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Re: African American and Hispanic Clarinetist

Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2017-08-14 05:13

Julian Bliss is from England. He plays wonderful jazz at some of his concerts. No he's not black nor Hispanic, but does it matter?

My email is savagesax because of the love of rock and jazz for the saxophones. I couldn't live without playing these concerts. A hidden secret. I was in the Air Force Band and was accepted as a clarinetist, but once they heard me play the saxes I hardly ever played the clarinet. I was mainly touring in the jazz and rock bands. I sure had a lot more fun too compared to playing concert band music. I started the clarinet in the 4th grade and the alto sax in the 5th grade so I play both about the same. Jazz and rock is surely in my blood. But I played all of the saxes except the bari.

Julian feels right at home playing jazz. He's really great at it. So lets see more players jump over and explore pieces like the Copland Concerto and not play it so fast, but play it with a really fun jazz feel. After all it was written for Benny Goodman, a jazz player. Copland wanted that New York City 1940's Big Band feel. We don't have to triple tongue this piece. We only have to play it with a jazz feel! Aaron made it easy actually! It's really a blast to play this piece on the slower side with a great jazz feel. I must admit the ending is a workout. There are of course other pieces as well to have fun with and cross that classical to somewhat jazz bridge. How do I know this about the Copland Concerto? I talked with Aaron in 1976 about it. He wrote it for Benny because they both lived and grew up in New York City. Aaron loved that Big Band sound. pieces like In the Mood, Little Brown Jug, these pieces moved him. He made the point of people slowing down and let the music talk to the audience.

As usual I got sidetracked here, but this piece is dear to my heart. Stop triple tonguing it! Feel what Aaron wanted. Also play more jazz if you like it! It's so much fun.

Great topic.

Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces

Yamaha Artist 2015

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