I just got the first 3 Selmer Concept mouthpieces in Canada. As a Conn Selmer artist I was first in line! One of them was chipped on the left rail, but the other two are magnificent and finally Selmer is using modern technology. These are drilled out of hard rubber by CNC equipment and are extremely consistent.  Selmer mouthpieces have always been well-designed with great rubber, but have had so much handwork that they have been inconsistent up until now.

I bought them both and have another on order!  Claude Delangle designed these mouthpieces. He has largely been using Vandoren mouthpieces until now, mostly Optimums. I’ve always loved his playing and feel he is one of the great wind players and teachers of his generation. The mouthpiece is warm and rich, with great projection…brilliant without any edginess and very good response and articulation over the entire range.  My new favourite classical mouthpiece!

So far offered only on Alto with one facing. I sincerely hope they expand this line through all saxophone models!

Just picked mine up last week.  A resin clarinet that plays like a pro horn.

OK, I’m a fanatic.  I also picked up a cocobolo Protege bell to put on it, and already have a full set of 4 Protege Cocobolo and Grenadilla barrels in 65 and 66 mm length.  Morrie (bless his generous heart) gave me an amazing back-pack case with lots of extra pockets for these accessories, and of course I also added a MoBa 66+ Cocobolo barrel and a Moba Cocobolo bell.

It is great to add better and better barrels and bells to the instrument in a clinic and watch peoples faces as the sound changes.  I would rather play an Alpha with a MoBa bell and barrel than any other brand of professional clarinet.  Period.

Julian was here to do Master Classes in Victoria, Vancouver, Richmond and Langley.  We met 10 years ago and it was a treat to see him again. We had dinner with Brian Engstrom of Conn Selmer and I audited his master class at UBC, which was phenomenal!

Julian had said he would like to try a bass clarinet so I brought one of mine.  He explored it for about 1/2 hour after the class. It was amazing to hear someone go from novice bass clarinetist to accomplished in half an hour.  Talent isn’t everything, but when you have that kind of affinity for the clarinet it is really something!   Julian is incredibly  accomplished of course, but it is his charming personality and his understanding that classical music is still show business that puts him in a league of his own!  Next time he visits, dinner at my place!

I just received a new bass clarinet neck from Martin Suter of Das Blashaus in Switzerland. It was made to order (since he offers 18 models!) and took a couple of months. Well worth the wait! It makes the two stock Selmer necks (the best two out of 8 that I tried when I bought my instruments, and then had gold-plated) seem like pieces of tin.

This model is the HH2-SA-SG, meaning Heavy Heavy Steep Angle Selmer Gold Plated.   Heavy is not an understatement.  It is 72% heavier than the stock necks.   The inside of the neck is smooth as glass, unlike any stock neck and it is heavily reinforced from bending.   It sounds as beautiful as it looks….just like Morrie Backun’s barrels and bells.  The tone is firmer, richer and more resonant, especially at the extreme ranges of the instrument; intonation and articulation are also enhanced.

I’m ecstatic!

Jiwon You (clarinet), Belinda Wu (alto and tenor sax) and Fraser Jang-Milligan (alto and bari sax) all auditioned successfully for the Greater Vancouver Youth Music Academy Wind Ensemble.   Jiwon and Fraser are just in grade 8.  Jiwon just had six lessons and Fraser won her audition on bari, which she has only played for four months!   Fraser and her parents and I are now shopping for her own baritone sax!

These fine young players have beautiful tones and impressive musicianship that will be enhanced by participation in this fine ensemble.

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….)

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!

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.

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!

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!