 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JerryForsyth
Date: 2013-05-18 10:37
Just got back from NO. Great music trip. First stop was the corner of St. Peter and Royal where Doreen Ketchum starts playing every day at 11 AM. She is fantastic. I found it interesting that in that hot and humid environment she plays a wood horn outside every day and it does not crack. She said it is just a student horn (I think she said a Signet, not sure) but that it "does not know" it is supposed to crack. She plays this with a stock Buffet mouthpiece and bends those notes with a #5 Mitchell Laurie reed. "I want a 5 1/2 but they stopped making them." She also lamented that the reeds are not the same as they were before Rico bought them.
She is a real sweetheart. She noticed my wife and I kept coming back to listen so she gave my wife a CD for Mother's day.
The other highlight was listening to Dr. Michael White at the Snug Harbor. Intimate little room where you are only a dozen feet from the stage if you are in the rear half of the room. He did a Sidney Bechet tribute and it was just excellent with the exception being that he did not play my favorite Bechet number, Petite Fleur. Of note to me was he was playing a VERY expensive-looking cocobola horn that had a gorgeous tone in the clarion and altissimo registers but sounded rather 'fuzzy' in the upper half of the lower register.
New Orleans itself is a bit of a loser. Lots of folks trying to make it off the streets and lots of anger. A second-line parade shooting occurred just 6 blocks from Snug Harbor where a nutcase sprayed the crowd with gunfire. And lots of folks begging for money.
So I am looking for a new city to satisfy my ears next time. But I am not sure where to go to listen to really fine clarinet jazz. Chicago? Memphis? New York? Suggestions are welcome.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2013-05-19 13:46
Wood clarinets do not crack in a warm and humid climate. If it were 38 degrees out and she was playing, then it might crack. Quick very warm to very cold or the other way around would be more prone to cracking and not advised. :-)
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2013-05-19 15:55
The only horn of mine that ever cracked blew open, unexpectedly, on a hot, humid, summer day....in New Orleans.
I'd gigged on the same horn in NOLA nine years earlier, also in very hot humid weather, and had no problems. But that day, ka-BLAM!
It was a Selmer 10S, and about fifteen years old at the time it popped.
Go figure.
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: ned
Date: 2013-05-20 01:59
Jerry Forsyth wrote: ''He did a Sidney Bechet tribute and it was just excellent with the exception being that he did not play my favorite Bechet number, Petite Fleur.''
Does this mean that it was not as excellent as you might have desired? Perhaps ''Petite Fleur'' is not in his tune list for the same reason as ''The Saints'' or "Tiger Rag" are not - possibly?
If N.O. is not your cup of tea, there are numerous jazz festivals in the USA and in Europe during the northern summer.
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Author: Orlando Natty
Date: 2013-05-21 01:39
I wouldn't suggest going to Memphis if you thought New Orleans was a "loser" city. Everything is rundown and I've never been harassed more by homeless people than I was in Memphis.
One guy angrily shouted at me "give me a sandwich". Not buy me a sandwich or give me money for a sandwich. Another man swore out my brother in law because he wouldn't get him a donut. The only things worthwhile are Gus's Chicken and Germantown Commissary BBQ.
I've been to N.O. several times and I can't fathom what more one could want in a city. Great food? Check. Great music (everywhere!). Check. History and culture? Check. I'm not really sure what you're looking for if the Crescent City doesn't do it for you.
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