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)
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
