bass clarinet

[tooter]

I like the sound of the bass clarinet and there are many examples of it's effective use in jazz of course. One of my favourites is [blues Bag] by Buddy de Franco and Art Blakey. I heard Buddy interviewed on the radio once, quite a few years ago, saying that he thought it was his best recording (to date, of course - perhaps he made some he liked better later) and yet some people looked askance when he said this. The album contains lots of interest IMHO, one is the presence of Freddie Hill on one track. Also Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller and Victor Feldman. but it's the bass clarinet sound that sets the tone and makes the album special.

Another example, the memory of which stays with me somehow, is David Murray playing "Elegy for Fanny Lou" - some sound - on [ballads for the bass clarinet]. I don't know the other tracks - just heard it on the radio some years ago.

Any other interesting cases to cite?

[7/4]

Eric Dolphy!

Edited May 29, 2004 by 7/4

[Brandon Burke]

Bass clarinet is one of my "axes", as it were. Sadly, I've been busy with school and live in an apartment with thin walls do I'm long out of practice.

Edited May 29, 2004 by Brandon Burke

[street singer]

Eric Dolphy!

Eric Dolphy, indeed. Hearing him on Coltrane's Village Vanguard recordings was my introduction to the instrument (as well as Dolphy himself). I love the sound he gets out of that thing... Nothing else quite like it. Have you heard his solo rendition of "God Bless The Child"?

Stunning...

[7/4]

Eric Dolphy!

Eric Dolphy, indeed. Hearing him on Coltrane's Village Vanguard recordings was my introduction to the instrument (as well as Dolphy himself). I love the sound he gets out of that thing... Nothing else quite like it. Have you heard his solo rendition of "God Bless The Child"?

Stunning...

Yes. And yes to Dolphy on the VV box (Naima!).

[White Lightning]

Harry Carney played some great Bass Clarinet from the mid 50s.

[White Lightning]

...and Bennie Maupin's Bass Clarinet was very importan to Miles' Bitches Brew.

[garthsj]

I like the sound of the bass clarinet and there are many examples of it's effective use in jazz of course. One of my favourites is [blues Bag] by Buddy de Franco and Art Blakey. I heard Buddy interviewed on the radio once, quite a few years ago, saying that he thought it was his best recording (to date, of course - perhaps he made some he liked better later) and yet some people looked askance when he said this. The album contains lots of interest IMHO, one is the presence of Freddie Hill on one track. Also Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller and Victor Feldman. but it's the bass clarinet sound that sets the tone and makes the album special.

Tooter ... I have talked to Buddy about this recording in the past, and the story has been written up several times. He was persuaded by Leonard Feather to try the bass clarinet for this particular recording session with Blakey; made this one great album, and then never recorded on the instrument again. He jokes that it was too much of a hassle to carry around, and that his fans did not expect him to play that instrument. There have been many attempts to get him to pick it up again, but apparently he doesn't even own one. (I am sure that the Yamaha instruments people would have no qualms about giving him their best instrument).

I am also hoping that this session will be reissued in a remastered edition sometime soon.

[BruceH]

Too bad. I love that album. Love the bass clarinet, too.

[couw]

Alastair Graham's take on Dolphy & his bcl

[B. Goren.]

Eric Dolphy!

Eric Dolphy played the bass clarinet on most of the sessions he recorded for Prestige (as a leader and as a sideman).

[tooter]

Tooter ... I have talked to Buddy about this recording in the past, and the story has been written up several times. He was persuaded by Leonard Feather to try the bass clarinet for this particular recording session with Blakey; made this one great album, and then never recorded on the instrument again. He jokes that it was too much of a hassle to carry around, and that his fans did not expect him to play that instrument. There have been many attempts to get him to pick it up again, but apparently he doesn't even own one. (I am sure that the Yamaha instruments people would have no qualms about giving him their best instrument).

I am also hoping that this session will be reissued in a remastered edition sometime soon.

I suppose that if you are used to only carrying an ordinary clarinet the bass item would seem heavy. Thanks for the story, Garth - it's kind of refreshing to hear that he sticks to his guns - he decides he's done enough on the instrument and that's it.

Eric Dolphy predominates here naturally, but it's good to hear of the other practitioners. Bennie Maupin I knew of, but I didn't know Harry Carney was a member of the club, WL.

Some others spring to mind too. Harbie Mann, Marty Erlich, Eddie Daniels, Gary Smulyan and quite a few more. I have a recording of a Don Grolnick British concert with Marty playing some bcl in there.

Beautiful adornment to the thread, Couw - you always come up with something!

[couw]

of more recent vintage:

Carlos Actis Dato

Louis Sclavis

both were featured on recent BFT disks.

(sorry not to write much more here, I seem to have a bout of RSI...)

[brownie]

Michel Portal is also damn good on bass clarinet.

But, of course, no one has made better use of the instrument than Eric Dolphy!

[garthsj]

Eric Dolphy is, of course, the modern master, but there is one very interesting Tony Scott album where he plays lots of bass clarinet... This album has thankfully been reissued as I wore out my original Bethlehem vinyl. The album is part of the Avenue Jazz Bethlehem reissue series, and is "Milt Hinton: East Coast Jazz #5" and Tony is listed, for contractual reasons, I presume, under his real name, A.J. SCIACCA. Dick Katz on piano, and Osie Johnson on drums round out this lovely little quartet album.. highly recommended.

Also, Joe Temperley plays great bass clarinet, as well as being one of the best baritone sax players around today...

[mikeweil]

I didn't know that story about Blues Bag ... I think this is the one bass clarinet album I would take to the desert island, even before Dolphy.

I love that instrument, much more than the higher sibling.

Bennie Maupin is great on it, Marty Ehrlich, Bob Mintzer and many other play some great stuff on it. I will have to get me that Milt Hinton CD ...

Another favorite of mine:

One of the most relaxed swinging albums I have. Mann (as well as Jack Nimitz) also plays some bass clarinet on this:

[king ubu]

Some good calls, already, and not much to add.

Scott's indeed very good on that Milt Hinton disc, Garth! It is actually the Tony Scott quartet performing under the name of Hinton, only, if I remember right.

Carney can be heard on bcl on one tune of his with strings date (which was reissued on Ben Webster's "Music for Loving", a 2CD set compiling Webster's with strings dates and some).

Quite a fan of Portal and Sclavis, too. Both together is even better!

Then, I think Dolphy is da man on bass clarinet, for me. His solo recordings of "God Bless the Child" are really something else!

On the "East Coast Jazz Series / 6", a date by Urbie Green, Al Cohn (as "Ike Horowitz") can be heard playing some good bass clarinet.

How about Coltrane? There's some on that rare "Cosmic Music" date.

Donald Garrett, the bassist and bass clarinetist playing in the later Coltrane bands (on the Seattle concert, for instance), has somehow never really gotten much love from me, he almost seems pedestrian, at times.

ubu

[P.L.M]

Who doesn't play bass clarinet this days?

Some favorites:

- Rudi Mahall

- Carlos Actis Dato

- Hans koch

- André Jaume

- Denis Collin

- Jacques Foschia

- Joe Giardullo

- Vinny Golia

- Avram Fefer

- Michael Moore

- Don Byron

- John Purcell

- Michael Marcus

- Marty Ehrlich

- Michel Portal

- Louis Sclavis

edit: corrections. Thanks N.D.

Edited May 30, 2004 by P.L.M

[7/4]

Anthony Braxton? I have to check my collection...

[sal]

David Murray is a great bass clarinet player.

[Nate Dorward]

Who doesn't play bass clarinet this days?

Some favorites:

- Rudy Mahall

- Marty Ehrlicht

It's Rudi & Ehrlich. Yes they're both excellent musicians. I've been listening a lot to Mahall's work on Geoff Goodman's Naked Eye (Tutu), one of the past year's best releases. He's also excellent on Alex von Schlippenbach's Broomriding, another good one from the past year.

[Newk]

Check out David Murray's "Ballads for Bass Clarinet".

[tooter]

This one [East Coast Jazz Vol 6] also has "Ike Horowitz" (alias Al Cohn) playing bass clarinet as well as other instruments, and the album is known as [The Lyrical Language of Urbie Green] too. I had no idea of the alias - thanks for the info.

Eddie Daniels plays bass clarinet on [A Flower for All Seasons] too - duet date with Bucky Pizzarelli.

Edited May 30, 2004 by tooter

[king ubu]

This one [East Coast Jazz Vol 6] also has "Ike Horowitz" (alias Al Cohn) playing bass clarinet as well as other instruments, and the album is known as [The Lyrical Language of Urbie Green] too. I had no idea of the alias - thanks for the info.

Eddie Daniels plays bass clarinet on [A Flower for All Seasons] too - duet date with Bucky Pizzarelli.

The one you pictured is the one I meant. The liner notes of the Rhino/Avenue reissue (latest nineties) refer to the alias and state that it's actually Al Cohn.

ubu

[jazzbo]

Carney's my favorite!

Murray may be among my favorites of the living. . . .