[Dixielandjazz] High notes in jazz -

[Stephen Barbone]

I think Louis played lots high notes (for the times) in his younger
days. Most of his biographers seem to stress that his initial attention
getting devices were high and loud. Just a comment, not a put down
because Louis was THE MAN in jazz and did it ALL.

Some other notable high note guys were/are Cat Anderson (Ellington Band)
and Arturo Sandoval. Others, notably Miles, never could play high, (or
fast) with any consistency.

Probably depends somewhat on the the technical facility of the player
and his/her desire to attract attention and or get applause. Or to be
heard among the other instruments. The typical retort to a question,
"Why do you play so high? or Why do you play this tune at such a fast
tempo?", seems usually to be "Because I can."

The mass audiences just love it when a muso plays a very high note and
holds it for 16 or 32 bars. Guaranteed attention and applause getter.
Even Artie Shaw, who said his audiences were imbeciles, could not resist
C above high C in tunes like "Blue Skies" and "Someday Sweetheart". He
invented the fingerings for notes above High G on clarinet and with him,
the altissimo register sounded beautiful and natural. Today, I only hear
my hero, Kenny Davern do that with any consistency.

Why? Because they could, and it is a differentiation between them and
the rest of us. It is "their" style. And in Shaw's case he said: "I
couldn't compete with trumpets playing high D's and Eb's so I had to
play high G's and A's and Bb"s and even high C's to get above them . . .
but if I were going to play up there it should sound like normal notes.
I didn't see any reason for the tone to thin out. I worked at it until
it came out." (quote from Henry Duckman's "A Master Class with Artie
Shaw", in Clarinet a bulletin published by the International Clarinet
Society, Spring Edition 1985)

What Shaw refers to as high C, is what the rest of us call C above high
C.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone