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Re: Stars of Jazz clip 1950's

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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