[Dixielandjazz] Metal clarinets, and others in jazz

[TBW504 at aol.com]

The expert on metal clarinets is:
 
KRAUT, Eberhard     Clarinet
1949, Jan 14:  Brackenheim, Germany
Learnt to play clarinet with a Musikverein outfit - a  typical German 
woodwind and brass band. Inspired by George Lewis and Monty  Sunshine he became 
increasingly interested in New Orleans traditional jazz.  During the 1980s he got 
to know an instrument repairer in Stuttgart, and by  assisting him became 
skilled in overhauling and repairing clarinets. Has made  many contacts in the 
States and elsewhere and has become an expert on metal  clarinets, playing such an 
instrument himself, performing with Bill Sinclair and  Dr. Klapproth. His 
great pride is in a metal Albert system clarinet, itself very  rare (most metal 
clarinets are Boehm system) which is identical to the one  George Lewis is 
pictured playing by Bill Russell: a one-piece Albert system by  Pedler with 
detachable bell. Eberhard tells me that the metal clarinet Brian  Carrick plays is a 
Noblet Boehm system instrument. Since this clarinet was given  to Brian by 
George’s daughter it is probably one of the many clarinets given to  George 
Lewis by admirers, and not one actually played by him. Eberhard has  written 
extensively on New Orleans jazz and contributed to many journals and  magazines. 
The opportunity given to him by Don Marquis to study George Lewis’s  metal 
clarinet in the New Orleans Jazz museum gave him much satisfaction, as  also did 
his meetings with Mildred Zeno, George’s daughter, and Bill Russell.  Eberhard 
was among the 100 who attended the committal of Dutch Seutter’s ashes  in 
Germany. Eberhard has recently (late 2005) overhauled a French NOBLET  instrument 
identical to George Lewis’ “Fontaine” ebonite (hard rubber) Albert  clarinet. 
He obtained this rare NOBLET in order to prove that “Fontaine” was a  trade 
name and that the instruments were made by NOBLET/LEBLANC, which beside  BUFFET 
and SELMER, is a further famous French woodwind company still in  operation, 
although all three companies stopped making Albert clarinets in the  
late-1930s or early-1940s. George Lewis played his “Fontaine” on the “Jam  Session” 
recordings with Elmer Talbert in 1950 (AMCD-104); during the recordings  he did 
in California 1953 (re-issued on Delmark DD-201 & 202 and Good Time  Jazz CD 
12058-2 & 1259-2) and on the “Jazz at Vespers” recordings in 1954.  And one 
can see him with this clarinet with its straight (not swan-neck bent)  octave 
key on the cover photo of the Storyville CD 6020/21 “Jass - At The Ohio  Union 
1954” . As a “Fontaine” is strictly speaking a NOBLET clarinet we can say  
that George played an instrument of this company too (but not the one of Brian  
Carrick's which is also a NOBLET make but in metal). A further hard rubber  
Albert system clarinet George Lewis owned was a CONN; which he used during the  
recordings with Bunk Johnson in New Orleans 1945; for his Trio recordings 
1945.  For the recordings with Bunk Johnson in New York, 1945/46 (AMCD-116) George 
 Lewis played a wooden BUFFET Albert. When George Lewis visited Europe in the 
 late-1950s he had stopped playing the “Fontaine” and was again using his 
BUFFET,  and to the end of his life the SELMER wooden Albert clarinet which is 
in Ryoichi  Kawai’s possession. The instrument favoured by many New Orleans 
clarinet players  because of its fuller tone, specially in the lower register. I 
had always  imagined that it was superseded by the more agile Boehm system in 
historical  terms. In fact the Boehm dates from an earlier period and was 
patented in  Germany, 1844, whereas the Albert only emerged in Belgium two decades 
later. The  name Boehm really refers to the ring system of developed by 
Theobald Boehm. The  “Boehm” clarinet was developed by a women called Klose in 
association with the  French manufacturers Buffet. Marvellous what you can pick 
up on the Internet.  According to Eberhard Kraut, the clarinet George Lewis is 
holding in the Claxton  & Berendt book New Orleans 1960 was an East German 
make engraved “Major by  Selmer” and is different to the French made Selmer he 
played in his last decade.  Eberhard is sure he never played this clarinet 
(just as he never played the  Noblet metal Boehm clarinet in Brian Carrick’s 
possession) although it was in  the Albert system (in Germany it's called German 
system and the Boehm system  they call French system). “Major” was a trade name 
used by the German Selmer  company in Dusseldorf.  It seems they offered this 
type of inexpensive  clarinet to amateur musicians. Eberhard believes George 
got this clarinet as a  present when he played in Dusseldorf with Acker Bilk 
in 1960.
 
Brian Wood