Results for "Clarinet"

Evan Christopher

Born: August 31, 1969

Evan Christopher combines virtuosity, immaculate taste, and enthusiasm with a commitment to exploring the full range of possibilities in the New Orleans clarinet tradition. His highly personal brand of “contemporary, early jazz” strives to extend the legacies of early Creole clarinetists such as Sidney Bechet, Barney Bigard and Omer Simeon. Critics remarking on Christopher’s dynamic expressiveness have coined his style “close-encounter music” (NEW YORK TIMES) and have called his respect for the music traditions of New Orleans, “a triumph, joining the present seamlessly to a glorious past.” (THE OBSERVER, UK). His journey on Clarinet Road began in 1994, when he left his native California to join the New Orleans music community

Acker Bilk

Born: January 28, 1929

Acker Bilk has won immortality on rock oldies radio for his surprise 1962 hit "Stranger on the Shore," an evocative ballad featuring his heavily quavering low-register clarinet over a bank of strings. To the jazz world, though, he has a longer-running track record as one of the biggest stars of Britain's trad jazz boom, playing in a distinctive early New Orleans manner. After learning his instrument in the British Army, Bilk joined Ken Colyer's trad band in 1954 before stepping out on his own in 1956. By 1960, a record of his, "Summer Set" — a pun on the name of his home county — landed on the British pop charts, and Bilk was on his way, clad in the Edwardian clothing and bowler hats that his publicist told his Paramount Jazz Band to wear

Barney Bigard

Born: March 3, 1906

One of the premier clarinet players in the history of jazz, Barney Bigard remains immortal. Bigard carried the influence of his birth city, New Orleans, throughout his career. He played tenor sax but later concentrated on clarinet, which he studied with Lorenzo Tio. In 1925 he was hired by King Oliver and moved to Chicago. After two years with Oliver, he joined Duke Ellington’s Orchestra where he would remain for 15 years. Bigard’s New Orleans-style clarinet added another dimension to Ellington’s palette. His individual style and articulation were universally admired. His woody sound was a highlight of “Rose Room” and “Mood Indigo,” which he co-wrote with Ellington

Richard Stoltzman

Born: July 12, 1942

Richard Stoltzman's virtuosity, musicianship and sheer personal magnetism have made him one of today's most sought-after concert artists. As soloist with over a hundred orchestras, a captivating recitalist, an innovative jazz artist, and a prolific recording artist, this two-time Grammy Award winner has defied categorization, dazzling critics and audiences alike throughout many musical genres. Stoltzman's unique way with the clarinet has earned him an international reputation as he has opened up possibilities for the instrument that no one could have predicted. He gave the first clarinet recitals at both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, and became the first wind player to receive the Avery Fisher Prize

Artie Shaw

Born: May 23, 1910

Artie Shaw, a brilliant jazz clarinetist, was one of the most enigmatic, daring and adventurous bandleaders of the swing-era. An intellectual, he hated public life and the music industry. Over the course of his short career he formed ten orchestras and disbanding most of them after only a few months. At the peak of his career in the years just before World War II, Shaw was matched by few other musicians in popularity and technical skill. Born Arthur Arshawsky in New York City and raised in Connecticut, Shaw took up the saxophone at an early age and began playing professionally when he was only 14

Tony Scott

Born: June 17, 1921

Tony Scott, a distinguished jazz clarinetist who in the 1950s helped steer his instrument out of the swing era and into the sax-infested waters of bebop. With Buddy DeFranco, Mr. Scott was considered one of the leading bebop clarinetists. (The two men were often described as the only major clarinetists to take on bebop, a style thought to be incompatible with the instrument’s soft, sweet sound.) Mr. Scott, who also played the saxophone, performed and recorded with some of the titans of mid-20th- century jazz, among them Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday. If Mr. Scott was not widely known to the American public, it was partly because his eclectic style made him unclassifiable: over the years, he ranged through bebop and what today would be called New Age and world music

Tom Schmidt

Born San Francisco,1939,raised East Bay. Studied English at S.F. State with private lessons with altoist John Handy. Taught English at American River College, Sacramento, '65-'76. Musician thereafter, playing mostly Dixieland/swing with free jazz forays and a weakness for hillbilly (the most influential music of my childhood heard daily on Cactus Jack and the 30th & San Pablo Furniture Warehouse Hour, KWBR, Oakland). Widely published poet, worked with The Harmony Arts Mobile Unit as poet/musician, recorded with John Lescroart, Joe Craven, Dave Nachmanoff, Sourdough Slim. Current bands: Washboard Wizardz(Berekely), The Crawdad Poetry & Jazz Ensemble (Merced), Uke 'n Reed (Merced).

Pee Wee Russell

Born: March 27, 1906

Clarinetist Pee Wee Russell is one of those unique players that comes along only once in a lifetime, squawking his way quite expressively in an unpredictable fashion, carving out his own distinctive voice. Pee Wee was born Charles Ellsworth Russell in St. Louis and began playing clarinet in Muskogee Oklahoma which is famous for giving the jazz world pianist Jay McShann. Pee Wee's career in jazz began in the early 1920's in Chicago with Bix Beiderbecke and Frank Trumbauer, cutting his first sides with Red Nichols and his Five Pennies in 1929. The band also featured Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden on trombones, Bud Freeman on tenor sax and Eddie Condon on guitar. By the early 1930's, Pee Wee moved to New York where he found a steady home in the bands of Eddie Condon and jamming with a roster of hot jazz players including Bobby Hackett, Red Allen, Edmond Hall, Hot Lips Page, Jack Bland, Buster Bailey and Vic Dickenson

Don Byron

Born: November 8, 1958

For well over a decade, Don Byron has been a singular voice in an astounding range of musical contexts, exploring widely divergent traditions while continually striving for what he calls "a sound above genre." As clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, rhythm & blues, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge downtown improvisation. He has been consistently voted best clarinetist by critics and readers alike in leading international music journals since being named "Jazz Artist of the Year" by Down Beat in 1992

Alvin Batiste

Born: November 7, 1932

A music master, composer, arranger, educator and performer - Alvin Batiste defies description. He is a Renaissance Man for the 21st Century. He is a Music Pioneer who has contributed to every genre. He is simply "Batiste" - one of the most distinctive and virtuosic of modern jazz clarinetists, and his name alone has become synonymous with taking the music to the next level and the next generation. Although sometimes called a "New Orleans clarinetist" (his Columbia album even billed him as a "Legendary Pioneer of Jazz"), in reality Alvin Batiste is an avant-garde player who does not fit easily into any classification