Music: Ill Woodwind

When the younger jazzmen did away with Dixieland and big-band swing and dove into the cool depths of bop and progressive jazz, they also left behind the sweet, lucid sound of the clarinet. Once known as an ill woodwind that nobody blows good, this relatively new instrument suddenly struck the U.S. mass ear in the 1920s in the hands of Ted Lewis, who made it wail, and reached peak popularity in the pre-World War II days of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, who made it swing. It is still a must in every Dixieland and New Orleans jazz group, but is rare as a hot lick in modern combos. What happened?

Says Goodman, resting in his Stamford, Conn, home between weekend dance dates with his big band: “The clarinet has a quality that’s kind of oldfashioned. I think it sort of irks the moderns; it sort of throws them. They’ve found ways to disguise the sound of other instruments, especially the trumpet. They make it sound soft and low−not like a real trumpet. But any good clarinetist makes it sound like a clarinet. They gotta.”

Artie Shaw agrees. “The clarinet is a clear, positive instrument. Cool music has a tendency toward fuzziness. It depends on hints or suggestions rather than definite, clear-cut statements. Most so-called cool jazz seems to have evolved from music played in low ranges−trombones, tenor and baritone saxophones.” Clarinetist Shaw is currently living in Spain, building himself a huge stone mansion on the Costa Brava, and talking about retiring to live in it.

A few clarinetists have managed to make their instruments speak in a style that falls somewhere between the solid fundamentals of swing and the freest flights of progressive jazz. Their methods are similar: play a basic melody in the old style and elaborate it with floods of notes in rhythmically diverse patterns. Explains Manhattan’s Tony Scott: “I want the simple cry of jazz that a gospel singer might put in five notes−only I may use 15.” The effect is a bit like vanilla frosting on a beef pie−interesting, but not wholly palatable.

Clarinet-playing Bandleader Woody Herman, who has managed to go modern after starting out as a swingster, refuses to admit that the clarinet has lost caste. “Brother, the clarinet still sounds as sweet and ridey as ever,” he says. “The big fault lies in the lack of new men. Guys like Goodman, Shaw and myself should lend a hand, but Goodman is too busy sorting his jewelry, Shaw is still having trouble keeping track of his girls, and me, well, I have the problem of trying to keep up with Uncle Whiskers on my tax bill. Sure, we’ve lost ground, but when you listen to guys like Tony Scott, Buddy De Franco and Jimmy Giuffre, you suddenly discover there’s still something new in music expressed by the clarinet.”