Year One: Blog Roundup

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According to my squarespace billing history, my website has just turned 1 year old!  Time for someone to smear cake on its face.  But seriously, I thought I would take a moment to update you on the state of the blog, as well as link to some of my favorite and most popular posts.

First off, you may notice a few changes around the blog.  Probably some things that should have been there since the start, however my excuse is the squarespace sidebar widgets tend not to give a full explanation on what they do. 

 

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How to clean a woodwind mouthpiece

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Let's face the facts.  You probably need to clean your mouthpiece.  I've known for a while that my mouthpieces needed a good cleaning.  It's one of those things we know we as woodwind players know we should do more often but don't.  After reading this article on NPR about wind players getting sick from the filth in their instruments, I finally decided to do something about the declining state of my mouthpieces.  (one could argue that while some instrumentalists are suffering from hypersensitivity pneumonitis, there are still millions of professionals, amateurs, and students who do not)    

What you will need:  

  • Liquid dish soap
  • Warm water
  • Woodwind mouthpiece brush OR a soft bristled toothbrush

 

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JazzTimes interviews Eddie Daniels

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Lee Mergner of the JazzTimes recently interviewed the legendary jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels about a new upcoming project. Luckily for us the conversation went very long, with Eddie talking a lot about players he enjoys working with, ensemble concept, clubs versus festivals, tenor players around New York in the 70's, and more. Be sure to read the whole interview here.

That was a heckuva band back then with Thad and Mel and must have been quite an experience for a young player like Daniels. “Jerome Richardson was the lead alto, Pepper Adams was the baritone, Joe Farrell was the tenor when we started, plus Jerry Dodgion and myself. Roland Hanna on piano, Richard Davis on bass. Snooky Young, Bob Brookmeyer, Garnett Brown. Just a fabulous band. Getting a chance to listen to Joe Farrell and then Joe Henderson was great.”
Heady company for a young tenor player. “Joe was the other tenor player in the band when I was there. And Michael Brecker was a student of mine at one point and was a great friend. I thought, ‘I love the way these guys play, I think they play better than I do.’ But with the clarinet, I thought I’d have my own channel. But eventually I realized that I could come back to the tenor. I don’t have to be Joe Henderson, I don’t have to be Michael Brecker, I’m Eddie.”
The interesting thing about those two tenor players is that for all their incredible talents, they were both very humble people. Daniels thinks that it’s no accident. “When you are making music at that high a level, there’s no time to do anything else but work your art. If you’re not humble, then you’re in the wrong business.”