About the Clarinets
...Then one day, when the engineer thought we were rounding things up, I decided to add horn sections to a couple of songs: "Walking Away" & "Shan't Go Home". One is funky 'advice of the day' jazz-rock, and the other is a Basin Street-meets Country blues. They both needed something and I needed to play for a change.
My clarinet is an old Selmer ('48) that always/still needs some work but has a nice mellow sound. For the longest time I thought I would turn my clarinet school-chops into sax-ablity, but the day I tested that theory, I walked into a shop where this Selmer was sitting up on a shelf. It cost a lot more than the sax. I could only just afford it. But I had to. There was no question in my mind. Actually, I don't think my mind participated.
Though I spend a lot of time on guitar & especially piano writing and trying new songs at open mics, picking up the clarinet is more challenging and fun and expressive. I can improvise, get into a little call-and-answer in a way I likely never will on guitar or piano. It's also a heck of a workout. If I get off-balance, playing through a few standards is a great way to mellow out.
I'm a great fan of David Rothenberg, a friend and brilliant player. A fan both of his playing and his adventurous contexts and partners, starting with Why Birds Sing. I've arrived at a remote enough place where I can step outside the back door and play a few notes and wait to hear how the birds react. I can hear them listening, and that they listen intently, even to just a few notes. I play a few more, a little at a time feeling out the conversation, finding my own way of being bird. Sonic tai chi. It is very cool about wind instruments that they have these neo-animal voices. It's a reminder there is a part of human/animal intelligence we don't experience in civilization.
Thaclarinets range is above mine by a few notes (not counting the extra high register) I can sing about four half tones lower than the low E and just up to about high G, though the more I play clarinet, the broader the vocal range gets. It's the best bellows stretcher I ever knew, no question. After a rousing turn with Cole Porter I can get around a lot more notes by vox I might usually shy of. One of these nights I'll open with the clarinet - really looking forward to that. So, what to play, what to play... hmm.
Meantime, there's the story of the clarinets on Under A Spell. ~ Here's to 1948!
...Then one day, when the engineer thought we were rounding things up, I decided to add horn sections to a couple of songs: "Walking Away" & "Shan't Go Home". One is funky 'advice of the day' jazz-rock, and the other is a Basin Street-meets Country blues. They both needed something and I needed to play for a change.
My clarinet is an old Selmer ('48) that always/still needs some work but has a nice mellow sound. For the longest time I thought I would turn my clarinet school-chops into sax-ablity, but the day I tested that theory, I walked into a shop where this Selmer was sitting up on a shelf. It cost a lot more than the sax. I could only just afford it. But I had to. There was no question in my mind. Actually, I don't think my mind participated.
Though I spend a lot of time on guitar & especially piano writing and trying new songs at open mics, picking up the clarinet is more challenging and fun and expressive. I can improvise, get into a little call-and-answer in a way I likely never will on guitar or piano. It's also a heck of a workout. If I get off-balance, playing through a few standards is a great way to mellow out.
I'm a great fan of David Rothenberg, a friend and brilliant player. A fan both of his playing and his adventurous contexts and partners, starting with Why Birds Sing. I've arrived at a remote enough place where I can step outside the back door and play a few notes and wait to hear how the birds react. I can hear them listening, and that they listen intently, even to just a few notes. I play a few more, a little at a time feeling out the conversation, finding my own way of being bird. Sonic tai chi. It is very cool about wind instruments that they have these neo-animal voices. It's a reminder there is a part of human/animal intelligence we don't experience in civilization.
Thaclarinets range is above mine by a few notes (not counting the extra high register) I can sing about four half tones lower than the low E and just up to about high G, though the more I play clarinet, the broader the vocal range gets. It's the best bellows stretcher I ever knew, no question. After a rousing turn with Cole Porter I can get around a lot more notes by vox I might usually shy of. One of these nights I'll open with the clarinet - really looking forward to that. So, what to play, what to play... hmm.
Meantime, there's the story of the clarinets on Under A Spell. ~ Here's to 1948!
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