Author: John Kelly
Date: 2002-03-22 03:57
In earlier posts I have put my two bob's worth in for the type of clarinet used for jazz so here's , more or less, a re-hash of info from the recent past .
I am a New Orleans [as opposed to the dixieland/trad] style player and the bands I play with expect me to cut through the brass and 3 or 4 rhythm players without the use of amplification and I have no real problem in doing this at all. In the situation where there is exessive use of carpet or drapes, light amplification [ie PA mic] is OK, though not always essential.
It really depends on how much power you can muster from within and the equipment you use. By equipment I REALLY mean what strength of reed and the type of m/p you choose. I used to use a ROC 6* but it broke so I hunted around and found the Vandoren 5JB to be a good replacement for the now unavailable ROC. To this I add a Rico reed of ~ #4 strength. If you are used to 2-2+1/2 then this is quite a leap, so go in stages through strengths and build up your chops. An hour every night for a month and you will pretty well be ready.
I play a Buffet - Albert system horn too, a really old job, which I am told is a small bore, but I wouldn't know the difference actually, it has a wonderful action and a marvelous tone, so I'm not complaining.As far as tone is concerned, I would advise keeping away from amps as much as possible. So much of it depends HOW you play, not necessarily how loud, and an amplifier will not encourage you to build up your chops and develop a good broad tone and increase your volume. I played around with a friend's very modern and very expensive Yamaha Boehm system recently and whilst I couldn't get around it very well, I would have to say that my tone and volume was much the same as I get out of the Buffet, so I contend that "It ain't what you got, it's the way that you use it"- and I hope I may be forgiven for quoting an old cliche!
Listen to genuine New Orleans players also, such as: Johnny Dodds, George Lewis, Albert Nicholas, Omer Simeon and etc....there are many more....mainly black players actually....out of N.O.who all played accoustically in brass marching bands and in combos in clubs. All of the above [these are my favourites] have wonderful tones, powerful projection and vibrato and cannot, under any circumstances, be bypassed if you are considering playing jazz.
Do you want to hear some of this music for free? Go to the Red Hot Jazz Archive on the www for access to these players and there are literally hundreds of free downloads - not to be missed. There's a fair amount of corn too, but lots of terrific music nonetheless, great for browsing.
Good luck.
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