 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: wjk
Date: 2005-05-22 23:55
I'm curious what led masters such as Goodman, Shaw, and DeFranco to pick the specific horns that they did. I assume that they were not obsessed with bore size, etc...
Thanks---
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Author: SVSorna05
Date: 2005-05-23 02:31
Ha, Shaw I know used a Conn 444N Early on and a pre Buffet R-13 I believe from 1950. The Conn certainly has a bigger bore and a fatter sound than most... Hope this helps
-Dain
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Author: Markael
Date: 2005-05-23 03:06
This is the second time today that I am quoting Artie Shaw from liner notes. This comes from the Self Portrait liner notes, page 75. Shaw is speaking of the years at the very end of his playing career:
"I even used a different clarinet. I stopped playing a Selmer, which I'd always used with all my big bands (a Selmer has more bite, more shout, and you can hear it better over a big band), and started playing a Buffet...I was able to get a more intimate, woody sound that blended with that small group."
Shaw goes on to tell of the tricks he used to make the Buffet work with the Gramercy Five, turning the mic down low and barely breathing into the horn.
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Author: William
Date: 2005-05-23 14:55
I believe that Goodman played Selmers because he probably got them for free. I know that in 1961 when I visited the Selmer facility in Elkhart, IN, to select a new 9* model clarinet, Joe Artley told me that Goodman had been there just days before to pick out a couple of clarinets to use. He also said that Goodman "didn't even bother using a tuner--he just blew them and if he liked how they sounded, he just took them back to New York". I also know for a fact that Vito P--founder and President of the American LeBlanc factory in Kenosha, WI. gave clarinets to clarinetists, specifically (without revealing names) a former member of the Washington based US Navy Band and two local professional acquaintancies of mine. (I wan't so lucky, grrrrr)
I think that "freebies" often dicate what a lot of "known" musicians use for equipement--which we, in turn, go out to buy in our desires to sound like them. Probably best, however. to rely more on good lessons and lots of practice, rather than what "XYZ" are using.
Post Edited (2005-05-24 00:50)
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Author: hans
Date: 2005-05-23 20:37
wjk,
It is likely that the Shaw-Conn connection was created in 1953, because Shaw (from the authorized biography by Simosko - a very interesting book, BTW) "participated in an interesting experiment for the Conn instrument company, which was developing a new model clarinet. His involvement in this project explained his appearing in Conn advertisements later in 1953..." and probably his trying it on the bandstand, where it was no doubt seen by keen observers.
Artie is quoted as saying: "Unfortunately it (the Conn) just didn't work out on the job." The biographer notes also that Shaw had used Selmer clarinets previously and switched to a Buffet when he began performing in public again in the fall of 1953.
As Markael said above (I have read the same thing in the Self Portrait liner notes), Shaw chose the Selmer for its better ability to be heard when playing with the big band. Whether it had a bigger bore than the Buffet he used with the small group is an interesting question to which I have not yet found an answer.
Regards,
Hans
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