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| A clarinet? |
| Featured flute recording Ian Anderson: The Secret Language of Birds
I've been trying to maintain some variety in the recommendations, but having recently picked up this CD, I'm willing to revisit Jethro Tull in the rock slot of my rotation. This is easily the best album Tull never made, being a sort of unplugged version of Tull's early 70s glory days. Buy it now. |
Another month of not terribly exciting news on the flute. Most of the month has been spent regaining lost ground.
I did have one bit of a surprise over Thanksgiving weekend: My cousin's oldest son has entered the fifth grade and thus earned the right to join band. Since his dad had a perfectly serviceable clarinet and son was amenable to the instrument, he decided to take up the instrument.
Being the elder woodwind player (yikes!) of the family I was called upon to offer some information. I grabbed what little I knew courtesy of some orchestration books and was able to explain to him how to play the C above middle C (although the fingering was viewed with some skepticism). He even put on an impromptu concert for my grandmother who apparently likes clarinet music much better than flute music.
As long as I'm talking about clarinets, another clarinet-related story: I had two friends in high school, one a trumpet player, the other a sax player who lived next door to each other and known each other forever. It turned out that the sax player became a sax player largely by accident. He was a year younger than the trumpet player and when he picked his instrument, he confused cornet and clarinet. It's just as well, he's now a fairly active session player who's recorded with the Freddy Jones band among others (his name, in case you're wondering is Brian Budzik). The trumpet player (Bryan Miller) is now a high school band director and much sought after in the suburban bar band scene for his horn skills.
Postscript on 25 May 2001: A significant number of people end up on this page searching for Brian Budzik. Brian doesn't have a web presence, but if you send me an e-mail I'll pass on your message to Brian.