 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-05 21:53
"Pops Coffee," an octogenarian who took up traditional jazz in his 50s has written, in books and blogs, hard-earned advice on how to appreciate and learn to play that (mostly New Orleans) style. Since he's a trumpet player, he's not offering anything like a master class in clarinet playing, but he touches a lot of bases and covers ground not usually covered. He also seems open to incorporating more recent approaches to improvisation, if they don't clash with traditional styles.
https://playing-traditional-jazz.blogspot.com
Post Edited (2020-07-05 23:38)
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Author: AndyW
Date: 2020-07-07 03:49
thanks, Seabreeze, I’d seen his blog before and I thought he had stopped writing it a year or two ago. I might be tempted to buy the “ Playing Traditional Jazz“ book, especially if the content is not from the blog. -A-
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-07-07 12:27
Seabreeze: Do you agree that the New Orleans sound requires an Albert system clarinet? With other systems, you don't get that distinctive woody sound; more perceptible live than on recordings (Barney Bigard, Russel Procope, George Lewis..plus some more obscure players. I remember Cornbread Thomas, for example.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-07 21:26
Many performers have found a way to play traditional New Orleans jazz on Boehm clarinet, but still more find it easier to play the style on the Albert
system. Albert Nicholas is one of the few early generation jazz players who switched over from Albert to Boehm. Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Barney Bigard, Ed Hall, Sydney Bechet, Omer Simeon, Leon Rapollo,
Larry Sheilds, Irving Fazola, Joe Darensbourg, George Lewis, Alphonse Picou, et al. mostly stayed with their Alberts. https://capionlarsen.com/the-albert-system/. Later, Pete Fountain, though mentored by Fazola and Lewis, played Boehm from the beginning, and now Doreen Ketchens, Orange Kellin, and Dr. Michael White are all Boehm players. Dr. White had a collection of Albert system clarinets he lost in the Katrina flood, and he has always tried to emulate the sound of the Albert on a Boehm, as he describes here: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-gave-early-orleans-jazz-clarinets.html. Dr. White eventually turned to a Wurlitzer Reform-Boehm (but with a more flexible jazz-friendly mouthpiece) as his instrument of choice.
Evan Christopher played an Austrian Hammerschmidt for a while but then settled on an old Selmer Improved Albert--a model much favored by older generation jazz players. I'm not sure what the latest generation of trad jazz players on Frenchman St. are playing. My cursory view is that some are playing Boehms and some, Alberts.
My own impression of the Albert system clarinet is that the sound it produces fills up space in a way distinctly different from the Boehm. It doesn't matter whether the sound is bright and reedy as Omer Simeon's and Edmund Hall's was or round and mellow like Bigard's and Procope's; the sound spills out into the room with a different viscosity--like a gel for the Albert and a water spray for the Boehm. The Albert shapes clouds and smoke puffs; the Boehm cuts sharp, lacy patterns.
b
Post Edited (2020-07-09 00:19)
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2020-07-07 21:39
seabreeze, lovely description ! makes me want to get an Albert !
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-07-07 23:24
Seabreeze, thank you for this piece of writing. Question: were these Alberts really made by Abert in Belgium or were they made by other instrument makers: Selmer, Leblanc, Couesnon, maybe even Conn, etc.? I would also like to insist on the fact that you don't really hear how distinctive the sound of Albert is/was on recordings. The real thing is in the hall, where they sound is vastly different from Boehm. I never heard Barney Bigard in person, but I was a close friend of Russel Procope when I was a teenager. Russel was not from New Orleans; he was a New Yorker. I don't know whether he played Albert before joining the Duke. The Duke did want something to radically contrast with Jimmy Hamilton's limpid, sophisticated tone.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-07-07 23:33
PS; Seabreeze, If the company I work for made a few excellent Alberts, do you think anybody would buy them?
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-08 00:27
Ruben,
Yes, you have to hear Alberts in person to know how the sound manifests itself like a genie emerging from a magic lamp.
I have never heard of a New Orleans Jazz player owning or playing a clarinet made by the Albert family in Belgium. Are those about as rare as saxophones made by Adolphe Sax? The trad players' Albert system instruments were made mostly by Selmer, Pedler, Buffet, Penzell-Muller and (maybe?) Conn. Dr. Michael White and Evan Christoper would know much more. You should contact them.
In several cities worldwide there are little niches of New Orleans jazz clubs. Your market for Albert clarinets might be good in those rarefied places. Here in New Orleans, the clubs on Frenchman street at the edge of the quarter might be a place to start. (Word would probably quickly spread out from there). If you can make some that play like the Selmer Improved model, you'll have buyers.
My own rare attempts to play New Orleans jazz are quite humorous. In high school, I entered a talent show playing the Cozy Cole hit "Topsy II" and what I thought was an imitation of Pete Fountain's solo on Tin Roof Blues. My band won but on the way out a well known jazz player told me "you play classical music with soul, man." So, I guess my attempt at jazz sounded pretty classical. When I later listened to a tape of the performance I absolutely did not recognize myself. I thought I was going to sound like Pete Fountain but wound up sounding more like a brighter toned devotee of post-bop clarinetist Alvin Batiste (not nearly as good as Batiste, though). So much for my contribution to New Orleans jazz. I love listening to it but it refuses to come out the other end of my horn.
Post Edited (2020-07-08 04:11)
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Author: Late_returner
Date: 2020-07-08 04:48
I also would like to thank seabreeze for drawing attention to the site.
On the subject of Albert / Simple clarinets played by the early masters, I can add ....
1/ i once read that a good many of the instruments used ( all instruments) were from " pawn shops which carried a lot of ex Civil War military instruments often in strange keys"
2/ the famous photo of King Olivers Creole Jazz Band has Johnny Dodds holding a clarinet with a second of Bb / A size on a stand, so he at least played both.
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Author: NOLA Ken
Date: 2020-07-08 18:30
Seabreeze,
One correction: In his autobiography Joe Darensbourg stated that he switched from a Conn Albert system to using a Boehm clarinet in 1950 when he was playing with Kid Ory. The photo of him on the cover of the book shows him playing a Boehm clarinet. (I haven't finished the book, so don't know any further details.)
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-08 19:08
Thanks, that would mean that in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s he was playing Albert System clarinets, and we can include Conn in the list along with Selmer, Buffet, Pedler, and Penzel-Muller. That was pretty mainstream for trad jazz players of the time. But by the 1950s even trad players were tempted to switch to Boehm. Superstar swing-era clarinetists Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw helped make Boehms the standard instrument. On Boehms the finger stretch in the right hand is much easier, lots of technical passages are less troublesome (as Klose demonstrated), production of good Albert system instruments and the mouthpieces that suit them was in decline, many music stores no longer stocked them, and most clarinet teachers were teaching the Boehm system.
Post Edited (2020-07-08 19:19)
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2020-07-09 01:56
Ruben,
I would think there would be a small but eager market for a high quality simple system ("Albert") Bb clarinet.
Fuzzy
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2020-07-12 18:17
Seabreeze, what would be a 'suitable' mp for an Albert, or how does it differ from a Boehm mp? Just askin' for a friend ...Thanks!
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-12 21:25
Djudy,
I don't have a general theory for matching mouthpieces to Albert clarinets, so if I were trying to play an Albert I would have to resort to trial and error. Try a bunch and see what works. The bore on Alberts varies. I've heard the one Johnny Dodds played had a very small bore, but others may be 15.00 mm or larger, and the bore taper and tone holes also vary. I've always played Boehms, but there used to be a few collectors in New Orleans that sold Alberts, and out of curiosity (or sometimes the collector's urging), I tried a few. My right hand felt stretched far beyond the comfort zone, and the scale on all I tried was uneven, not so much in tuning but in tone color, resistance, and response. For jazz players, this feature might afford more color and tonal variability; for classical it seemed to me to be a problem to be solved--one I didn't want to do all the necessary work to solve. But these were old instruments. I have no idea how a new Albert that was set-up well would play. Many of the Alberts originally came with wooden mouthpieces. My impression is that the older jazz players often replaced these with something more suitable for jazz. (Most wooden mouthpieces had a more subdued and softer sound than rubber, plastic or glass, though the rather rare rosewood pieces were reputed to have more "oomph" to the tone. I don't know if any of the jazz players used rosewood--that could be just an urban legend). In one photo, Sidney Bechet had a white plastic Brillhart mouthpiece on his Albert. (You can see that Bechet photo (which Christopher Tyle says is wrongly identified as a Selmer Goldentone) and other pertinent photos and info on Alberts by going to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_system and clicking on the external link to Oscar Font's "Albert System: The Jazz Clarinet" (archived 2012-02-28) from way-back internet.
Growing up in New Orleans, I heard Harry Shields, Ray Burke, Louis
Cottrell and several other traditional jazz clarinetists many times live playing on Albert system instruments. Like hot weather, hurricanes, and shot gun houses, they "came with the territory." If you plan to play jazz on an Albert,
your best bet would be to contact a jazz player who either uses an Albert as their main instrument (try Evan Christopher, or Fuzzy on this board) or a jazz player who collects them and tries to emulate their sound on Boehm (Dr. Michael White, for example). If you're trying to play classical music on them, you might have to contact a maker of historical replica clarinets (like Steven Fox) or learn to resurrect the dead . One player to resurrect would be Henry Lazarus, whose performances on the simple system instrument garnered the praise of the curmudgeonly critical George Bernard Shaw. I once heard a little presentation by a musical archivist about one of Lazarus's instruments (made in Belgium by Eugene Albert). She played a few notes on the instrument and they were exceedingly colorful and musical. Maybe some player (jazz or classical) could make a name for themselves by performing on a replica of Lazarus's clarinet. Would probably cost a lot though. Crowd-funded maybe? But beware, because some of Eugene Albert's clarinets (including Lazarus's?) may have been high-pitch at A=452). The later ones by E.J. Albert were reportely more around A=440.
In the late 1990s, one of the most dedicated collectors world-wide of Albert system clarinets was Eberhard Kraut. I don't know if he is still around or what the status of his collection might be. You could try searching him out.
There is one caveat to buying old clarinets. Some are not pitched in the A=440 to 442 range; some Alberts have very low pitch (or very high pitch) which would rule out their general use for most players today. In the US, the Vintage Clarinet Doctor (Jeremy Soule) regularly gets a few Albert system instruments in his shop. He restores them and sells them (usually for under $1,000) on his website.
Post Edited (2020-07-20 17:45)
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2020-07-13 00:20
Thanks seabreeze for all this helpful information. I have an Albert that came originally from the Doctor via another local collector; it was in good shape and very modestly priced and, being interested in all things jazz, I was curious. But I have never gotten around to seriously trying to play it as my first attempts were unconvincing and I had a lot of other stuff on my plate at the time. So I was interested in the mp possibility, as I know that some of my instruments are just unplayable with all but a certain mp, or at least sound much more interesting. I'll get around to it eventually if I can find another player to observe. Again thanks, this board is just a goldmine of information.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-13 02:07
The road to facility on the Albert should be easy. There is a good Albert fingering chart on the obverse of the Boehm one in the Klose Method, and I believe there is also one in the first part of the Lazarus method. Lazarus wrote down exercise patterns and opera variations he had played all his life on his Albert to fill the pages of his method. The Carl Baerman method also--all 5 books--was written with a pre-Boehm system in mind. So if you play your way through Lazarus and Baermann you will know your way around the Albert instrument quite well.
According to clarinet historian Eric Hoeprich (in his book The Clarinet, p.307), Lorenzo Tio, Jr, who played Buffet Albert system clarinets, taught many of the early New Orleans jazz clarinetists using method books by Klose, Lazarus, and Langley, so if you use these same books you will be giving yourself the same kind of instruction they had on the Albert (sans the performance examples and personal advice of Tio).
Post Edited (2020-07-13 03:34)
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2020-07-13 03:01
This topic has been a hoot. I corresponded with "Pops" (the blog creator) years ago when he was just starting the blog. He's a great guy and very friendly. I can't imagine the amount of work and effort he has put into his blog over the years. He is truly dedicated and it is a joy to see.
One warning I'd add for Djudy when/if trying an Albert/Simple system - depending on the age/style/model, etc - it can be a challenge to get the thing to play in tune across the instrument. I was never able to find a vintage mouthpiece for any of my 13/14-key Alberts (two rings lower joint, no rings upper joint), but with some effort (modification to my approach/embouchure) pretty much any modern mouthpiece seems to work.
That said, I wouldn't expect any of my vintage instruments to hold up well in a classical orchestra/band. They do great for the simple harmonies/tonalities of church hymns, and do great for trad jazz.
Having said that, the more folks gravitate towards the earlier models of Alberts/simple systems, the harder it is for the pros to find them. I've known professionals who have looked for several years to find certain makes/models. This is why I believe Ruben might have a good idea on researching the marketability of a "modern" Albert/simple system design.
Years ago, when I was looking for a specific model, I contacted Tom Ridenour to ask if he would make Alberts, and he basically said, "If the market demands becomes great enough." Sort of a chicken or the egg thing.
I love my collection, but I'd jump at the chance to own/play a modern "more-in-tune" Albert/simple system...something that I knew I could easily replace if calamity came a-calling!
;^)>>>
Fuzzy
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-07-13 20:04
Thank you, Seabreeze. What a treasure. I had never heard Lorenzo Tio; a real master. The recording is ancient, but his big fat round tone still shines through.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: ruben
Date: 2020-07-13 21:01
ps: I have read that the Tios-father and son-played using double-lip embouchure. There was also an uncle that was a clarinetist, so he must have been known as tio Tio! Were they of Creole origins? Cuban? I imagine that they were Clasically trained.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-13 23:48
New Orleans in the last decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century was a major port city of many and diverse cultures. The three Tios, (the two Lorenzos, father and son, and the uncle "Papa Louis") were Creoles with ties to Mexico. Barney Bigard said he got the theme for "Mood Indigo" from a tune one of the Tios played (which seems to have been called "Dreamy Blues" before Mills wrote the lyrics for it). The Tios seem to have played double lip on Albert system clarinets, and could range their styles from Latin American music, "Society" dance music for the New Orleans elite (which was generally all written out rather than improvised), European classical music, and the emerging genres of ragtime and jazz. They were, in a word, quite versatile. The players who studied with them turned out sounding unlike one another and quite individualistic. Dodds was nervously creative and edgy; Bigard broad, covered, and dark with a remarkable propensity for long glissandi, both ascending and descending; Noone smooth, unusually articulate and technical, Bechet bluesy, blunt, assertive, bossy, and vibrant, and so forth. Some of the students (Noone) probably worked assiduously through the Klose and Lazarus methods while others (Bechet) just sort of hung out and absorbed selectively from the Tio jr., Big Eye Louis Nelson, Alphone Picou, George Bacquet and whoever else attracted their fancy. The Tios were warm and inviting--willing to demonstrate, guide, correct, and instruct whoever sought out their guidance. The vibes from their clarinet studio radiated out to players they never directly taught--Leon Roppolo, Benny Goodman, Shaw and many more. The Tios were the very matrix of jazz clarinet, and their example surely encouraged others to share their knowledge.
One of the best scholarly sources on the Tio family is the 1993 dissertation
by Charles E. Kinser for Louisiana State University, "The Tio Family: Four Generations of New Orleans Musicians."
Post Edited (2020-10-03 09:18)
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Author: Djudy
Date: 2020-07-15 21:53
Wow ! Great that this information is preserved in writing and not just around the bandstand. Thank you again seabreeze
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-17 17:20
That's most certainly NOT Tio on the Clarence Williams washboard band recording. Tio was a much, much better clarinetist that whoever that is on "High Society." I suggest listening to the recordings that Tio made with Armand Piron's New Orleans Orchestra and you'll quickly find out that ain't Tio.
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-17 17:52
I've just spent quite a bit of time reading the posts here and I would like to add a bit of information. I've been a traditional jazz player all my life, beginning with cornet/trumpet and drums, but I started playing clarinet while living in New Orleans (I was there from 1989-2002). I started on Boehm, switched to Albert, then back to Boehm because I was having pain in my right hand from the Albert "stretch," which is especially uncomfortable with the Selmer Improved Albert, less so when I was able to find a lovely Buffet Albert.
There's a lot of romance involved with the Albert clarinet and New Orleans, and it certainly makes sense, since most of the early jazz players there played that system (as seabreeze has pointed out). However, I believe, with the right setup on the Boehm system, the right instrument, and the right mental concept, one can get a sound similar to that of those New Orleans Albert players. It's what I'm currently working on after years of not playing clarinet.
Regarding instrument choice, I'm finding I get the sound I want from a seven ring Selmer Centered Tone from 1958. (I'd like to point out the great Chicago-based traditional jazz clarinetist Darnell Howard played one of these, and he certainly had that big New Orleans sound). But I've also got a vintage Martel Freres that sounds terrific, a Penzel-Mueller Artist, and I just bought a 1982 Noblet that impressed me a great deal.
As far as modern manufacture of an Albert, this has been done. I believe by Buffet who made one for Woody Allen (which he didn't care for). Personally I don't think there's a market for one, and there are most certainly Selmer Improved Albert clarinets around for those few musicians who might want one, and the intonation on one of those is certainly going to be excellent. Also, I should point out, those Alberts made by Penzel-Mueller.
Regarding double-lip and the New Orleans clarinets, I venture that almost all of them played double-lip, which leads me to believe it was that method taught by the Tio family. I've looked at a lot of vintage pictures of clarinetists and those where you can see their mouthpieces I don't see any teeth marks. (I play double-lip, btw.) I know for certain Sidney Bechet played double-lip, even though he wasn't really a Tio student he was friends with Lorenzo Tio, Jr. and they played together in New Orleans.
The Tio family were originally from Europe (Barcelona) but they lived in Mexico for a time and I suppose would be considered Creoles.
Speaking of Tio, since the track supposedly with him did NOT have him, give a listen to this. Also listen to the other tracks from the Piron CD this one is on, as they all have Tio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ODDvLHkFk
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2020-07-17 17:59
Hi Chris!
I was so excited to see your name on the bboard! Thanks for coming on and sharing!
Fuzzy
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-17 20:10
Christopher,
Thanks for the info. So who is playing the High Society chorus if the attribution to Tio is incorrect? There are lots of errors made even by specialized museum curators. LSU New Orleans Jazz Museum, for instance, has a caption that reads "Sydney Bechet's clarinet" over a dazzling photo of a metal soprano saxophone! According to some historians, the Tios were considered legally in antebellum Louisiana to be "free people of color" but in the years preceding the Civil War, they were not experiencing much freedom and moved to Mexico in search of more. No doubt they moved back to New Orleans lured by the hope offered by Reconstruction. The Mexican stay was before the birth of jazz but the Mexican rhythms the Tios learned there may have seemed familiar, owing to the family's Spanish provenance, and were probably passed on in that very musical family to become an inherent part of jazz music (later through Jelly Roll Morton and in Handy's St. Louis Blues, for example).
Your remarks about the Buffet right hand stretch being easier than the same on the Selmer Improved model ring a bell with me. Ray Burke had some Alberts for sale that I would try from time to time, and I recall that the Buffet was lighter in the hand and more ergonomic. So maybe Ruben should have a good look at the Buffet too, which in its day was highly regarded and might need mostly to be brought up to date in its tuning.
Post Edited (2020-07-17 21:33)
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-19 10:26
Seabreeze: Regarding Clarence Williams' recording of High Society (Okeh 8706, recorded July 2, 1929) Brian Rust's Jazz Records 1897-1942 6th edition lists "unknown" as the clarinetist, as does Tom Lord's book on Williams. So someone, at some point, has GUESSED it is Tio. I vehemently disagree. The clarinetist on this record has nowhere near the ability that Tio demonstrated on his recordings with Piron. The High Society clarinetist plays in a very elementary way and sounds like he's reading a simple part. High Society was a tune Tio likely played many times in New Orleans and would've played much more elegantly.
I know the man who posted that on youtube. I'll contact him and ask him why he thinks it's Tio. It's possible he just guessed that, or someone he knows did.
As you probably know, there are enumerable mis-identifications in jazz discographies. Many were done by well-intended record collectors who often don't hear things as well as musicians do. Sadly it's too late to check these things with those participating in the sessions, and even when they were asked in the past oftentimes they couldn't remember or weren't sure. In the case of Tom Lord's Clarence Williams book, it was published in 1976 when some of the players were still around, and he would've consulted with them regarding session personnel.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-19 18:25
Rust's and Williams' sound like good books to know and consult. Thanks for the references. There are indeed many mis-identifications in jazz discographies as well as in curated museum exhibits. Instruments that were hardly ever played or that the family found in an attic may wind up characterized as the performer's favored horn. Regarding attributions in recordings though, there are instances of stellar performers having a bad day or being bummed out and giving a mediocre performance, or even being instructed (for reasons unknown) to "just read the simple part." I certainly agree with you, though, that if a player on a certain record is not known, somebody's name ought not to be slapped on because it makes a better story. That's what happens when people see objects in the sky that they cannot identify and immediately say they must be extra-galactic aliens.
To help quash the notion that anyone is sure Tio is playing on that cut, I have deleted my original reference to it.
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-20 11:12
The sixth edition of Rust's Jazz Records is available to download for Free, here: https://78records.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/rust_jazz-records_free-edition-6.pdf
I use it all the time. Of course there are errors, but it's excellent, nevertheless.
As to the above mentioned High Society, Tio was in NYC at the time so he could've likely made the date, but I've never found any connection between Williams and Tio (although there was with Tio's one-time boss, Armand Piron).
On another subject, this is a personal peeve of mine. Please do me and others a favor and spell SIDNEY Bechet's name correctly. I'm seeing this way too often now, as it's frequently a predictive text "correction." He's the New Orleans clarinetist, NOT the city in Australia!
A "thank you" to fuzzy for welcoming me here.
Seabreeze: Bob Wilber (who studied with Sidney Bechet) told me the white mouthpiece Bechet used was a Brilhart, not a Selmer Goldentone. I owned a similar one ages ago.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-20 16:37
Regarding Sidney Bechet's mouthpiece, Bob Wilber would know better than Oscar Font, so I've corrected that in my description. Font also misses the correct name for Bechet's ligature in that photo. The ligature was definitely marketed and known to most players as a Magnitone (distributed by Selmer), not as he calls it, an "Art-Deco."
Post Edited (2020-07-20 20:10)
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-20 20:53
According to Charles Kinzer's thesis on the Tio family, Lorenzo Jr. played single lip and his only student that didn't was Louis Cottrell, Jr.
For those who would like to read Kinzer's thesis (it's very interesting), it can be found here: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6521&context=gradschool_disstheses
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-20 21:04
Oscar Font is a knowledgeable fellow but as is the case with many things sometimes we don't have all of the information at hand, or a guess is made with what knowledge we do have. At age 65 I'm still learning!
I was fortunate to chat with Bob Wilber on several occasions. We talked briefly about the lessons he took with Bechet. One of the things Sidney told him was to learn to play "Ragging the Scale" in every key!
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Author: tyleman
Date: 2020-07-20 21:14
ruben wrote:
>Author: ruben
>Date: 2020-07-07 23:24
>Seabreeze, thank you for this piece of writing. Question: were these Alberts >really made by Abert in Belgium or were they made by other instrument >makers: Selmer, Leblanc, Couesnon, maybe even Conn, etc.?
Yes, Albert system clarinets were made by ALL of the makers you listed, and many others including Penzel-Mueller in New York - and theirs were exceptionally good instruments (as were many of their Boehm clarinets).
E.J. Albert in Belgium made Albert system clarinets but they also made Boehm. When I lived in New Orleans I would sometimes get asked why I didn't play an Albert, and I always wanted to find one those Boehms Albert made to answer the question, "this IS an Albert clarinet!"
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-07-20 22:57
One thing the early jazz players did not seem interested in was securing clarinets made by the Alberts in Belgium. E. J Albert made clarinets tuned to about A = 440, unlike Eugene whose instruments were much higher pitch. E. J. Albert certainly made both Albert and Boehm system instruments, and just a few years ago, Luis Rossi in Chile used a late model E.J. Albert Boehm from, I believe, he said 1930, that had a big bore of 15 mm in designing his own AL model (which I no longer see in Rossi's present catalog). I'm sure Rossi still has the measurements for that Albert Boehm. E.J. Albert Albert- system instruments still appear for sale at reasonable prices from time to time, on, for example Clarinets Direct, but original Albert Boehm system clarinets are seldom offered for sale. Even rarer are Sax Clarinets made by Charles Joseph Sax, father of Adolphe, the inventor of the saxophone. The Met Art Museum has a Sax Clarinet, 13-key Mueller system ivory clarinet in its collection (looking like something Albert would like to get his hands on to add roller keys, rings, and other improvements).
The question of whether the Tio students played double lip may never be settled. Some of the old players at Preservation Hall said they did, some said they didn't. I once tried to find the "authentic" chorus for High Society and a jazz historian who had looked into the same thing told me, don't bother, Picou played it lots of different ways on different nights and in different settings. Some wonderful things I got from the dissertation on the Tios include: Tio, jr. charged 50 cents a lesson and lent Bechet a clarinet when Bechet was just 12 and his instrument broke. Lorenzo Sr. played a solo called "Sonambula" (from the Bellini opera?)and a Cuban dance, "Trocha." This is a Latino connection I've never seen before; it needs investigating. The older Tios were task masters; when the younger players had trouble with the Light Calvary Overture, they were brow-beaten into practicing it till they didn't have any more trouble.Barney Bigard met the Tios when he got a job with Papa Tio's cigar factory, anD Bigard evidentially did get the tune for Mood Indigo from Tio. Recommendations that Lorenzo Tio Jr's work with Piron on "Bouncing Around" and "Red Man Blues" are good samples of his playing. A footnote reference to Floyd Levin's 1986 article in the New Orleans Jazz Club's magazine Second Line, "Louisiana Swing: The Dynasty of New Orleans Clarinets Established by Lorenzo Tio, jr." Two clarinets owned and probably played by Tio, jr. were a Buffet and a J W Pepper/Premiere with a Mahillion mouthpiece. Tracing the thorough list of residences where the Tios lived was also interesting for me as a New Orleans native.
Post Edited (2020-07-21 03:28)
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