etnobofin

Free Parking for improvisation in multiple environments.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Byron's Bugs

Don Byron, clarinetist and composer. His 1996 album Bug Music carried the ambitous subtitle Music Of The Raymond Scott Quintette, John Kirby & His Orchestra, And The Duke Ellington Orchestra. And yet what is most surprising about this piece of painstaking musical archaeology is how modern it sounds.


It's a dynamite band, too, featuring Uri Caine (pn), Pheeroan akLaff, Billy Hart and Joey Baron (d) and David Gilmore (g).

I've chosen a couple of compositions from the album that were either written or arranged by Raymond Scott (1908-1994). Scott is among "the-most-widely-heard-composers-of-the-20th-Century" thanks to his work becoming the background for multiple Warner Brothers cartoons, from classic 1930s Loonie Tunes through to Pinky and the Brain.

Don Byron - Powerhouse
Don Byron - The Quintet Play Carmen
From Bug Music: Nonesuch 79438 [Buy]

If you'd like to know more about Don Byron, his website is very good. And Fred Jung's Conversation with Don Byron is well worth reading.


posted by etnobofin @ 17:39  

5 Comments:

  • At 10:33 PM, Blogger Nick said…

    I know you already told me once...but I can't find where you said it anymore:P What do you use to host mp3's?

    Cool stuff...although I can't say I have ever been a huge fan of clarinet.

     

  • At 7:04 AM, Blogger etnobofin said…

    Hey Taxi, I think you're right, yousendit.com is working a LOT faster now. Yay! I used to have problems using their site via Firefox too, but those issues seem to have been resolved. This is ALL GOOD, because anything that doesn't work with Firefox sucks the big kumara*

    Yeah, I guess clarinet often gets a bit of a bad reputation, but when it's played well, I like it just as much as any other instrument. But I have less-than-fond memories of the clarinet section in my high school concert band. It seemed that everyone who wanted to play a horn would start on clarinet, so in our 60-70 member band, we had 15-20 beginners always squawking away on their licorice sticks...ewww. One guy I knew played 3rd clarinet for 5 years!

    *Sucks the big kumara = NZ slang, meaning "bad". "Kumara" being a sweet potato.

     

  • At 12:40 PM, Blogger freeman said…

    I've actually become quite a big fan of the clarinet recently. I'd almost rather listen to a clarinet than a sax these days.

    I'll have to check out the downloads once I get home from work.

    And yes, anything that doesn't work well with Firefox definitely sucks the big kumara (I'll have to start calling sweet potatoes that).

     

  • At 2:29 PM, Blogger DJ durutti said…

    whoa. i neglect to drop by for a few days and i miss this great CLARINET (!!) dialogue. Well, as a former (semi-serious, well, as serious as you can be in high school & early college) clarinet player, i've always loved the sound. I was thusly thrilled when cats like Byron started blowing in the downtown NYC/knitting factory avant and new klezmer scenes in the '80s-'90s. (i've see Byron live several times -- he's awesome). I agree w/ freeman re: clarinet vs. sax (in gen). But like Taxi, i love the sound and timbre of the bass clarinet even more.

    Thanks for this post etno. I've always loved this album. Tell you what, don't post anything from Byron's Micky Katz album. I'll cover that ground in an upcoming Chanukah post!!

    p.s. great Byrd post as well!

     

  • At 6:53 PM, Blogger etnobofin said…

    matt- I'll leave the klezmer to you! Looking forward to it :-)

     

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