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Re: Why We Restore Old Clarinets ...

Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2015-05-27 02:54

Sorry you're stuck in a depressing scene, Wisco. You might want to look outside your immediate surroundings, if that's the case, though--because a lot of good stuff is happening--both audience-wise and in terms of musicians.

There's great work being done by guys like Evan Christopher and Don Vappie in New Orleans (and globally on tour), and the Hot Jazz scene in NYC is starting to come into it's own with players like Bria Skonberg--her Hot Jazz Fest just got favorable reviews in both JazzTimes and DownBeat, and she's succeeding where so many jazz acts have fallen flat--in the interior of the country (she'll be back in Cleveland again in June).

Here in Cleveland, we have a very hip Roots Jazz scene (my term)--multiple gypsy jazz groups performing at a high level, my own retro-New Orleans outfit, a few excellent Big Bands, and several larger early jazz ensembles gigging regularly--all of us working every week in multiple venues--including venues that tend to book nationally touring rock acts. We're making inroads into younger audiences and giving them something real.

In my experience, there are two types of older jazz musicians. There are the ones who moan about how things aren't what they were--they want the packed dance halls and the money they used to get. Then there are the other guys, who love it so much they don't care who they're playing for--they'll play anywhere with younger guys like me, they'll pass on their wisdom and change with the times. The venues are different, the audiences are different, and musicians have to hustle differently for the gigs. But don't say they aren't there...because they are. At least here in Cleveland (like I said, sorry if your scene is so dismal).

As far as those older instruments are concerned, man--they SOUND better on these tunes--that's why we use them! And the audiences react! I played a gig in Kent recently where the whole retro-themed bar was filled with college students on dates. They LOVED what we did--and several of these college kids came up to tell me how great my sound was--how romantic the whole thing was.

So no, the music ISN'T dead. It ISN'T gone. The instruments aren't old fashioned and useless anymore. The music lives, it is dynamic, we are moving it forward, and young people are listening.

Eric

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

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Why We Restore Old Clarinets ... new

Chris P

2015-05-25 13:55