by Steven Cerra
Friday, December 1, 2017

Along with the trumpet, the clarinet was the preeminent instrument of the Swing Era when some of the era's most popular bands were led by the likes of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Woody Herman.

While the trumpet persisted as a featured instrument in the smaller combos that brought Bebop and Modern Jazz to the forefront in the years following the end of the Second World War, the clarinet seemed to recede into Jazz History.

The exceptional playing of Buddy DeFranco brought the devilishly-difficult-to-play clarinet into the world of Bebop and beyond with a degree of skill rarely rivaled by other modern, Jazz instrumentalists.

Each and every time I return to Buddy DeFranco's music, I shake my head in amazement at his superb technique and consistently innovative improvisation.


Although rarely recognized as such, Buddy's achievements rival those of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the two principal originators of Bebop. His skill and ideas never fail to impress me, whatever the setting.

read more at: http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com.br/2017/12/buddy-defranco-and-dave-mckenna-two-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+JazzProfiles+(Jazz+Profiles)

#BuddyDeFranco and #DaveMcKenna

Buddy DeFranco and Kenny Drew

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and pianist George Shearing toyed with a quintet format in the late 1940s, but before they could record together, the two went their separate ways. Buddy signed with Capitol in 1949 while Shearing signed with MGM and brought in vibist Margie Hyams to replace Buddy's sound. But by 1951, Buddy decided MGM was a better bet and recorded first with his big band and then a series of bebop quartets starting in '52. His quartet's first bop pianist was Kenny Drew.

Buddy and Drew [above] would tour and record through 1954. This period was one of experimentation for Buddy, who had come up in the swing era (that's his clarinet solo on Tommy Dorsey's Opus No. 1 in 1944). Buddy's first bop recordings with Drew came in February and March 1952. His group included Jimmy Raney (g), Teddy Kotick (b) and Art Taylor (d). One of the most interesting sides recorded was a Drew original—Cairo:

Cairo

After appearing that month with Charlie Parker in a Jerry Jerome Jazz Concert at the Loew's Valencia Theatre in Jamaica, New York, Buddy recorded in San Francisco in July '52 with Drew, Curly Russell and Art Blakey. Among the sides was The Way You Look Tonight...

The Way You Look Tonight

Back in New York in April 1953 to record, Buddy replaced Russell with bassist Milt Hinton. Here's Buddy's Show Eyes...

Show Eyes

In late April and May '53, Buddy and his quartet recorded live at the Blue Note in Chicago, with Kenny Drew (p) Eugene Wright (b) and Art Blakey. They were introduced by Oscar Peterson. Here's Street of Dreams...

Street of Dreams

In June '53, Buddy and Drew were in Los Angeles recording for Gene Norman Presents with the Herman McCoy Swing Choir. Each song had the word "star" in the its title, and the results were rather nifty. Interestingly, this bop-and-voices session came one month after Parker recorded with the Dave Lambert Singers in New York for Norman Granz. Here's Star Eyes...

Star Eyes

Also dig Stella By Starlight, with wonderful piano work by Drew...

Stella By Starlight

And that was it. Drew left the group in 1954 to lead his own groups in New York and Los Angeles. But before Drew departed, he arranged for a new pianist to take over—Sonny Clark.

When I interviewed Buddy in 2010, I asked him about his bebop journey of the early 1950s...

JazzWax: Your bebop quartet started in 1952 and featured pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Curly Russell and drummer Art Blakey [above].
Buddy De Franco: Yes. Milt Hinton replaced Curly. That was an exciting group. Then in early 1954, Art wanted to form his own group—the Jazz Messengers. That group became so successful that people would come up to me in later years and say that they remembered when I was in Art’s group [laughs]. In 1954, Kenny Drew gave notice and told me he had his replacement lined up. He said once we got to San Francisco, he’d have the pianist sit in so I could hear him. When we arrived at the Blackhawk [in San Francisco], Kenny brought Sonny Clark in. I loved him right away. He was interesting and intelligent, and played with a happy, skippy feel. When I heard Sonny, I knew instantly we were musically compatible in terms of what we were trying to do with modern jazz. Drummer Bobby White and bassist Gene Wright joined around this time, too."

What's interesting about Buddy's evolution with Drew is how he matures as a bop player. His bop forays begin somewhat awkwardly—a swing player taking a methodical crack at bop. But Buddy was a fast study and soon settled into a smart, cohesive groove. By the time Clark [above] joined the quartet, Buddy had perfected his approach, and the Clark sessions remain a milestone in modern jazz.

JazzWax tracks: Six of the eight sides from Buddy DeFranco's February and March 1952 sessions with Kenny Drew can be found on Hep's 1949-'52 Studio Performances(tracks 21-26) here or the French Classics series [pictured above].

The June and July 1952 sessions are on Buddy DeFrancohere (caution: the mp3 download isn't the same album) and here.

The April 1953 studio sessions are on Mr. Clarinet here and here.

The live 1953 recording from Chicago's Blue Note are tucked away on The Oscar Peterson Trio 'Live' 1953-56here. The Buddy DeFranco Quartet tracks are: Somebody Loves Me, The Things We Did Last Summer, Cairo, Street of Dreams and Easy Living.

The June 1953 session with the Herman McCoy Swing Choir is on a rare LP called Gene Norman Presents Mulligan with Baker+Buddy DeFranco Quartet. If it ever was on CD, it's out of print now.

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Buddy DeFranco obituary

Clarinettist Buddy DeFranco practising before a performance at the International Association for Jazz Education conference in New York in 2006. Photograph: Nancy Kaszerman/Zuma/Corbis

John Fordham
Friday 26 December 2014 17.36 GMT
The role of the clarinet in jazz changed from vital to marginal in little more than a decade, between the last hurrahs of the big swing bands at the end of the 1930s, and the rise of the unsentimentally byzantine style of bebop. The traditionally woody-toned instrument turned out to be no match for the fiercer saxophone on bop’s edgy melodies, except in the hands of a rare exception in the American musician Buddy DeFranco, who has died aged 91.

In the 21st century, the instrument’s unique personality has reappeared in contemporary jazz through the work of artists including the Americans Don Byron, Joe Lovano and Anat Cohen, and the UK’s Shabaka Hutchings – but during the first wave of the bebop revolution, the prodigious DeFranco was almost alone.


If Benny Goodman, Johnny Dodds, Frank Teschemacher, Artie Shaw and Pee Wee Russell had dominated jazz clarinet in the 1920s and 30s, and Kenny Davern, Eddie Daniels and Bob Wilber had become the celebrated inheritors of their styles, DeFranco was the maverick who investigated the labyrinths and rat-runs of bebop and developed a flawless technique for it. Only the post-second world war clarinettists Tony Scott and Jimmy Giuffre came into the modern frame alongside DeFranco – and though they were regarded by some as warmer and more quirkily expressive players, DeFranco’s playing was far from the coldly efficient exercise it was sometimes caricatured as being.

Though he avoided the idiosyncrasies of pitch and intonation that made more obviously characterful performers of Dodds or Russell, DeFranco had a rich tone, ideas and seamless fluency. He also maintained an exuberant consistency into his 80s, continuing to practise several hours a day, and recording music with younger exponents of the same garrulously lyrical jazz style that he loved.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/26/buddy-defranco-jazz-clarinettist-obituary-john-fordham

Octojazzarian profile: Buddy DeFranco

By Arnold Jay Smith
When I was coming up, the instrument of choice for young reed players was the clarinet. Imagine my surprise when I learned much later that it is among the most difficult to play. While its size makes it easier for small hands to hold, the keys are further apart for young fingers to reach and there are both holes to cover and keys to depress. I guess it’s like swinging a heavy bat before stepping to the plate. There have been no fewer than four clarinet players in my family, ranging in age from eight to adult. One musician told me that it's discouraging to see how many young players drop out after trying clarinet. The recently-retired, Guinness record-holding Stanley Drucker of the New York Philharmonic, like our subject Buddy DeFranco, virtually played nothing else.
Others have brought the clarinet back from oblivion. After the Swing Era, where the instrument was the defining sound— think Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, and the Glenn Miller Reed section sound—it fell into disuse as a solo instrument. There are more celebratory doublers now than in recent memory: Eddie Daniels, Paquito D’Rivera, Anat Cohen, Ken Peplowski, and, among the traditional players, Bob Wilber. Then there’s Don Byron, who plays klezmer and contemporary jazz on the instrument.
Photo: Suzanne Cerny
See also on JAZZofilo march, 15
Complete on: http://jazz.com/features-and-interviews/2009/10/16/octojazzarian-profile-buddy-defranco