 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2017-10-24 06:33
http://www.flmemories.com/C/JazzAllStars.wmv
I ran across this in the middle of a much longer "Potpourri of 26 TV Intros of the 50s", and thought it was pretty neat. Sorry if it's already posted here somewhere.
Who's playing clarinet? What's the tune? Perhaps I should already know both.
Even though I like it a lot, I would prefer a bit more coordination rather than each player seeming to be doing his own thing. Or maybe I wouldn't.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2017-10-24 07:25
"Ain't nothin' but the blues."
I've played in a lot of these type groups and the clarinet player just kind of "noodles around" in the upper register. The trumpet player usually has the lead. Trombone/tenor on a counter melody and/or harmony part.
HRL
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2017-10-24 18:55
I look at this group and think, some or all of them a few years earlier were fighting naval battles, carrying rifles, landing on beaches, watching friends die. No wonder that generation was happy just to live any kind of low stress life. We have come a long way, some changes are very good, others not so much.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
Post Edited (2017-10-24 19:11)
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-10-25 21:47
The whole show is worth watching. These players were stalwarts of traditional jazz throughout the 40s and 50s. Mattlock and trumpeter Clyde Hurley made many records on the West Coast with the same rhythm section. Mattlock, of course, was a veteran of the Bob Crosby Bob Cats (like Eddie Miller tenor sax in this video), often appearing on the flip side of their 78 rpm recordings with Irving Fazola on the other side. Gunther Schuller preferred Mattlock to Fazola. He said Faz's playing was often mired in cliches and designed mainly just to display his fat but "cloying" tone. Mattlock, on the other hand, was inventively lyrical and made musical phrases that complemented the shape of the tune. Mattock's performance here of "A Closer Walk with Thee" supports that opinion. Absolutely lovely tone, and a meandering melodic path with suspense and very personal feeling. His use of vibrato is certainly his own too. On the recent long jazz thread we already discussed Matlock's version of the Alphonse Picou High Society chorus in the Paul Weston "Crescent City Suite"--a melodic summation of the form and meaning of the thing. His "Bayou St. John" from the same album is one of a kind--a dark, brooding, but non-blues exploration of the chalumeau register completely unlike anything Bigard and Giuffre did down there.
To clarinet geeks, Matlock's ligature might be of some interest. It looks like an inverse version of the Rovner Platinum or a little like a metal Ishimori. Both of those were yet to be born in 1956. Does anybody know what it really was?
Some kind of Otto Link or Brillhart??
Matty Matlock and Johnny Mince are two traditional jazz (to swing) clarinetists who deserve a lot more listening than they usually get. They both knew how to say musically what they had say and to graciously stop when they had said it. They seldom or never grandstanded or sank into gross commercialism, and they still gave you your money's worth.
Here's Mattlock on "Remember My Forgotten Man": https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Matty+Mattlock--Remember+My+Forgotten+Man.
Post Edited (2017-10-25 22:44)
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2017-10-25 22:15
I'm afraid that I don't share Gunther Schuller's conclusion, though I can definitely understand where he's coming from in his analysis, and would totally understand passionate/knowledgeable folks coming to the exact same conclusion. I personally prefer listening to Fazola to Matlock though. Primarily due to what I perceive as a thinness in tone in Matlock's sound - not so much in the above shared sample, but other recordings I have. Matlock's ideas were great though, and he was a master at arranging for the Crosby groups. I highly respect Matlock. I just experience a lot more smiles listening to Fazola. I think it is the result of my wife. She has always stated that she prefers melodic solos to inventive ones - and I've come slowly to that bias myself. Though - certain performers obliterate those lines for me. ;^)>>>
I feel the same way about Eddie Miller vs other tenor players though - so I accept that I'm in a minority of sorts.
Seabreeze, I know that Mattlock was primarily out west during the late 50s/60s, but did you ever have a chance to hear him in person? That would have been an exciting experience. I'd fall out of my chair to hear any of those original "Crosby" musicians live. (Or Pollack musicians.)
Fuzzy
PS: Thanks for the thread, Stan!
[EDIT: spelling corrections]
Post Edited (2017-10-25 22:15)
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-10-25 23:12
Right after the Paul Weston Crescent City Suite came out, and maybe as part of the promotion for that LP, the soloists on the record--Dick Cathcart, Matty Matlock, Eddie Miller, and Ted Nash--made the pops concert hall circuit to perform the piece with orchestras throughout the U.S. Unfortunately, the night they performed with the New Orleans Summer Pops, I couldn't make it. I never heard Matlock in person. I did catch Johnny Mince when he was with the Authur Godfrey show. I heard Eddie Miller live often when he was living and playing in New Orleans with Pete Fountain.
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2017-10-25 23:48
Seabreeze,
I know you said that you're more "Berkley" than New Orleans in style preference now, but did you ever perform in the New Orleans jazz scene?
When I was growing up - we didn't travel much, so my live jazz exposure was limited to Chuck Mangione, Buddy Rich (several times), and perhaps Doc Severinsen - the folks who'd tour within three or four hours of us.
Honestly, I thought they were good because I was told they were good - not due to any understanding of my own. I wish I could re-experience those performances now.
My high school instructor did order in some "dixie charts" though - and we put a little band together with kids of various resolve. It was always popular with the crowds. We'd play at ground-breaking ceremonies, public events, and school concerts/competitions. It was fun, but it was just reading. Copenhagen, Struttin' with Some Barbecue, etc. (I believe they were all part of the Hal Leonard Dixieland Combo Pak series, arr by Paul Severson). Still, it was nice to have a director who encouraged the endeavor. The only supportive voice I found along all of my paths in academia.
Fuzzy
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-10-26 00:29
I'm from Berkley (California not Berklee in Boston) when it comes to eating. I'm a low-fat whole-foods vegan. No cajun sausage or crawfish pie for me! All plant foods--lentils, greens, beans, mushrooms, whole fruit, vegetables. No meat, fish, eggs, or poultry. No alcohol or drugs either. In high school I played an arrangement of "Topsy, Part II" from the Cozy Cole hit and won some kind of prize. I played enough jazz and marched in enough Mardi Gras parades to know that I'm not a jazz player, certainly not a New Orleans jazz player. Orange Kellin told me one time that I was a "classical player with soul." I can live with that. I was never playing in the New Orleans jazz scene but always listening.
Post Edited (2017-10-26 00:55)
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2017-10-26 02:09
Thanks, seabreeze. I feel like I've gotten to know you well enough that I figured you weren't the type to "toot your own horn" so to speak, so I figured I'd better just come right out and ask...I hope it wasn't rude of me to do so. I appreciate your knowledge base so much, and I wanted to be sure I wasn't overlooking any other experience/info you might have pertaining to New Orleans Jazz. I appreciate your reply.
It is hard to believe, but Orange is a guy whom I didn't even know about until YouTube introduced me to him a number of years ago. He came along during a time period of New Orleans music where I somehow overlooked him. The first video I remember seeing of him was in NYC, in some apartment with Eddy Davis and a few others. I think it was from this setting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqRKjPSKWbM (Snake Rag)
The NYC trad scene was still just getting underway at the time of this video (In 2008, I had spent three months in NYC doing some unrelated work, and had been pursuing the music - largely unsuccessfully - with the noted exception of the Loose Marbles in Washington Square Park and Vince Giordano's Nighthawks at Sophie's). So, when I returned home, and later found this clip - it was a little disheartening that I had missed such players while I was there!
Of course, I then looked up Orange and learned a lot about him. I have a couple of his newer recordings with Steve Pistorius in addition to some of his older recordings...but I've yet to hear him live.
How cool that Orange described you in that way! Memories like those must surely make one smile from time to time! ;^)>>>
Warmest Regards,
Fuzzy
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