[Dixielandjazz] Clarinet Mouthpieces

[Barrie Walter Marshall]

I have email chat with an old friend of mine also a clainet player, I told him I used a Selmer CentredTone with a Vandoren 5JB mouthpiece, his reply was so interesting I thought it was worth sharing with other clarinet players on the list, he may be a subscriber for all I know, if he sees this I am sure he will not mind me sharing it.

Barrie


On using a 5JB. One must play with complete confidence and conviction - like Kenny Davern, who plays every note as if it is THE RIGHT NOTE ( and then it becomes the right note) otherwise it probably sounds awful using such a long open facing.
I am convinced that most great clarinet players of the past - including the ones that we think of being very loud - did not use such an open facing.
Artie Shaw is reputed to have used a Selmer S (short and close) and he wrote in his Clarinet Method that he thought it a mistake to use too open a mouthpiece (in the days when a Selmer D would be thought of as open)
Goodman used various around the Selmer HS**/ D area.
Fazola did not use a very open mouthpiece according to Bob Wilber
Not sure what Hucko used but he did say a 5JB was too open for him but  he could play very 'loud'
Barney Bigard used a selmer E, I believe.
Bob Wilber uses a RIA M2, around a Selmer D.
I guess one has to use what one is comfortable with regardless of what other people say. 
Do you reckon bands are louder today - amplification, large bore trumpets and trombones, plastic drum heads on 'rock' kits, amplified double basses, an ageing jazz audience losing its hearing, young people never having heard acoustic instruments and having been brought up on 'dance music' ??????? ( I always thought 'dance music' was played by Henry Hall )
Jelly Roll Morton said the music should be played 'soft, sweet with plenty of rhythm'
What is the difference between a 'loud' clarinet and a clarinet with great projection?
I haven't a clue as to the answers to all these questions.