 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: KristinVanHorn
Date: 2008-06-19 17:57
S. Friedland wrote:
> Richard Hawkins just sent me this clip. She is a truly gifted
> player.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4bKqL52C_U
>
>
> Post Edited (2008-06-19 17:32)
Wow! she's great. So as a professional, how do you think she compares to Pete Fountain? I'd say equal or pretty darn close but I'm no pro.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2008-06-19 18:06
You are SOOO rite, Sherman, Is she still blowing the socks off that E11 ? Several years ago, before Katrina, I heard several hours of her and the band playing all sorts of GREAT jazz in Jackson Sq. Talked horns with her, bought a CD, had a swell time. I believe I started a thread here, right afterwards, which might be of interest to you Dixie-jazz lovers. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2008-06-19 18:59
Holy cats! She's really good! I might never be able to play another note again after hearing that!
And that just goes to show us what a no-name lig and a bandaged finger can do! It's all in the head, man!
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Author: Ralph G
Date: 2008-06-19 22:00
Wow...
No point in playing now; it's been done to perfection.
Off to burn my clarinets...
________________
Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.
- Pope John Paul II
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Author: crnichols
Date: 2008-06-20 03:00
And she sings very well also! This is excellent.
Christopher Nichols, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Clarinet
University of Delaware
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Author: weberfan
Date: 2008-06-20 03:35
Mr. Friedland...All I can say is "Thanks!"
Don Berger's post mentioned a CD. I'd love to get one, if it is available without having to travel to New Orleans.
On the other hand, it might just be worth the trip to stand on that street corner with her.
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Author: Garret
Date: 2008-06-20 09:31
Thanks so much for sharing the youtube link! New Orleans is so rich with great musicians. Doreen is definitely one of them. I've only been there once and it was total music heaven--street corner musicians (and many others) that would blow you away. I've bookmarked her website and plan on getting some of her CD's.
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2008-06-20 12:59
Not only a great player but wonderful singer as well....someone should get her to a Clarinet Festival soon. This is a new fresh face that would inject new blood and vitality instead of the "same old"....
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2008-06-20 13:25
Hi Weberfan - At the time of our N O visit, she/they had 2 C D's , at $10 each, available [I believe] only from their band mmbers [8 or 10] on the Square in front of the church. Her website might have some info, or asking one of the big recordings sellers might help. I chose on the basis of [familiar] tune names, will find mine and mention a few later, have OK Mozart keeping us busy rite naow. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2008-06-20 16:43
"Wellllllll ..."
I think the performance on the youtube video is great but if they're playing in Bb or F, for someone who's comfortable improvising in her style, most of the licks are probably easier to play than they sound (and she's probably played the piece enough that most of her solos are set). On the other hand, I think that the spontaneous growls, wobble and vibrato that she interjects almost unconsciously, could only come with a lot of experience.
I was enough impressed by the performance that I went to her website. There is some interesting reading on the band there but not much in the way of background information on her or her players. What motivated her to pick up the clarinet? What kind of training has she had? When did she first start playing? Such information is not necessary to enjoy her playing but I, at least, would have found it interesting.
She now has around 16 CD's out -- she seems to put out one or two every year -- and there are one or two excerpts from each to listen to, some more than a couple of minutes long. I listened to most, if not all, of them and to be honest, after the youtube video, found them a little disappointing. I think she and her group may be much better live than they are in the studio. To me, the solos on the CD excerpts seemed more constrained. It was as if the soloists were being careful, not willing to take many chances that might result in clams, so the playing was more conventional. I note that the CD's are all self-produced so I wonder if the fact that the band (rather than a record company) was paying for expensive studio time might have affected their willingness to let go. Just my impression.
Regarding comparison to Pete Fountain, I think that would be like comparing apples to oranges. IMO, their styles, at least on recordings, are quite different (and it's been so long since I heard Pete Fountain live that I can't remember how he comes across in a club). Her style and her band's style is trad jazz. I really like those various growls, wobbles and vibrato she injects into her playing. They all seem natural and unaffected and enhance the music and make it sound like some of the old-time players I remember hearing in Preservation Hall. The "arrangements" all sound pretty spontaneous -- sort of like "we'll play a chorus together, then I'll sing a chorus, then I'll take a solo, then we'll have a trumpet solo (the bands on the recordings are often, if not always bigger than what we see on youtube) then I'll sing another chorus and then we'll bring it home." That sort of thing.
To me, Pete Fountain, at least on his recordings, plays a more commercial brand of "Dixieland" (rather than trad jazz). On my recordings the pieces come across as more tightly arranged. His band sounds like it is playing from charts.
Just my impressions. I'd go see her live anytime but I don't think I'll be buying any of the CD's. But do give a listen to some of the excerpts because YMMV.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Alfred
Date: 2008-06-21 05:00
Jesus Christ...
She's phenomenal...
And if that is in fact an E11, i take back everything I've said about that damned thing.
Edit: Okay, I can almost certainly say that that's NOT an E11.
Post Edited (2008-06-21 05:26)
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2008-06-21 06:01
> "but if they're playing in Bb or F, for someone who's
> comfortable improvising in her style, most of the licks
> are probably easier to play than they sound (and
> she's probably played the piece enough that most of
> her solos are set)."
It sounds like (concert) Bb to me (but I don't have perfect pitch so could be wrong). To me the solo sounds very good, and knowing (or not) what key it is in won't change my opinion in any way.
It could be "set" but as long as you only hear one performance it isn't a problem  My guess is that her phrases are usually about the same, or at least use the same ideas, but come and go differently with small changes in them and in the solo itself, in the same way that many (most) traditional jazz players play when they play the same song.
BTW thanks for your help in the other thread.
Nitai
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Author: Chris Hill
Date: 2008-06-21 16:03
I saw her at Jazzfest in Sioux Falls. She not only plays well, she works well in educational settings with young students!
I hope she comes back here again!
Chris Hill
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2008-06-21 16:19
I have to disagree with you here, David. I think that, for most humans, key absolutely does matter. Ask any of your students to play a two-octave major scale up and down in Bb or F at quarter note = 160. Now ask them to do the same thing in C# or F#. Some keys are simply much easier to play in than others on the clarinet (and most other instruments as well). For most people who do a lot of fake book work, it is much easier to improvise by ear (not simply rattle through memorized arpeggios which, IMO, too often passes for "jazz" these days) in a key that lays well than in one of the keys that doesn't. That's also why it's easier to improvise in "harder" keys (particularly sharps) on sax than on clarinet. More keys lay more easily on sax -- probably because of octaves rather than twelfths but also because on sax, the open note is C#. The ability to play licks like hers in B as well as Bb is what sets folks like Ricardo Morales and John Moses apart from most of the rest of us. In Bb, I would characterize someone who played what she did as pretty good. In B, I would say they are awesome.
Best regards,
jnk
Post Edited (2008-06-21 16:21)
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Author: Tara
Date: 2008-06-21 17:00
So Jack, a fantastic performance of K 622 doesn't qualify as awesome to you since it's in such an easy key?
Ha ha ha,
Tara
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2008-06-21 23:18
After hearing Branford Marsalis, and Great group, show what great Jazz is possible on tenor and soprano saxes [at our OK Mozart] in 4 piece combo form, piano, bass, drums, I feel I'm a qualified "listerner" [its beyond my ability] and agree with Jack K's comments on Dixie-jazz playing. Yes the key DOES make [for me] a big diff. , nimble fingering is important. I recall asking Doreen if they played "paying" gigs, and she said YES [special occasions?], when they could. Will have to review their website, I guess, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Carol Dutcher
Date: 2008-06-22 17:32
Thanks so much for posting this You Tube experience - I had not seen her before, and from You Tube I went on to her Website, also very interesting. Although I've been to N.O. four times in the past, I never saw her though I did recognize the tuba player. Some of her riffs remind me alot of Pete Fountain. I loved what she did with Basin Street Blues.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2008-06-23 03:37
I don't think it's any sin to play in keys like Bb and F when you're on a clarinet. After all, the guitar keys are a lot harder on clarinet than they are on sax. But I agree with those who say that we don't have a real basis for evalulating her as a virtuoso, etc. (and do we need to, anyway?) Note how quickly the strange feelings stir up when we start laying out the superlatives. Does this remind anybody of a thread about a 'clarinet prodigy'?
Here are some things--outside of her very fine playing--that I'd like be able to emulate:
1 - She can get the listener's attention
2 - Judging from her website, she has considerable skills of self-promotion
3 - She is apparently articulate and knowledgable enough to get the attention of the State Dept, and be an educational/cultural attraction.
Doreen is the second person we've discussed in the last couple of weeks who is neither Pete Fountain nor Robert Marcellus, but who is highly competent and gives the instrument a very hip image. Even if her playing isn't consistently as good as this video, she really shines as an artist--as opposed to the 'craftsman' paradigm that we tend to be caught up in as a group. (note the 'swing revival' popularity of the Squirrel Nut Zippers as opposed to a number of highly professional competitors)
Too many excellent players quit every year because they've had one orchestra audition too many. If even half of them took a good look at Doreen's approach, or Richard Stoltzman's, I wouldn't be able to BUY a gig. (geez, maybe I oughta keep my mouth shut!)
I just hope that more of our students are inspired by Doreen and others to think outside the box, and put their creativity on the line.
Edit - I'd also like to say that Doreen makes an unusually good example for kids in terms of her physical chops as a player. Most facets of her playing are of a quality that serious students could emulate. Definitely not the kind of tired-old-man approach (and image) that the media feeds us on this music. And the tuba/guitar accompaniment is very basic and doable. Kids--it isn't just for professionals, feel free to try this at home!
Allen Cole
Post Edited (2008-06-23 17:14)
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