The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Lester Young on clarinet

Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2014-05-09 19:16

I seriously doubt Jimmie Noone, Albert Nicholas, Omer Simeon or Barney Bigard used chewing gum in their mouthpieces (or Irving Fazola, Pete Fountain, Evan Christopher or Dr. Michael White for that matter).

Nasal and thin are not words I'd use to describe Noone, Simeon, Bigard...

The history of jazz clarinet is long and varied. Blesh has his opinion. There are others. New Orleans, while uniquely foundational and essential to jazz history, was not the only locale or culture to importantly impact jazz in general or the jazz clarinet specifically. Chicago, New York, Kansas City, and Cleveland, among many others, played significant roles. (Just as Mannheim and Leipzig are not without importance simply because they aren't Vienna, so too with various places in jazz history).

The tircky part is this: while NOLA is foundational, to what degree is difficult to discern for jazz clarinet. Many of the famous "New Orleans" clarinet players spent the lion's share of their gigging lives in Chicago. Jimmie Noone, Omer Simeon and Johnny Dodds are good examples. Noone developed as a player in Chicago under the instruction of Franz Schoepp, also Benny Goodman's teacher. Omer Simeon moved with his family to Chicago when he was just 12 years old--he was raised there from that point on and gigged there throughout his career. It's hard to call him a New Orleans player when he didn't really grow up there as a musician--though that doesn't stop New Orleans from claiming him (nor should it--but the facts are important).

None of this history is as clean cut as the broad brush myth writers would have us believe (and where those myths came from is another intriguing study...sometimes having little to do with the music itself). Both Artie Shaw and Clarence Hutchenrider spent important developmental years in Cleveland--a not so insignificant fact when everything is considered. Shaw made trips to Chicago during that time and was impressed by players like Noone and Frank Teschemacher--another important Chicago player who influenced Benny Goodman too.

And all of this is still pretty early in jazz history.

Eric

******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

Lester Young on clarinet new

Clarineteer

2014-05-07 10:47