[Dixielandjazz] Clarinet players, volume and King Oliver's band

[confit at isp.com]

Johnny Dodds played clarinet with Oliver when Doc Cheatham heard the band.
Johnny was a powerful, full-toned clarinetist that could undoubtedly have
been easily heard over the brass in that band.

New Orleans clarinetists prided themselves on heavy, big, fat sounds, and
achieved this by using mouthpieces that were very open and very thin
reeds. Willie Humphrey used a 1 1/2 reed. Many classical players use a 3
or 4 and mouthpieces with a narrow tip opening.

Any clarinet player who is inaudible over a band or needs a microphone
needs to change the setup they are using. It's that simple. Benny Goodman
and Artie Shaw could easily be heard over their big bands without mikes in
the 1930s and 1940s. Why? Big bore Selmer clarinets with big tone holes,
wide open mouthpieces and thin reeds. Clarinets are not made that way
anymore, because most clarinets are sold to classical players. I once
compared a modern Buffet with a Selmer L-series from 1936. The tone holes
on the Selmer are significantly larger.

There's been a lot of discussion that the New Orleans clarinet "sound" was
because of the Albert system clarinet. Personally I think that's all a lot
of romanticized drivel.

I believe there's a mention in the book "Hear Me Talkin' To Ya" that the
Oliver band could be so quietly that you could hear the dancers feet over
the sound of the band. In other words, they used dynamics, unlike the Lu
Watters band.

Regards,
Chris Buch






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