Lawrence Welk Clarinetist???

[Sopher]

Hi all,

I have been seeing a lot of Lawrence Welk re-runs lately, and there is
a featured clarinet guy - a little stocky, dark bushy hair, holds the
clarinet straight out like a soprano sax instead of down like a
classical guy. I love this guys tone - he is the reason I just got a
clarinet and am trying to add it as one of my instruments.

Does anyone know who this is and is there any CD with him featured - i
want ot lock in my "tonal image" of this guy so I can strive for that
sound.

Thanks!

Sopher

[Sopher]

Thanks to all I believe it was Henry Cuesta that I was referring to.

Now, can anyone tell a clarinet novice what I should do to get that
"chesty" upper register (as someone described it). ala Henry. I think
I am figuring out that clarnet people aren't fond of that type of
tone, but it's what I want so what do I do "wrong" to get it?

Thanks!

Dennis

[Merlin Williams]

Sounds like Henry Cuesta. Henry still does a fair bit of work here in
Canada; IIRC, his wife is Canadian.

I've worked with him on several gigs here in Toronto - a big band
Benny Goodman tribute, and The Stars of The Lawrence Welk Show. The
Welk show was actually a lot of fun. The accordionist, Myron Floren,
and tapdancer Arthur Duncan are two of the most seasoned pros I've
ever worked with. During rehearsal, we were running short on time,
and we were still due to run through Myron's numbers. To his credit,
Myron knows the band parts inside out, and was able to run us through
all the traps in the charts in ten minutes. The band dug him, and
played their butts off for him.

Henry is a cousin of the late Ernie Caceres, who played baritone, alto
and clarinet with Glenn Miller, and later, Jack Teagarden and Bobby
Hackett.

Visit my site "Merlin's Mouthpiece"
http://www.netcom.ca/~merlinw
A member of the Sax Ring and the
Duke Ellington Ring.

[Allen Cole]

I don't know how Henry did it, but when I was a young kid he had me
convinced that my high register was all wrong. Compared to him, the
normal clarion register sounded like squeaking. I made the mistake of
trying to broach this question with a member of the local symphony and
caused all kinds of confusion.

A good recording to listen to for this sound, would be "Two Funky
People" by Zoot Sims and Al Cohn--the only thing I've ever heard where
they play clarinet. I think it's on their first album together. Your
local record store should be able to track it down via the Muse system.

I think one obvious source of the sound is that all these guys are sax
players, and have probably conformed their clarinet equipment to be as
comfortable as possible. A good exercise might be to try using a reed at
least a full strength softer than you're used to. Then keep opening up
and opening up your throat until it gives you the kind of resistance
that you need to control it. Note that the softer reed is going to
require a lot more muscular control both in terms of embouchure and
breath support.

Also note that many of these guys gave the reed a lot of lower lip
cushion, and some creole school players may even have double-lipped.
(can someone jump in and comment?) Much like a classic Coleman Hawkins
tenor sax embouchure except with tighter facial stretching. This can
give you a lot of the tonal softening that you seek, but can make the
high register pretty fragile and the low register pretty raspy. For the
modern player, there are a lot of precise compromises to draw.

My best guess about Henry is soft reeds plus hard muscles. A good source
to seek out might be any writings from Dr. Lorenzo Tio of New Orleans. I
believe that he formally taught (and may actually have invented) the
Creole clarinet style.

Allen

http://members.tripod.com/allencole

[Sopher]

That cut is on Al&Zoot, 1st released in 1957 - Amazon.com even has a
sample of that song to listen to - it's in the mail.

Thanks - any other examples of that chesty Henry song that I can get?

Dennis

On Mon, 27 Dec 1999 20:04:10 -0500, Allen Cole <drf...@erols.com>
wrote:

[Paul Lindemeyer]

Allen Cole wrote:

> I don't know how Henry did it, but when I was a young kid he had me
> convinced that my high register was all wrong. Compared to him, the
> normal clarion register sounded like squeaking. I made the mistake of
> trying to broach this question with a member of the local symphony and
> caused all kinds of confusion.

It's seldom productive to ask a classical player about jazz/pop
technique unless
that person has some experience with it. They might have decades of
experience playing the "right way," but anything else could just sound
bad or wrong to them.

--

LINDEMEYER PRODUCTIONS INC.
Orchestras Ensembles Graphic Design
C.G. CONN Saxophones "Choice of the Artist"
Paul Lindemeyer <pau...@cyburban.com>