiot who diddles the knobs all the way up.
Other times they're really good, and you know that they're there only
because the sound is fabulous for every seat in the house. There are
variations in talent in any musical endeavor.

Purely my opinion, of course.

kjf

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