 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-06-13 14:07
The thread about whether or not Reginald Kell smoked brought back an old memory.
At the Hungry I in San Francisco, in about 1961 or 1962, I watched a clarinet player in a jazz combo play with a cigarette in the left side of his mouth and the clarinet beak in the right. I never saw him again and I don't know whether he'd forgotten his ashtray that day or he was just showing off. He didn't take puffs while he was playing, as far as I could see, but as soon as he had a rest, he'd reach up with his left hand, take the cigarette between thumb and middle finger and have a quick smoke. (That's why I noticed and remembered that he put the cigarette in the left side of his mouth: He needed his right thumb under the thumbrest so he could hold up the clarinet while he smoked. The rests were too short to put the clarinet down.) He chain-smoked this way throughout the set, occasionally crushing the butt underfoot and lighting a fresh cigarette between numbers.
I can't remember the guy's name or the name of the band, but if I remember right, it was an opener, not the feature. (I'm pretty sure we went there that night to hear Allen Ginsberg read.) It was a quartet of piano, string bass, drums and clarinet. They played standards. The clarinet player was a tall, very thin, dark-skinned black guy with a processed pompadour. Good player. Good band. The pianist may have been Caucasian but I don't remember him well. I had the impression all four of them were sober--which made them unusual at the Hungry I at the time. Anybody have any idea who that was?
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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Author: William
Date: 2008-06-13 14:25
May have been Lester Young, "The Prezz", better know for playing cool sax but also a master jazz clarinetist. He is often protrayed with a cigarett while playing.
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Author: William
Date: 2008-06-13 15:05
"wow, what a treat!"
Ya never know. Many years ago, a touring big band made a stop here in Madison for a one-night gig at a local "dive" then known as Bunky's. Featured, was an unknown teenage trumpet player by the name of Marcelles.......unfortunately, I was at the Pirate Ship listening to the local great clarinetist, Earl "Smitty" Smith.
[Mel Lewis Orchestra, I think]
Post Edited (2008-06-13 15:07)
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Author: allencole
Date: 2008-06-13 17:11
Definitely not Lester Young in 1961---unless the club was at least 6 feet underground. Hair and skin tone also doesn't match.
Probably a local. I 've heard that Frisco is a good jazz town. (I used to faithfully watch Joe Burton on cable)
Allen Cole
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-06-14 16:19
The clarinet player I remember wasn't Lester Young, but thanx for suggesting him. Yes, San Francisco (where we took people who said "Frisco" down to Fisherman's Wharf and steamed them in the crab pots, in case anyone ever wondered why the Mixed Plate tasted a little strange) was indeed a great jazz town in the 1950s and 1960s. Dave Brubeck and his bands (with Desmond on sax before he got too drugged up) were local to the Bay Area and used to play in San Francisco and Sausalito all the time. The Good Old Days in a lot of ways, though I don't miss the thick, smelly haze of cigarette, pipe and cigar smoke that used to hang in the air. By today's standards, those jazz dives would probably qualify as Superfund sites.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: FDF
Date: 2008-06-15 00:45
Lelia,
Nice memories, well written with strong opinions quietly stated. Thanks for sharing.
Forest
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Author: BobD
Date: 2008-06-15 11:45
He might have been Herbert Tareyton .....
Bob Draznik
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2008-06-15 19:20
Desmond "too drugged up"?? I was never aware that he was an addict at any time in his career (unless you count cigarettes).
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