Klarinet Archive - Posting 000030.txt from 2005/12

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] sax
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 22:09:27 -0500

At 10:25 AM 12/7/2005 -0600, Gary Smith wrote:
>Ted
>
>I'm a doubler myself, and own an alto and a tenor (and enough bari
>parts to play if someone will loan me the actual horn :-) )
>
>I'm not sure I totally agree that tenor is a *better* jobbing horn.
>Rare is the job that calls for a tenor and *not* an alto. You may be
>more *competitive* in a local situation if there is a hot-shot alto in
>town who doesn't want to play tenor, but it could work in reverse,
>too.

Tenor players are in greater demand because there are fewer of them. The
typical big band has two altos and two tenors, but far more school players
play alto than tenor (mostly because of price and size), creating a
relative glut of altos and shortage of tenors. Also, as the clarinet faded
from the jazz scene as a solo instrument, the tenor sax rose to be the
primary woodwind soloist even in small groups. Of course, it is best to
double alto, too, as well as clarinet. (Note: since I moved to Illinois
from Michigan 17 months ago (where I played almost exclusively alto sax --
and clarinet, of course), all of my sax gigs, except maybe one musical pit,
have been on tenor!)

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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