Re: Decline and Fall of Clarinet Empire (was Re: women musicians)

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Responding to the message of <3A9DCFE9(dot)816A2981 (at) concentric(dot)net>
from jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org:
> 
> This raises an interesting question -- several really -- that I'd love
> to hear the clarinetists address.
> 
> Why is the instrument held in such disrepute? Lester Young doubled on
> clarinet when he first came to Count Basie; Basie told him to lose the
> clarinet, that the instrument had no future in big-band-driven jazz. And
> when bop came to the fore, it drove out most of the clarinetists
> (despite Buddy DeFranco making a more than game effort to play bop
> clarinet). Remember, before bebop came along, you had several major
> leaders who played clarinet -- Goodman, Shaw, Herman (two Jews, by the
> way).
> 
> So what gives?

My understanding is that the intricacies of fingering the clarinet, which 
overblows at the twelfth, made playing highly chromatic bebop difficult and that
that was the principal reason sax, which overblows at the octave, largely 
supplanted it.  This may also be the reason that there were relatively few 
trombonists appearing as bop soloists, the recently departed J. J. Johnson a 
notable exception.  I'm not a wind player so I can't vouch for this from 
personal experience.



Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music
Adjunct Professor of American Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)

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