Putte Wickman

Putte Wickman: Simple Isn't Easy

by Chris Mosey
November 29, 2007

Putte Wickman was one of a handful of top flight jazz clarinetists born in the 1920s who survived the demise of the big swing bands and made a successful transition to bebop. Along with Buddy DeFranco, with whom he recorded, and Tony Scott, Wickman created a whole new vocabulary for the instrument. His self-taught virtuosity was reminiscent in its soaring, swooping fluency to that displayed by Sidney Bechet in another era and another style. Had he not chosen to live ...