[Dixielandjazz] Best Clarinet Solos (was: Wake up, DJML!)

[Charlie Hooks]

    I agree about Peanuts, but does anyone remember Clarence Hutchinrider's
solo on the Casa Loma recording of "Smoke Rings"?  Jim Beebe once had that
solo scored out for me, but I never could play it well.  There was some
trouble about the proper key--I don't recall what, but Beebe can tell you.

    Clarence was another old Waco, Texas, boy--several years before me.  Bye
the bye: when I was on Pee Wee Hunt's last band (I was "the kid" at 40 years
old), Pee Wee used to like getting a mite sloshed on Scotch (well, on
whatever was there) in my room and remembering old times on the Casa Loma.
He claimed (and we all pretended not to believe it, just to plague him) that
the Casa Loma trombone section could improvise 4 part harmony without ever
stepping on each other.

    I remember those nights, December of '72 over the New Year into January
of '73, Mike Vax, just off Kenton's band and learning for the first time to
play OKOM, giving Pee Wee good-natured grief about Pee Wee's dismissal of
many modern players; and Mike, whose room was next door to mine, setting up
playback equipment and illustrating his arguments with musical examples.

    I found there was more to Pee Wee Hunt than met the eye; but I also
learned there was a good deal to Mike Vax.  In less than a month he was
playing dixieland acceptably; and over the intervening years he has learned
to do it quite well.  Of course, Mike can do just about anything musically
that he sets his mind to.  My favorite memory of those early times is his
version of "Here's That Rainy Day": starting down in the lower depths with
the first eight, octave up on each succeeding eight, ending in to
stratosphere.  And played musically--not just show-out trumpet.

    Holy smoke!  How did I get from Clarence Hutchinrider to here?  Same way
I got from forty to seventy four, I suppose: just rambling on...

Charlie



  

  


on 5/1/03 11:44 PM, Don Gumpert at dongumpert at cox.net wrote:

> Funny, I saw no mention of Peanuts Hucko doing "Stealin' Apples"...
> Sandy Gumpert
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Augustine" <ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu>
> To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 11:42 PM
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Best Clarinet Solos (was: Wake up, DJML!)
> 
> 
>> From: RAHBerry at aol.com
>> Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 23:33:26 EDT
>> To: Bobolink7736 at aol.com, Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Wake up, DJML!
>> 
>> Pete Fountain's solo on "Tin Roof Blues" with the BASIN STREET SIX is the
>> best clarinet solo ever!  AND, he was only 19 years old!
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Rae Ann & DJML--
> What!  Quel fromage!  I think i'm offended (unless i left it in
> my other pants).  (I had another exclamation-point after that last
> sentence, but then i remember the maxim that no message should have
> more than two exclamation-points, so i changed it to a period.  Cf.
> John Barth's _End of the Road_ for prescriptive grammarianism, of
> which this is not an example.)
> Some months back i made a CD sampler for the young
> clarinet-player in our novice dixieland-band.  She's a good player,
> but just hasn't heard much dixieland, especially clarinet players
> from decades ago.  I started with Pete Fountain's CD of fellow
> clarinetists, but included some others of more recent vintage.  I
> might choose other cuts today, and all of us can think of other
> players or other songs that might (should) perhaps be included, but
> this was just some samples for her to listen to.  I particularly like
> the solos by Allan Vaché, Ken Peplowshi, and especially Evan
> Christopher (oddly enough, each with Jim Cullum's band).
> 
> 

"Basin Street Blues", Kenny Davern with The Dixie Rebels
> "My Inspiration", Irving Fazola with Bob Crosby & His Orchestra

> "Perdido Street Blues", Sidney Bechet with Louis Armstrong

> "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", George Lewis

> "Wild Man Blues", Johnny Dodds's Black Bottom Stompers

> "Love Is Just around the Corner", Pee Wee Russell & E Condon

> "Dame Blanche", Bob Wilbur with Jack Teagarden

> "Sweet Lorraine", Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra

> "Show Piece", Edmond Hall & His Quartet with Teddy Wilson

> "Beau Koo Jack", Omer Simeon

> "Rose Room", Albert Nicholas

> "Body and Soul", Barney Bigard with Louis Armstrong All-Stars

> "Tin Roof Blues", Pete Fountain

> "A Woman Is a Sometime Thing", Allan Vaché & Jim Cullum JB

> "Doin' the New Low-Down", Bobby Gordon & Peter Ecklund

> "Ring Dem Bells", Ken Peplowski with Jim Cullum Jazz Band

> "It's All Right with Me", Bob Draga with Titan Hot Seven

> "Flee as a Bird", Evan Christopher with Jim Cullum Jazz Band

> "Saints", Jack Maheu with The Dukes of Dixieland

> 
> Now, doesn't that give us a lot more to argue about?  Thanks to
> you and boblynn for instigating the logomachy.
> 
> Dan
> --
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
> **  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
> **    "Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of       **
> **     those who think they talk sense." -- Robert Frost (1874-1963)  **
> **--------------------------------------------------------------------**
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz