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From: Alberto Pinton
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra Digest]
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 00:48:44 PST>At 8:30 PM -0400 7/11/00, lawrence johns wrote:
>>The high register of the bari sax is very weak, thin
>>and less characteristic. I would suspect the bass sax is even more
>>weak-Being mainly a baritone saxophone player, I've to disagree with the above
statement: there's *nothing* weak about the bari's high register,...maybe
the player has to dig into it to get it going but it seems to me that
recorded musicians like Harry Carney, Joe Temperley, Ronnie Cuber, and
*sound experimenters* like Hamiet Bluiett and more recently James Carter
have demonstrated the flexibility, nobility, strength and beauty of the
bari's top notes...check'em out!!>The bit about the bari sax used to be true, and is repeated by many
>orchestration books--but it isn't true any longer. After Gerry
>Mulligan brought the instrument out of the shadows, manufacturers did
>the necessary work to strengthen the upper notes, and they are now
>quite reliable on any decent instrument.-Having taken lessons with most of the musicians mentioned above, I know
what they play on and none of them use a *newer* horn: from Bluiett's some
85 year old Conn to Cuber's Selmer Mark VI to Temperley's vintage
Conn...I'd say that the mouthpiece/reed set-up has more to do with it than
the horn itself: I'm not saying it can't be done but generally speaking,
with a closer mouthpiece coupled with a medium/softer reed the horn will be
less inclined to 'sing' in the upper register(...mr.Cohen is absolutely
right:the old horns *do*have potential...no doubt about it...).-Finally, I've great fingerings for 4 octaves and a M2, ending my
practicing register in the alto saxophone's altissimo range...that's pretty
'high',seems to me.Good luck, off to practicing...
Alberto Pinton
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From: "Jay Easton"
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 02:12:03 -0700
Subject: [CB] klezmer clarinet
Some contemporary players play "C" Albert System in the hopes of discovering the secret to all of Naftule Brandwine's virtuosity, others play Bb Albert to emulate such players as Dave Tarras. If you happen to be Andy Statman, and you've had the priviledge of actually studying with Tarras, then you'll certainly be playing Bb Alberts! (Statman inherited all of Tarras' instruments.)
Strangely enough, though, I have a video of Andy Statman, and in following along with his fingers on my C Albert-system clarinet, everything matched! So, at least some of the time, he has played on a C rather than a Bb.
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Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 10:46:08 -0400
From: Bob Thomas
Subject: Re: [CB] [Contra Digest]> >>The high register of the bari sax is very weak, thin
>>>and less characteristic. I would suspect the bass sax is even more
> >>weak
>
>>The bit about the bari sax used to be true, and is repeated by many
>>orchestration books--but it isn't true any longer. After Gerry
>>Mulligan brought the instrument out of the shadows, manufacturers did
>>the necessary work to strengthen the upper notes, and they are now
>>quite reliable on any decent instrument.& Albert Pinton wrote:
>...I know
>what they play on and none of them use a *newer* horn: from Bluiett's some
>85 year old Conn to Cuber's Selmer Mark VI to Temperley's vintage
Conn... ...I'd say that the mouthpiece/reed set-up has more to
do with it than the horn itself...Read a late Mulligan interview where he was talking about
his current horn - "an old Conn". Said it was the best
bari he'd ever played.
b
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