Buddy DeFranco 17.2.23 - 24.12.14

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

News in the SFGate

wicki entry

allmusic

[Serial_Apologist]

I have his 1963 LP "Polytones", with Tomy Gumina (accordion) John Doling (bass) and John Guerin (drums), which I bought on the mention of 12-tones rows underpinning some of the structures; not that you'd know it from the predominantly tonal harmonies throughout - nevetheless Buddy was quite adventurous for a musician of his generation.

[Ian Thumwood]

I am surprised that Buddy De Franco was never more widely appreciated. He is one of those musicians that are always cited as taking the clarinet the next step after Benny Goodman but whose broader discography is not that familiar. Love the track that Calum has posted and have been impressed by other performances I have heard. However, I wouldn't know what his stand-out performance was or what album is the one to plump for.

The Avid collection CD must be one of the few that my Dad hasn't yet acquired. They are something of a discovery for me as so much of the output is unfamiliar with records issued for obscure labels or never really acquiring any sort of status amongst record collectors. There are usually four albums on each double CD and you tend to find the balance of one good CD, two so-so and the last being not so clever. I don't think the sound quality is re-mastered. I've gone a few and the sound sounds a bit thin - the Stan Tracey album being a good example, even if it has the classic "Little Klunk" on it.

For me, De Franco is the kind of musician who will have a higher standing with classical fans and reed players who will appreciate the technical aspect of his playing. He still sounds like Goodman in the way that he used dynamics and perhaps not too far removed from what Goodman was playing in the 1950's when approach changed somewhat. It would be fascinating to have been a jazz fan around the late 1940's and pick up on how some artists were leaning towards a lot of then contemporary classical music. There seemed to be a real earnestness with this until the mid-1950's by which time the trend seemed to revert towards the more soulful and less academically rooted Hard Bop. When I was a teenager I remember the late Vic Ash talking in an interview about how the clarinet became an obstacle for modernists because the way the key pads were arranged made translating Charlie Parker's musical language to this instrument far harder than on the saxophone. I can't remember who he said he studied with but I do recall Vic Ash talking about De Franco being one of the first clarinet players to overcome this problem. It is interesting just how many contemporary jazz clarinetists aren't really boppers - thinking of the likes of Jimmy Guiffre, Andy Biskin, Gianluigi Trovesi, etc. The best jazz clarinet players today still owe something to the generation of Benny Goodman and even earlier. (Guillermo Gregorio on John Berman's last album is a very good example of this.) I can appreciate SA's comment about still being rooted in tonal music yet the fact that De Franco embraced be-bop still makes him one of a select band that would include Eddie Daniels and Stan Hasselgard perhaps. On the above track there is a white heat in the playing and the use of loud and softs makes this far more interesting than some of the jazz recorded in the first half of the 1950's.

[Ian Thumwood]

Just noted that this Avid CD features the great Sonny Clark on 50% of the recordings (as well as Art Blakey. )

[Alyn_Shipton]

There's a track by Buddy coming up on JRR on 31 Jan, with K Drew and some drummer called Blakey...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

ah the ineffably anarchic art of jazz, full of surprises ....