The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2018-01-13 08:06
John,
I used to think that Liester used very hard reeds till I heard him more than once tell an audience that he played on a Wurlitzer Oehler clarinet and German mouthpiece with a facing that would accept French Vandoren reeds! He said he had been friends with Bernard Vandoren for years and used V12 and Rue Lepic reeds in soft strengths like #2.5 or 3!! Many decades before, when he first started out, he used to use hard reeds but he had some health issues that made him look for less stressful methods of tone production.
Leister never tried to achieve "excitement" in his performances. Nor was he interested in big dynamic contrasts any of the times I heard him in person. He was looking for purity, solidity, and stability, and I think that's what he usually got. He said he wanted to tell a story in his playing--the story he believed the particular piece represented. I think he would have found the version of the Sutermeister that you prefer a bit rushed and jerky in phrasing, and tonally rather hard-edged and brittle. He really didn't like a lot of "zing" in the sound and preferred more of a chocolate tone flavor. But those differences in conception are what makes music and clarinet playing interesting!
For a while in the 1980s, Leister was quite the rage among American clarinetists and clarinet teachers. David Pino, I recall, singled him out as the one player you must listen to if you want to get things right. Michele Zufkovsky changed to Oehler system (permanently for he entire career as it turned out) after studying with him, and players began looking for ways to add more "cover" and "darkness" to the sound. Some of Dan Johnston's mouthpieces catered to this desire, and I'm pretty sure that Leister's playing had something to do with young Sabine Meyer's characteristic "soft-edged" new German sound.
Post Edited (2018-01-14 05:51)
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JazzBrewer |
2018-01-10 18:01 |
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Steven Ocone |
2018-01-10 18:15 |
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JazzBrewer |
2018-01-10 18:56 |
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ClarinetRobt |
2018-01-10 20:26 |
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JazzBrewer |
2018-01-10 21:51 |
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Michael E. Shultz |
2018-01-11 02:04 |
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JazzBrewer |
2018-01-11 03:09 |
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RefacerMan |
2018-01-11 04:59 |
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JazzBrewer |
2018-01-11 08:34 |
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TomS |
2018-01-11 21:08 |
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seabreeze |
2018-01-11 23:42 |
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JazzBrewer |
2018-01-12 07:59 |
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John Peacock |
2018-01-13 03:22 |
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seabreeze |
2018-01-13 08:06 |
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dorjepismo |
2018-01-13 22:53 |
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seabreeze |
2018-01-14 01:56 |
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dorjepismo |
2018-01-14 05:23 |
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John Peacock |
2018-01-14 21:05 |
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