Klarinet Archive - Posting 000089.txt from 2004/10

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Movie about fictional clarinet player
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 09:48:30 -0400

You are right about the actor needing to look convincing when
playing the clarinet. One of the most awful things about "The
Benny Goodman Story" (besides the stupidity of the movie itself)
was the clarinet playing of the actor emulating Goodman, whose
name escapes me. He had no idea what to do. The only thing he
did correctly was to have the left hand on top and the right hand
below it. Same thing is true with trumpet players. The actor
will often press the third valve under the impression that this
is a fingering for something.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Lelia Loban [mailto:lelialoban@-----.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 6:33 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Movie about fictional clarinet player

Today's Balticon Newsletter (an irregularly published e-mail
letter to
people who attend Balticon, an annual science fiction convention
in
Baltimore, Maryland) includes this item:

>Tananarive Due's fantasy novel "My Soul to Keep"
>has been Greenlighted by Fox Searchlight Pictures
>with full funding. Blair Underwood will be the Producer
>and star. Rick Samuyiwa will be the director and he is
>preparing a full draft of the script at this time. Principle
>photography has not been scheduled. Tananarive Due
>will be one of the Guests of Honor at Balticon 39 in 2005.

Since the movie is still in pre-production, the mathematical odds
are
strongly against it getting produced, let alone released; but the
item
reminds me that the hero of "My Soul to Keep" is a vampire who's
a
professional jazz clarinet player. When this novel was first
published, I
gave it a highly favorable review in a small press journal: "No
Good
Monsters," Necrofile #28, Spring 1998, p. 18 -- although I did
have to
point out that some of the technical information about clarinets
is bogus,
alas. (The title of the review is a double entendre, related to
a
quotation from the book.) Does anybody know whether Blair
Underwood plays
the clarinet? A real pro probably would play on the soundtrack,
but it
makes a big difference in a movie about a musician if the star
plays well
enough to look convincing instead of ridiculous.

Lelia Loban
Regime change begins at home: Re-defeat Bush in 2004!

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