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Re: Lester Young on clarinet

Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2014-05-13 20:21

John,

Regarding Schoepp, you might just as honestly have said that lessons by Tio didn't erase anyone's past either. Remember that Tio taught many people of color, not all of whom would agree with being lumped together as you did earlier. And as Bigard pointed out, all of them sounded very different from each other. To assert a "Tio style" is impossible--much harder than it is to even define a "Bonade" legacy.

The economics of the jazz age, the exploitation of various groups, and the proper compensation that should have existed are all different matters, and not something I'd care to get entangled in here: what I've been discussing is jazz clarinet as an art, not the business aspect of it. And despite the lack of integration, the cross influence was profound in nearly immediate.

As far as Schoepp is concerned, I'm not sure we can fully appreciate the brilliance of the fully formed Jimmie Noone without him, and as Noone is generally considered the full fruition of the 'Creole style', what does that say?
My personal opinion is that Noone was so remarkable as to be worthy of basing a 'school' of clarinet off of his style--and that he would have been great regardless of who taught him (Tio or Schoepp or anyone else). But the fact is he sought out both Tio and Schoepp to help him reach his goals. That no other student of Tio was as virtuosic as Noone, or became the definition of 'Creole Style' speaks volumes. Technically speaking, Noone is most like Goodman and Buster Bailey. They all shared the same teacher, yet neither of the others was Creole.

You should also note that Christopher's remarks are not exactly uncontroversial. You might want to ask some others playing in NOLA what they think of such things (I know some of them...believe me, they have opinions too, well worth considering in depth).

Having said that, I've corresponded with Evan on occasion, I dig what he does (though he approaches both the horn and history differently than me), and I applaud his tenacity in blazing a path forward.

(My fav quote from this thread so far, by the way, is seabreeze's "asked some of the right questions and got some of the right answers." Often that's the best we can hope for).

Eric

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

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Lester Young on clarinet new

Clarineteer

2014-05-07 10:47