[78-L] Alto sax style omissions

[Dan Van Landingham]

I knew of Dixon as an alto player who doubled clarinet.It was said that Berigan preferred a 
thin,piercing sound.Gus Bivona wasn't any different.Bivona was not my favourite alto player
as was Clint Neagley who worked with Goodman,Krupa and Harry James.What I liked abo-
unt many of those alto players was the big,lush,fat sound they had.Willie Smith is a great
favourite of mine as was Don Stovall whose alto I heard on a Decca 78 with Pete Johnson 's
band.Willie Smith was not a very good clarinetist but I loved his sound.I virtually wore out a
Columbia 78 of "Moten Swing" by Harry James,It was a two sided,expanded performance
that showed that Smith was a much better altoist than clarinetist.What I didn't like were 
those alto players who had a stuffy,huffing-puffing sound.Getting back to the clarinet,Skeets Herfurt once told me how tough the clarinet was to master.He wasn't bad:
I wore out,then broke,a Victor 78 from 1942 of "I Never Knew" by Alvino  Rey.He was a 
very strict section leader as was another favourite of mine,Johnny Bothwell..

--- On Tue, 1/5/10, Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [78-L] Alto sax style omissions
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 10:37 PM


Was Dixon mainly a sax player, then?  My father played tenor sax, flute and
clarinet, and his clarinet tone was a bit thin.  He explained to me that
that was due to his favouring sax so much, and that just the opposite would
be the effect had clarinet been his main horn.

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 4:13 AM, Dan Van Landingham <
danvanlandingham at yahoo.com> wrote:

> As for my comment on Dixon's clarinet style,I had heard Goodman and Woody
> Herman as a kid when my parents bought an old Philco radio-phonograph
> combination and
> a number of Goodman and Herman 78s were in with the records as part of the
> deal.Dixon's
> tone was,to my ears,a very brittle,thin sound.I play clarinet and my sound
> was very dark.I
> haven't touched it in some time.
>
>
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