Friday, March 18, 2005

Bass clarinet cover band recordings you can hear on the internet

Under the heading "Reason No. 1,950,856 why we love the Internet" is a link to this site with bass clarinet music.

From the sixth grade to the twelfth grade, I played the bass clarinet - the last year, I was in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All-State Band. The closest I ever got to these recordings was the bass line to Pink Floyd's "Money," at top volume. My playing was not too accomplished but always very, very loud, and it freaked some people out. My proudest moment was in a rehearsal of the county wind ensemble, in my last year (so why not go for it), the conductor told the tubas to play louder, that he couldn't believe but they were being drowned out by the bass clarinet.

Not too many people know what a bass clarinet is. In the last high school concert before the home crowd, the tradition was to include a solo for the one or two most distinguished members of the group. So, in the spring of 1983, the crowd heard me play a bass clarinet solo, accompanied on piano by a fellow student named Lorrie Heagy (who I think is now a music teacher in Alaska). When it was done, the crowd cheered and I laughed like a nut on the stage. A member of the audience told me later, your sound was great, particularly since none of us knew what you were supposed to sound like.

Two famous bass clarinet players: Alan Greenspan and John Kasich.

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