Sax Noir

Antigua Backun: Morrie does it again…

Chuck — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:15:08 +0000

Morrie Backun is making the bodies for an intermediate clarinet in his Vancouver plant and they have wonderful keyword installed in the Antigua plant in China. What a collaboration! This is a magnificent instrument. The clarinet is wonderful by itself, but I have put a MoBa cocobolo bell and barrel in the case, as well as a Grenadilla Backun 9 bell (which is not available anymore, a real heavyweight bell with a darkly warm sound), a Cocobolo Fatboy barrel and four different Backun Protege barrels. Talk about pimping your ride! (If that is not enough, I also have a Leblanc by Backun resin Bliss clarinet for outdoor work and have a MoBa bell and barrel, a wooden Bliss bell and barrel and four more Protege barrels in THAT case….I’m just a sucker for lots of tonal options….)

Grenadilla MoBa

Chuck — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:04:13 +0000

OK, I’m a fanatic. Joel Jaffe, who handles marketing for Backun Musical called and offered me one of the MoBa grenadilla prototypes. I’ve been playing cocobolo clarinets for two years now, but this grenadilla instrument is so superior in sound to any other grenadilla clarinet that I just had to have it. So now I have a matched set of MoBa clarinets, one in each wood. Preliminary testing seems that I will use grenadilla for orchestral work and cocobolo for chamber music. Every day in the studio, I have to choose which one to play…what a divine quandary!

First Morales Backun Clarinet

Chuck — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:38:37 +0000

I’ve just purchased the very first Morales-Backun clarinet, serial number MB100, in cocobolo with gold keys. This is one of the many rich benefits of my 25 year friendship with the amazing Morrie Backun and his family. First performance will be this weekend at the Eugene Rousseau master class where Debbie Webb, Roy Sluyter and I are performing Max Bruch’s Three Pieces for clarinet, alto saxophone and piano.

As wonderful as the instrument sounded in the shop, it is even more amazing in my studio where I know the soundspace. Although though it is brand new to me, it is making the Bruch easier technically because of the rock solid keywork. It is wild that the horn is both firmer and sweeter in tone and also more centred and responsive. It is hard to say what I like best, but the entries from nowhere and diminuendos al niente are just sublime.

Vintage Clarinets for a fine young player

Chuck — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:35:55 +0000

I had the most heart-warming experience over the last few months. A friend of a friend contacted me regarding some used instruments….I had played at her wedding a few years ago. Her Dad took up the clarinet in retirement, and had passed away a few years ago. The clarinets were quite old and had not been played in quite a few years, and she didn’t know what to do with them. I had a look at them, and they were a matched orchestral set of A & Bb Buffet clarinets from the 70′s (same vintage as my first professional instrument.) They needed a complete overhaul, but the wood looked good to me…so we started the “Lattey Clarinet Project.” Sandro Massullo quoted us $2400 for the overhaul work including a new double case and Christine Lattey agreed that she would give them to a deserving young player for the cost of the overhaul…a really good deal. A few months later and they were ready for trial. The instruments turned out great and Danny Lee, the principal clarinetist of the Surrey Youth Orchestra was the lucky young clarinetist! Christine and her sister were there with me when Danny tried them out. He loved them…and his mom, little sister, the Lattey sisters and I were all darn near in tears of joy. We will be going to Danny’s concert with the orchestra in May to hear them in performance for the very first time in over a decade!

Champions Caberet

Chuck — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 07:36:24 +0000

I just returned from Toronto, where I was inducted as Champion of Music Education along with Phil Nimmons and Chuck Daellenbach, amongst others. It was humbling to share the stage with some long-admired artists and a total gas to enjoy the enthuiastic and charming Eric Peterson as MC. I brought a young student with me to perform and she stole the show! Check us out!

More reed revelations

Chuck — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 07:29:47 +0000

The new Rico Reserve Classic clarinet reeds designed by Mark Nuccio of the New York Philharmonic are the best cane reed I’ve ever played. The cane itself is as fine a quality as I’ve ever seen and Mark’s design is responsive, warm and ringing in sound with superb articulation. I gave all my other reeds away….what more can I say? I mentioned them to the divine Erika Block a few days ago…and she was already on them!

Even more exciting…there is a Bass Clarinet version and I’m awaiting samples to test.

….and….my samples of the new Legere Alto Sax Signature reeds arrived two days ago. They are as magic as the Tenor reeds and I have 42 more of them on the way!

Légère Signature Tenor Reeds released

Chuck — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:09:35 +0000

I really cannot find a reed I like as much on saxophone as Légère. It started with Bari sax reeds…there is no good cane Bari reed, in my opinion. I’m not one of those players who complains about reeds. I get 8 out 10 performance reeds out of a box through good seasoning and simple adjustments. There are lots of good manufacturers and Rico in particular has come a long way in the past few years. Tom Alexander’s Superial reeds have been a revelation. South America and Australia have started producing decent cane. Vandoren has always been the industry standard for me, though, and I’ve always circled back to them…but no more…not on saxophone.

I carry every premium reed in my studio, and all my students and all the players in Sax Noir have chosen Légère. It sure is nice to spend every lesson teaching saxophone instead of adjusting reeds (although I hasten to add I would never choose a reed out of convenience, only for sound.)

No one makes a good bari sax reed except Légère. They are either a poor design or poor cane or both. So, I changed to Légère on Bari and eventually all the other saxophones followed. Robust, dark, warm, clear and fantastic stability in the upper register. Great articulation. I did not miss the “grain” of a cane reed on saxophone, although I do on clarinet. Then Légère issued the Signature Clarinet reeds, and they are so much like cane that it is spooky!

Now come the Signature Tenor sax reeds, and as much as I have liked the standard product, these babies are amazing. I did not feel that the slightly grainy woody sound of cane was essential for the saxophone sound, but now that these synthetic reeds have a touch of that, they are even nicer. I just cannot wait for the Soprano, Alto, Bari, Bass Clarinet and Eb clarinet versions!

FYI, they play 1/4 strength softer than Vandoren Blue Box.

Nixon in China

Chuck — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:13:53 +0000

Well, I’ve done the unthinkable…loaned an instrument! An emergency for a fellow Conn Selmer artist who is playing the opera this week, the amazing Francois Houle. He had borrowed a bass clarinet that cracked in rehearsal and I loaned him my spare. It is an amazing instrument only slightly less stunning than my main bass…both are Selmer Privilege models, the best two out of the six that showed up to the Vancouver Clarinetfest a couple of years ago. Hope it lasts the run of the show!

Francois says it is a freaking Ferrari. He took a couple of Legere signature reeds with him and reports they are working great. David Branter, another legend playing the show, was over a few days earlier and took some tenor and bari sax Legere reeds with him, also appreciating them. What I appreciated was David’s Rousseau 6R Bari mouthpiece, so I ordered four of them.

That’s a switch!

Chuck — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:51:06 +0000

The Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Vancouver Saxophone Ensemble are joining forces for the Joy of Sax concert at Evergreen Cultural Center in February. I’m a member of both ensembles, playing bass clarinet with PSWE and baritone sax with VSE. However, my student James Chen who plays bari with PSWE cannot make the gig, so I am covering his part, and my colleague Jamie Henderson from the sax ensemble will be the guest bass clarinetist with PSWE.

It was wierd indeed to hear someone else on the part at rehearsal last night. Despite the sax section being featured in this performance, I felt a twinge of regret. After 24 years as PSWE’s low clarinetist, that voice just feels like it should be mine!

A state of bliss

Chuck — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:28:11 +0000

I own several of the finest clarinets in the world, possibly one set is THE finest…my orchestral A&Bb matched set of cocobolo Legacy clarinets put together for me personally by Morrie Backun. However, since I purchased the new Leblanc by Backun Bliss clarinet yesterday, I cannot put it down. This is priced at an intermediate student level, but it is NOT a student clarinet. Julian Bliss, the young internationally recognized clarinet star, who co-designed the instrument and plays encores on it at his concerts calls it “wicked.” It is also SEXY. A professional calibre instrument at an unbelievable price. I’ve got a recital coming up in November and I too will use the Bliss for my encore. ‘Nuff said.