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Epilogue for Alto Clarinet

by Matt Lavelle

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1.
2.
3.
syntaxations 05:20
4.
What's Old 04:09
5.
Amian 06:40
6.
7.
Nhlaloyethu 08:11
8.
9.
Tone Whole 04:37
10.
Epilogue 03:13
11.

about

Yesterday (12/4) I realized I needed to make a second solo alto clarinet record. Today (12/5) being my day off from work, here it is. That’s music in 2021. I believe this will be my last “homemade” solo record for a long time. I hope to make a solo trumpet and open flugelhorn record someday, but I need a studio to do that right. What happened here was that I started playing an E-flat piccolo clarinet that belonged to my buddy Giuseppi Logan. As soon as the first note hit, I realized that I was going to go deep on the little horn, as much as I have on the AC and BC. At the same time I got a new alto ligature from a great clarinetist, Ryan Pereira. His ligature changed my core sound (to my ears anyway) so much that I was inspired to finish what I started on The Abandoned Sound, my other solo alto clarinet album. Indeed these are not true albums yet as no physical copies exist, maybe someday. I absolutely miss making ensemble recordings, and in January I’m elated that my 12 Houses orchestra will record for Mahakala Music! I’ve been very lucky to have started playing with other musicians here in Philly in a group led by Kevin Obatala as well. So what is this record about? As usual I am compelled to over share my process

I see and feel a relationship between color and sound. The lower you go sound wise, the darker colors become in my mind's eye that sends me imagery from my soul. The clarinet sound is so distinct and personal. For me, playing alto darkened the colors I see in my mind, right where I like them best-probably my natural singing range if I spent the time to get my vocal chops up. Bass Clarinet took me to the bottom of the spectrum where the color still exists. For me, the lower you go, the harder it is to hear the actual clarinet sound. With the E-flat piccolo, I was exposed to my actual clarinet sound, and as I see sounds, the colors are all far brighter. I’ve been in the dark so long that I have longed to explore the cloud sounds. To play up there on trumpet is very dramatic and hard to do (unless you were Roy Campbell) On clarinets, you can go high without all that drama and sing more. As usual I end up playing more in the upper register on clarinets than down low which is what those horns are designed to do. All of this because I play trumpet instead of regular clarinet. Nevertheless, Barney Bigard, Russell Procope, Sabir Mateen, John Carter, Charles Waters, Lee Odom, and JD Parran’s whole clarinet orchestra inspire me tremendously. For many years I played alto clarinet not so much as a clarinet, but as something else all together, a science fiction type of instrument. When you combine colors to form others, the original colors are gone as the new color lives.

Getting into the music, like any artist, I’m attempting to do something new inside of myself. I am by new means attempting any kind of technical display. I leave mistakes and other sounds in too, as I’m burned out from everything online being presented so clean. I’m still trying to articulate my own ideas and codify my own language.

Ornette took me to task once for not resolving my ideas. I found out a few months ago that a straight-ahead musician asked him how to play free, and OC told him to try not to resolve his ideas! Nevertheless, I’m just trying to create melodic content on the fly, and my mind, body and soul just keep going and going. I have asked myself the question of how to sustain listeners with improvisation. You can tell on Bandcamp that many people tap out in under 15 seconds. On social Media, you might have 2-3 seconds to get someone to listen before the mighty thumb might scroll you away.

If anything, this recording helps me say musical things that I have been meaning to say but have had to work towards. On some of them, I might even use chord changes as a basis for my own brand of freedom. Solo harmolodics is not the true harmolodic environment that I experienced with Bern Nix for example. (but Bern’s solo acoustic guitar record is big time harmolodic!)

Anyway, thanks for listening and reading as I bring my alto-clarinet journey to an end, at least in a solo context. I am forever inspired by Charles Gayle and how the bass clarinet came to him, but in time he moved on from it. Relationships are like that. You grow and grow, but eventually, in order to keep growing, the mighty cosmic force of change will switch up your environment, the people in your life, and maybe even the horn in your hand.

Dedicated to Giuseppi, Aaron Martin Jr, and Francois Grillot. Miss your sounds..

Peace

Matt

credits

released December 6, 2021

Matt Lavelle: Alto Clarinet

(E-flat piccolo on track 11 only)

Recorded at Chew Studio in Philadelphia 12/5/21

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about

Matt Lavelle New York, New York

Matt Lavelle plays trumpet, alto and bass clarinet, is a bandleader, painter. and writer based in Philadelphia and NYC

"You have to be who you are in this world, no matter what" (Denzel Washington)

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