 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Oliver
Date: 2002-08-08 00:07
Hi,
I have a new student who is interested in learning jazz. Does anyone recommend a fairly simple jazz studies book for clarinet?
Your help is appreciated.
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-08-08 00:18
Take him/her to The Basement (famous Sydney Jazz venue) or any other appropriate venue, sit him or her down with a glass of (whatever) and get them to open their ears and heart ...
Learning Jazz ... hmm, some musical institutions even have departments devoted to the teaching of Jazz - the Sydney Conservatorium (for example) does and also other Australian ones. I'm sure it's not too different in the United States?
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-08-08 02:36
I agree that jazz has to come out of your mind, heart, and guts, but I don't think that necessarily makes it unteachable. If a student wants to learn jazz, it's possible to teach it to him/her. There are a few university-type places in the US that do it, and they seem to have a decent rate of success. My favorite happens to be the Berkelee School of Music, in Boston. A great number of well-known jazz players have studied there, and a lot of them aren't from the US. Alan Broadbent, for example, the magnificent New Zealander who is one of my favorite pianists. Oh, yeah... at least one guy named Marsalis. And the list goes on....
I would suggest one book for a hopefully budding jazz clarinetist: *Mel Bay Presents Modern Jazz Compositions and Studies for the Clarinet by Buddy DeFranco*. Many of the exercises are of the sort that Klose or Baermann would have you do, and they are to be done *straight*. This is evidently under the concept that you can't play jazz Clarinet unless you can play the Clarinet. Refreshing, eh? There are several DeFranco compositions to be played with jazz interpretation for one, two, or three Clarinets, and they range from very simple to quite complex. These have accompaniment sheets, also. It's a 20-year-old spiral-bound book. I found mine on ebay for about five bucks. What a bargain! I wouldn't be without it for many times that.
Regards,
John
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Author: John Kelly - Australia
Date: 2002-08-08 06:37
I certainly believe that one should be able to operate one's instrument in order to play "anything" - so learning technique is essential and one gains this from books and mentorship and practice.
Jazz is quite another thing and I would add to Diz's comment and recommend the student commence a jazz record collection. One only has to read any jazz musicians memoirs [there are hundreds published] and pretty well all of them will say something like "I model my playing on......whomever......" I don't think many [if any at all] would say they learnt it from a book.
Jazz is a unique music in that it relys on improvisation and listening and attempting to copy one's favourites- no jazz musician learned the art on a desert island sitting in front of a book. By this method [copying] the player trains the ear, which is essential and in the course of attempting to copy the original then alters the original so that his/her version of the recorded piece becomes, to a degree, original in itself - generally only slightly, but sometimes greatly.
Perhaps the "jazz" books help a little, but what a jazz musician does, comes from the heart........ hopefully I'm not sounding TOO pompous about all of this.
And as we say in Australia - that's my two bob's worth on the subject.
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Author: Roger the other one
Date: 2002-08-08 11:43
Have a look at the Aebersold books --- Vol.1 for starters.
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Author: Mark S.
Date: 2002-08-08 14:18
How many bobs does it take to screw in a lightbulb? ;-)
Forget books. Start with records. Listen, man, listen... then imitate. Eddie Daniels can make classical music swing (I think the album is "Breakthrough", but I don't have it in front of me). It is all about what you get in your ear and in your soul. Start with some Satchmo, some Miles, a little Coltrane, a dash of Parker, and get the clarinet greats in there (Goodman, DeFranco, Daniels, Dolphy, etc.)
There was another thread about the "fake" books. Great to sit down with the lead sheets and listen. Observe what the jazzers do around the basic framework. Note and phrase choice, articulation, emphasis, ornaments, the golden silence between notes and phrases. Then, play the head charts with the records and try to imitate the artists.
When it comes time for etudes, Lenny Niehaus put out some good stuff, but I don't know if it is still in print. The Mel Bay stuff is good too for building fundamentals. The Aebersold sets are useful as well, since there is just no substitute for playing "with" someone when it comes to jazz. If the student is technically proficient on the horn, check out the Charlie Parker Omnibook (320 bpm, whoohoo!).
Last and most useful suggestion is to practice modal scales (lots of them) in various styles and with various articulations -- straight, swing, bop, latin, on-beat, off-beat, dead-beat...
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Author: Vic
Date: 2002-08-08 14:26
There are also a couple of slim books by Artie Shaw - Jazz Etudes, and another one with exercises. Both of these work well. But of course, as others have pointed out, listening to the greats, and feeling it, is at least half the trip. By the way, both of the Shaw books have excerpts from his Clarinet Concerto.
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Author: King Winston
Date: 2002-08-09 22:24
Here are four suggestions, all of which come with playalong CDs:
"Dixieland Jam" (15 dixieland songs e.g. Wolverine Blues, Copenhagen, After You've Gone) -- pub. Hal Leonard, $10.95
"Jazz & Blues: Playalong Solos for Clarinet" (Satin Doll, Desafinado, A Night In Tunisia, etc.) --pub. Hal Leonard, $10.95
"Standards & Jazz" from the Solo Plus series: Clarinet with Piano Accompaniment (Ruby, My Dear, Bouncin' With Bud, Ladybird etc.) -- pub. Amsco Publications, $12.95
"Jazz Conception: 21 solo etudes" by Jim Snidero (CD played by Ken Peplowski) -- pub. Advance Music, $18.95
There are several other examples in this mould out there, along with books of scores to Benny Goodman scores etc. Playing along with these CDs is a good way to prepare for playing along with recordings by "name" jazz players. One extraordinary recording to look out for, IMHO, is "Jazz Classics" a 1977 set by Buddy DeFranco with Jim Gillis on guitar, on which DeFranco performs a series of etudes written for jazz clarinet student. Aside from any heuristic value, it's just beautiful to listen to. Don't know if it's out on CD, and the LP is quite rare, but it's a gem.
Cheers,
Win.
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