 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: TomD
Date: 2009-09-24 16:16
There is a week long celebration of Benny Goodman who would have been 100 this year going on at Yale. On Tuesday, I saw "The Classical Legacy Of Benny Goodman" at Sprague Hall. David Shifrin was the artistic director for this event which featured different classical works that Benny had recorded over the years. Each work featured a different guest clarinetist, most of whom studied under Shifrin at one point. All of the clarinetists were amazingly good. The evening ended with Shifrin doing the Copland Clarinet Concerto with a "Mini" orchestra of about 24 musicians. David sounded great and the amazing thing is that there was no conductor and they stayed together perfectly. I looked like David was playing a Buffet Tosca. The last I knew, he was playing a Yamaha CSG.
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Author: ryanw
Date: 2009-09-25 03:11
David Shifrin and company are doing the same program again this Saturday night at Carnegie Hall.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-09-25 04:23
Good for David. Goodman was such an inspiration to so many of us back in the "good old days". You can't imagine how many of us took up the clarinet because of him. If you can find it, rent the Benny Goodman story on film. It stared Steve Allen as BG. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: ned
Date: 2009-09-25 06:07
Ed Palanker says: ''.........rent the Benny Goodman story on film. It stared Steve Allen as BG. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com''
It was on pay TV only last night here in Oz. It's OK for the music I guess, but the story line is almost fairly crap - the script writer took some liberties with the facts.
I cringed as I listened to Kid Ory and Fletcher Henderson recite their unbelievable lines.......and there's the famous ''hold this will yuh Fletch'' line uttered by Steve Allen.
Donna Reed scrubs up quite well though incidentally, and interestingly enough her hairstyle never changed through the years!
Jazz biopics always seem to suffer the indignity of being subjected to pedestrian plot lines and abysmal scripts.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2009-09-25 06:18
Let's also not forget about the famous reversed picture on the cover of the movie:
...GBK
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Author: Philcoman
Date: 2009-09-25 17:05
Well, I have to agree that the movie doesn't have the greatest acting or the most accurate portrayal of Benny Goodman's life, but it has a special place in my heart because it inspired me to pick up the instrument oh so long ago. It also has a lot of great music, of course, and it DOES focus on the music more than, say, "The Glenn Miller Story," which has better acting and production values but is more interested in being a love story than a bio-pic.
"If you want to do something, you do it, and handle the obstacles as they come." --Benny Goodman
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-09-25 20:44
Well I didn't say the film was accurate or the acting was good I said you should rent it. I have't seen it since I was in high school, maybe once a few years late on the late late show, but I do remember it was a great inspiration to me and all my clarinet playing friends. Goodman was very much alive when that film was released so I assumed it at least had some truth to it, if not the details of his life up to then at least the gist of how he got to where he was at that time in his life. I've seen many films in my life that were not accurate about history or someones life that was still inspiring and interesting. Hollywood has always taken liberties to make their films "more interesting", which is too bad of course. It was especially true back in those days.
What I do remember about it was that it told that he began studying clarinet as a serious student, I seem to recall the Lazarus or major etude book on his music stand near the beginning of the movie and then doing what he did best, play swing. It's a little like George Gershwin learning how to play the piano, getting a job playing in a music store playing the newest sheet music and then getting fired for doing his own thing. In both cases the rest is history. I still recommend seeing it if you're a clarinet player. By the way, I studied with Eric Simon several years after Goodman took lessons with him to learn the "Mozart style" before making his Mozart recordings. ESP
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-09-25 21:17
It's been years since I saw that movie, too (I was about 9 or 10), but the scene with the book on the stand stood out in my mind, too. I remember the book as being the Klose method, because that was the book I used as a beginner, and I remember thinking it was neat that Benny Goodman and I started out using the same book.
Incidentally, not only was Benny Goodman very much alive when the move was made, he actually participated in the making of it. Although Steve Allen (himself a pretty musically talented guy) plays Benny Goodman in the movie, the clarinet playing is by Goodman himself. So even if the storyline is a bit fictionalized, the music is 100% authentic.
They have the trailer here on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfgEpcd1iB8
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Author: ned
Date: 2009-09-26 01:35
GBK says: ''Let's also not forget about the famous reversed picture on the cover of the movie:''
Perhaps they had just a choice between the picture or.............
deeR annoD nellA evetS
ehT
yyneB namdooG
yrotS
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Author: ned
Date: 2009-09-26 01:41
Ed Palanker says: ''Well I didn't say the film was accurate or the acting was good I said you should rent it.''
If the music is available on record and CD, there would no reason for me to rent it.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-09-26 03:31
ned, it's just interesting, that's all. Why can't it be just plain fun to see it. It was such an inspiration to so many of us back then I think it's worth seeing but if you don't want to, nobody is going to make you. Some of us enjoyed it even with we were only high school age. ESP
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Author: Philcoman
Date: 2009-09-27 01:08
Actually, I have a CD of the music, AND I own the film on DVD. It really is a fun film for Benny fans, despite its inaccuracies and acting.
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