 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-01-20 12:24
Must report with chagrin that I did absolutely nothing Edgar Allan Poe-related yesterday, but instead spent the entire day at the International Saxophone Symposium at George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia). One of the featured guests was Eddie Daniels, and yes, he did play some clarinet. I had to miss the concert in the evening, where he was soloist, but caught an outstanding one-hour set of free jazz in the afternoon. He had by far the biggest audience I saw in the main auditorium all day, although the place was still only about half-full. I wonder whether the current economy prevented some of the schools from sending as many students as usual.
That afternoon session was billed as an Eddie Daniels "Feature Jazz Clinic," but Daniels did nearly all of his talking through his tenor sax and his clarinet. Although he said he was open to audience questions, people clearly would rather hear him play, although, inevitably, some guy asked about his setup. He said the tenor sax mouthpiece was a #5 Otto Link that Morrie Backun sold him. He said the clarinet was the new Leblanc, tweaked by Morrie Backun. It looked to me as if Backun also made him a barrel and bell (though he didn't say so), since these were conspicuously red wood. The clarinet mouthpiece was an Eddie Daniels, made from a Zinner blank, with a closed facing that he'd opened up a bit, though it was still more closed than most jazz players prefer. Daniels gave a demonstration of his classical clarinet chops, including the scales and runs that leave a player nowhere to hide if he doesn't know the fundamentals. He said (not entirely seriously) that the great secret to teach saxophone students who wanted to learn to double on clarinet was to learn to feel the reed through their lower teeth, the way clarinetists do.
But there really wasn't a lot of talk. Daniels avoided getting trapped into the "what you are is what you buy" obsession over mouthpieces and reeds and all that jazz. The "clinic" part came in because Daniels let the audience know from the top that this quartet had never played together before. That's a sure guarantee that anything that can go wrong, will. I think Daniels knew the drummer, but when it came time to introduce his fellow musicians by name at the end of the hour, he'd already forgotten the names of the string bass player and the pianist. In a nightclub setting, the audience would simply notice that things were going wrong, but in a venue such as this, with both the stage lights and the house lights up bright, the audience could tell exactly *what* was going wrong, and why, and what these four superb musicians did to fix the problems on the spot, without any breakdowns.
For instance, various groups had been shuttling in and out of that auditorium all day. Daniels and his band came onstage cold, with no sound check. They had trouble with the levels on the mic for the bassist (string double bass with a mic hookup), who had to stop playing and adjust on his amplifier several times until he got it where they wanted it. Similarly, when he and the drummer got way out during the first few bars of the first number, lesser musicians would have had to stop and start over. If the bassist (who looked odd with the rest of the group, since he was a Navy guy, in uniform--the strak haircut, the works--and about 30 years younger than the others) had had the slightest insecurity on his changes, he never would have been able to do what he did, which was stop for a bar, catch the drummer and come back in again, seamlessly. (Daniels gave an amusing twist to the situation by having the group play, "Can't Get Started," as the second number.)
Daniels, when he switched from tenor to clarinet, had reed trouble. He pointed to the other guys to take choruses in sequence, then walked to his case, lying on the floor in the wings just offstage, where I could see him from my seat as he changed his reed. Then he walked back onstage and came back in. Once again, anybody with the slightest insecurity about the changes would have been well and truly bollixed. I hope the younger folks in the audience picked up this unspoken lesson that doing the homework pays off.
Great day altogether--mixed salad of music from finest to (shrug) "eh," with dozens of performers ranging from exceptional pros to top students. Made me want to come home and practice until my lips fall off.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2008-01-20 12:30)
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Author: glin
Date: 2008-01-20 13:44
I attended the concert last night and have to say that Daniels is simply amazing. He actually played a lot of clarinet in addition to the tenor sax. Great sound and virtuoso playing.
His clarinet appeared to be equipped with a custom barrel and bell. The bell had the look of a Backun bell but I wasn't sure about the barrel.
And, I would also have to salute the US Navy Commodores for an excellent performance.
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