[Dixielandjazz] Oscar Klein's wooden clarinet

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Not wooden in the metaphorical sense! 
A couple of years back I was at an academic conference in Halle, former East Germany, birthplace of Handel etc., nice old town not destroyed by wartime bombing (ignore the half-empty Communist towerblocks!) and discovered that the amazing Oscar (see YouTube) was in the second year of an anniversary year concert tour (no formal farewell tour for him, though he did depart this life very suddenly only a few months later). Great blues harmonica player, and guitarist, reminiscing about the tips he had in 1964 from Lightnin' Hopkins and playing a bit of Hopkins as well as a little more, and all the time coming back to his trumpet and making a huge sound on swing era and mostly Ellington numbers. With a floorshow drummer it was a great show. Then we heard his huge sound on a clarinet which had been sitting unattended for two hours on a lovely hot sunny afternoon in the reconditioned mediaeval church which is one of Halle's venues..  Wonderful tone and
 phrasing, but . . . 
Anyway, It was still a terrific afternoon.