Words matter. These are the best Clarinet Quotes from famous people such as Anat Cohen, Lee Konitz, Irvin Mayfield, Nile Rodgers, Kamasi Washington, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
We still have to overcome the notion that a clarinet squeaks. People need to remember what a beautiful instrument it is, including in popular music.
The clarinet has always been my baby. I just didn’t know that for a while.
I was focusing on sax while at Berklee, but then I started to play Brazilian choro and Colombian music. I was doing more folkloric stuff on the clarinet because it works better. Finally, I realized I was working more on the clarinet than the saxophone, and I started to feel more comfortable on it.
Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That’s why I wanted the clarinet.
It’s important to recognize how special New Orleans is. You play the snare drum or the clarinet in any other city, and you’d be considered a nerd, but here, there’s no shame in it, and it’s absolutely valued.
I used to play flute and clarinet at school, and although I wasn’t thinking about making a living or getting a pay cheque, I already knew I was going to play music all my life.
I started playing drums at three, then piano at five, then clarinet. But it wasn’t till I picked up a saxophone aged 13 that I really got serious about music.
I’ve played the clarinet since I was a kid. I love to sing, but I’m not much of a singer. Let’s say that when it comes to vocalizing, I have the soul of Billy Bigelow but the voice of Jigger Cragan.
When I play the clarinet, I am 100 percent myself. It is as if it is part of my body. I can play whatever I think. Let me just read a melody and make it as sweet as I can.
I find that classical music helps put me in a place that is very calming and allows me to express emotion through my body. I played clarinet as a child, so I guess I have a bit of a musical ear.
My mother was an opera singer and my father is a clarinet player, composer and conductor.
Yeah, musically, from a production standpoint my favorite is probably ‘Have a Little Talk with Jesus’. Just the way it turned out production wise with the clarinet and everything, it sounds like something from a movie.
Some old people, they remember that they used to play clarinet, and they remember the squeaks of the clarinet. But I don’t play like that.
I was improvising before I was reading music. I was just trying to play things on the clarinet by ear. I think my ear is one of my greatest assets.
When I got into high school, clarinet was not really in fashion. Everybody had electric bands.
If I live near a dancer or a painter, or a clarinet player comes from my neighborhood, I take some pleasure in that, feel a little more as if I come from someplace in particular.
I’m helping people think the clarinet is cool.
I’ve played every instrument you could possibly think of for 10 minutes. So I’m mediocre at everything. I can play drums, guitar, piano, violin, saxophone, clarinet, flute… Just not well.
Clarinet is often associated with certain genres, like swing or folk music. I combine the old and new, using the clarinet as an expressive tool and not in one genre. I’m just happy that people are drawn to what I do.
I would pass this music store on the way to school, and there was a clarinet in the window, a second-hand one. And I kept asking my parents to buy it, and eventually they did. I still have it now.
Clarinet is an incredible instrument. It’s a great, expressive instrument.
I play drums, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, french horn, piano.
Then when I was in grammar school I played the clarinet, and then, after clarinet I played the flute in college orchestra – besides singing in the college chorus and things like that.
The clarinet is not so dominant in Israeli music as it is in klezmer. I heard klezmer when I was growing up, but for some reason I avoided it. I listened to Louis Armstrong instead. But the sense of melody is the connection between jazz and klezmer.
The clarinet chose me more than I chose the clarinet.
I just love crafting and shaping sounds. Actually, many of the sounds that I work with start off as organic instruments – guitar, piano, clarinet, etc. But I do love the rigidity of electronic drums.
My eyes are too big, my nose is too flat, my ears stick out, my mouth is too big and my face is too small… my body is thin as a clarinet and my ankles are so skinny that I wear two pairs of bobby socks because I don’t want people to see how thin they are.
The guitar is such an incredible instrument; it plays classical, flamenco, jazz, country, bluegrass, rock, acid, blues. You’ll never see a clarinet playing Black Sabbath. But you will see a guitar in a clarinet band playing rhythm. It is the most popular instrument in the world; it is the one everybody loves.
I began with dance, doing ballet at 3, then tap, jazz, modern. Then I sang in church choirs, learned how to play clarinet and drums, sang with rock bands and only then did I get into musical theatre.
We decided to do some of Merle’s things with modern instrumentation. We used a flute, a bass clarinet, a trumpet, a clarinet, drums, a guitar, vibes and a piano.
