 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-06-13 00:05
I've just recently was asked to join a Dixieland Jazz band as their clarinetist. The very experienced sax player suggested I get a jazz mpc so I can have more flexibility with what I can do to the notes. Currently, I use a mpc that has a 1.05 tip opening, a medium long facing, and I use a #3 reed. I don't want to make the mistake of going too radical with the jazz mpc and regretting it...or not going radical enough and regretting that decision as well. What suggestions would you have for me regarding brand, tip opening, and facing length? Also, would I use the same reeds, go softer, stronger? What works for those of you who also spend time playing a jazz mpc? Thanks for all your help...it's always served me well:)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2014-06-13 00:29
perhaps this would be a good start:
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/2012/12/mouthpiece-review-selmer-c85-105.html
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/2013/01/mouthpiece-review-vandoren-b40-c-1991.html
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-06-13 03:03
Cyclopathic...I have the exact Selmer mpc that the jazz clarinet reviews in your link. Hmmm...maybe it's ME who needs to change and not my mpc! Guess I'd better start asking around to find out if there are jazz clarinetists in my town who give lessons. Thanks for posting the two links.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2014-06-13 03:16
Hi Roxann--
I'm the author of that blog--hope you got something good out of the posts.
Tomorrow evening I'll be playing a jazz gig on an old Fritz Wurlitzer Reform Boehm with what most folks would consider quite a close, German mouthpiece (not what anyone would call a typical 'jazz' setup). Earlier this week I was playing a Benny Goodman mouthpiece with a 105 opening.
Many jazz clarinetists were known to have used very close mouthpieces (Leon Roppolo and Edmond Hall, from what I have heard, both used close mouthpieces and hard reeds). So I wouldn't worry about the opening of the tip--only whether or not you're getting what you need from it.
Good luck!
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-06-13 03:17
The short answer is that jazz can be played on ANY mouthpiece quite nicely. You don't have to completely change your set up and style of 'playing' to change the style you play.
However, yes, if you want to explore more if the idiom a larger tip opening and much softer reeds is the way to try that.
But honestly of my peers who do both classical and dixie, the ones who do the very best dixie, don't change equipment at all. You can vibrato and get that raspy sound and everything on your 1.05.
..........Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony F
Date: 2014-06-13 05:08
The best mouthpiece for jazz is the one that you're most comfortable with, and that is probably the one you use every day. Most clarinettists that I know who who play jazz (as opposed to jazz clarinettists), just use their everyday mouthpieces and adjust their techniques to suit the music.
Tony F.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-06-13 05:18
And I surely wouldn't make any mouthpiece or reed changes before a new gig!
Tony F nailed it.
bruno>
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ursa
Date: 2014-06-13 07:03
What they said. I now play Jazz on a Brilhart Ebolin mouthpiece with a #1 facing (0.93mm tip opening). I get a great jazzy sound, and nearly the same dependable response as with a classical mouthpiece. When the pressure's on during a performance, a dependable, comfortable setup allows one focus on the music, instead of controlling a wide-open mouthpiece and soft reed. For me, that's much more liberating than the "freedom" of a "jazz setup".
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Roxann
Date: 2014-06-13 17:37
Great advice from everybody. Thank you! I'm not going to buy a new mpc. I may dig out some of my softer reeds and give them a try. I'll start searching the internet for tips on playing in the jazz style and go from there! Thank you to all.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2014-06-13 18:47
Check amazon there are some good clarinet jazz method books.
http://www.amazon.com/Benny-Goodmans-Clarinet-Method-Goodman/dp/0793549426/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1402669815&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0769229727/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0769229689/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
here is another discussion on jazz MPC http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?202118-mouthpiece-for-jazz-recommendation-please
Keep in mind that they all sax players so they want/need open MPC.
5JB was designed by Kenny Davern, and it worked great for him (listen to him on Pandora station). But it would be too much of the jump to go from 105 to something as open!
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=220922&t=220922
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2014-06-13 19:01
Briefly, "jazz" is a style, not a piece of equipment. Like fishing, it's not the length of your pole, but how you wiggle your bait. Listen to jazzers and try to emulate their style with a mouthpiece that you like, not one for the sole purpose of "playing jazz". True for clarinets as well as saxophones.
Side comment about Benny Goodman--he once said that for jazz gigs, he used a softer reed than for classical music. But used the same mouthpiece for both. Probably, the "Benny Goodman" mouthpiece you mentioned is not what he actually played, but simply one that he received a lot of money for the use of his name.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarnibass
Date: 2014-06-13 19:20
I wouldn't change the mouthpiece before you know more about what you want to do. It sounds like this is something new to you.
If the sax player mentions it again... tell him you are using a more open mouthpiece now...
Post Edited (2014-06-13 22:09)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Klarnetisto
Date: 2014-06-13 20:15
I don't play jazz, but Greek, Turkish and Klezmer need essentially the same kind of "loose" timbre, pitch bending and vibrato, so I got a jazz mouthpiece to play with my international folkdance band years ago. I went to the local woodwind store and tried many mouthpieces. I found that their one jazz mouthpiece, Vandoren 5JB, indeed really provided the needed flexibility compared to the classical mouthpieces, which seemed more as if one had to force them to get those effects ("well, I can do that, but I'm really not that kind of a mouthpiece, hmmpf!"). I'm told that a Clark Fobes jazz mouthpiece is much better. I know some of Fobes classical mouthpieces and find them to be superb, so I hope to get his jazz model soon.
These tend to work best with soft reeds. For Greek etc. as soft as 1 or 1.5 is the norm.
Klarnetisto
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: ned
Date: 2014-06-15 05:37
The 5JB has been mentioned in this thread. I bought one quite a while ago and it served me well for 10 years or so in addition to the use of a Rico Royal reed (3+1/2), then, for whatever reason, it seemed to not want to perform any more so I switched.
Now I use a Meyer (looks like a ''9L'' on the worn face) together with a Rico #3 reed.
A wide lay MP and a hard reed is what gives me that so-called ''New Orleans'' tone, which I'm after.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: afmdoclaw
Date: 2014-06-17 01:37
Eddie Daniels plays "OK JAZZ" IMHO
He now uses small tips (?teeth/gum problems-- watch him speak and smile)
Jazz is about concept --- listen and emulate-- only way to learn it
Remember the ultimate truism for the great AMERICAN art form --- JAZZ
IT DON'T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN'T GOT THAT SWING
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
