The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2005-05-19 07:55
Has anyone ever heard of Louis Sclavis' Le chien aboie et la clarinette basse? It is sooo awesome. I don't know anything about him or anything, I just randomly downloaded an MP3 of this clarinet choir with bass clarinet solo. It's insane. I can't even describe it.
Woo
--CG
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Author: buedsma
Date: 2005-05-19 10:54
look on amazon for a few of his records
Very well-known clarinettist in france (also denis colin )
by the way , where did you find the mp3
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Author: DougR
Date: 2005-05-19 13:36
I've been wondering about this guy too, for a while...multi-reed player, seems to specialize in bass clarinet...but I've never heard his actual music. Here's a link to a fan-generated website about him, lots of interesting pictures. One of the pix has him playing what seems to be a low-Eb bass with an extended-range bell, although it's hard to tell for sure. The website is in French or Japanese, take your pick, so all I know about him from the site is what my pidgin French tells me, which is not much. It's odd that he's not better known over here; I got a French-language brochure on the new Selmer basses that lists him as an endorser, with some comments from him, but I'm not aware of much about him that's in English. The site:
http://sclavisfansite.jp/sclavis/index_fr.html
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Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2005-05-19 16:55
What I enjoy about his bass clarinet and clarinet playing is his even tone across the range: no shrillness up high, and not overly thick at bottom. It has got a beautiful liveliness all around.
I haven't heard him on saxophones (soprano and alto), but a local store carries some of his CDs with these instruments. I am only interested in his clarinet playing so I bought a couple of his CDs without saxophones.
An earlier one is called Trio de Clarinettes, in which he played clarinet and bass clarinet with Jacques Di Donato (cl, bcl) and Armand Angster (cl, bcl, cbcl). And a recent one called Double Trio, where these guys join a group of string trio (violin, cell, string bass).
I highly recommend them. Of the two, Double Trio is my favourite for its great ensemble playing and musicality, but get the Trio de Clarinettes for the pure clarinet sound (and the liner notes contain several photos of them playing-Angster with his paperclip…). I believe Claribass wrote a great review of these CDs. Are you there Claribass?
Willy
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Author: Shorthand
Date: 2005-05-19 19:03
Here's a auto-translated link:
http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsclavisfansite%2Ejp%2Findex%2Ehtml
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Author: WhitneyP
Date: 2005-05-20 02:01
CG,
lol...o0o0o I'm telling.
Have you heard Acker Bilk? I downloaded a few of his songs and he is really good.
Whitney
Post Edited (2005-05-20 02:05)
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Author: Markus Wenninger
Date: 2005-05-20 18:00
Yes, Donald is right absolutely-A.Bilk hurts verrry much. To read him mentioned in this post - oh my.. Louis Sclavis is a godlike performer with an impeccable technique, in every aspect, range, flexibility, dynamics, smotthness, extended techniques. The mentioned "trio de clarinettes" is a hell of a recording, I mean, Angster plays there as well, it´s THE supergroup as far as clarinettes go, and, contrary to most of this category, it works. (he´s not only a marvellous clarinettist but also a superb ss-performer, - he has such an effective and relentless way of propelling folk-forms, posttonal acchievements, all-out-free-form, post-post-jazz and classical avantgarde to truly mindstaggering heights.
...yes, I worship the plateaus he created.
Markus
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Author: WhitneyP
Date: 2005-05-20 21:31
ouch...ok, you guys are crule! I'm sorry.
Post Edited (2005-05-20 21:32)
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Author: Markus Wenninger
Date: 2005-05-21 07:00
I apologize for any hurt I´ve caused by my remarks, Whitney, honestly, that wasn´t my intention.
Markus
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Author: WhitneyP
Date: 2005-05-21 13:36
Oh no, no, no, you didn't hurt my feelings at all I was just joking. Everyone is allowed to have his or her own opinion.
Whitney
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2005-05-21 16:26
Very nice thread!
I have about ten CDs with Louis Scalvis and I'm sure I'll have more. The Double Trio mentioned is one of my favorite CDs, and the same for the Trio De Clarinettes CD.
Just to correct something, Sclavis plays soprano sax and baritone too in his new CD, but not alto.
Anyway, he is (together with Eric Dolphy) my favorite bass clarinetist (although in the Trio De Clarinettes CD it's Angster imho who is really unbelivable, especially in the track where he plays and sings a 10th above).
Contragirl, I have the CD you downloaded it from, and you probably know this by now, but in case you don't, it's Sclavis playing all the clarinet parts by overdubbing.
BassetHorn, it's clarnibass, not claribass but doesn't matter
You are right about his sound, but what I like most about his music is the very interesting rhythms and use of folk music. The Trio CD is in the car, and I know the contrabass can look like a paperclip, but I'm pretty sure it's a Selmer (in the Double Trio CD it says "Trio De Clarinettes play Selmer instruments").
In a few days I'll get my Sclavis CDs from the car and list all of them. They are all great and very recommended.
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Author: Markus Wenninger
Date: 2005-05-23 06:04
With all the conservativism stalking this board I´d never have guessed that a perforner like Sclavis gets such an appreciation around here - I´m impressed. So let me venture another player, Harry Spaarnay, who might be of genuine interest to You bcl-players out there, a very friendly and helpful guy with a stunning technique. Do You know him, per chance?
Markus
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2005-05-23 08:16
I met Spaarnay a few years ago, he came to campus to play for us. I can admit that I was impressed by the things he could do, but I don't dig new music overall. So I was kinda squirming in my chair during his masterclass. Otherwise, I was surprised how he could control all those weird noises. lol.
--CG
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Author: Markus Wenninger
Date: 2005-05-23 15:52
yes, regrettably to many New Music appears as "weird noises"...I for my part squirmed in my chair when I listened to him for the first time as well, but out of excitement and drooling admiration. (time for a limmerick here, if I could do one) - I don´t know how anyone can resume tonal music after having listened to e.g. such a giant as Spaarnay, I literally fail to comprehend...when I was younger, I thought music for my instruments was coming to its peak in bebop, yes, and then I was hit over the head by "Duets,Dythrambisch", W.Fuchs, H.Koch,E.Parker,L.Sclavis, and A.Braxton´s "19 Solo Compositions, 1988, and everything changed fundamentally. It´s a klichee, true, but in my case it was followed to the letter. How come You didn´t want to do again, onYour instrument, those "weird noises" Spaarnay managed, all those infinite possibilities, the instrument unleashed and demanding all the more control, this freedom one has, it just never ever ends - it´s like Pollock said about his paintings, "No limits,just edges", just points where one stops for a breather...
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