 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: William
Date: 2010-03-08 14:47
My old college band director, Ray Dvorak, often told us (as students) that, "You are your own worst enemy". Meaning, of course, we are prone to self doubt, second guessing and outright paranoia regarding our career choices and personal performances, artistic and acedemic. He always encouraged us to proceed with confidence in whatever we did--often saying (tongue in cheek) "If you make a mistake (playing your music), make it loud so that everyone will think your right". I have often had occassion to follow his advice...........lol
Poor Benny, no matter how great his success in the publics eye, he still thought he had something more to prove. I think that is true, to a lesser extent, with most of us--nothing is ever just right. But then, isn't that the essence which drives the pursuit of artistic possiblitliy and invention?? Or really, what makes us "human" and which separates us from the animals--the insight to wonder, *what if??*
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-03-08 16:02
Well I remember that concert, no not really, I wasn't born yet, close though. I was always a fan of his, he's the reason I, and so many others, began playing the clarinet. For sure Goodman had a big ego, and a very high standard for himself and his players. I think most musicians do, especially soloists. I feel one of the main reasons he wanted to play in Carnegie hall was to give jazz a sense of legitimacy, to bring it up to the standard of classical music in some sense. That's just my gut feeling. There have been several threads posted here about Goodman but one thing I believe we can all agree on was that he was fantastic at what he did best, play swing. His Swing, Swing, Swing recording is still my favorite of all time. His Mozart, well that's another story. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: reddog4063
Date: 2010-03-08 17:45
Thank you for that read!
Ah, the most fun I've ever had was playing along (in some cases TRYING to play along) with a transcribed benny solo while Harry James and Lionel Hampton, etc played in the background. To be the King of Swing.......
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-03-09 11:43
Benny, unlike Artie, had the good sense to marry a woman whose brother was a kingpin in the music business and who, probably, was the one who found and had the Carnegie Hall concert mastered and marketed. Benny played clarinet to make money and took lessons from Kell to legitimize his playing of the classics. And all the while inspired lots of us young kids to play the horn. He also was the first to turn a plain old metal ligature upside down. I wonder if Sagar's coffee-table book has legs.
Bob Draznik
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The Clarinet Pages
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