Shameless self-promotion

It can't hurt to try, right?

So while my dinner's settling, after which I can rehearse my horn, let me tell you about me and my bass clarinet. Because I have a couple of free public gigs tomorrow, along Grand Avenue in St. Paul, and I'd like to invite you to check them out. (Yeah, that's right, free: I refuse to offer cash bribes to scare up an audience, so I'm not payin' you a plugged nickel to sit through my squawking!).

Grand Ave. is host to an event called Blooming Day on Saturday, July 31 (tomorrow!). It's like a WAY scaled-down Grand Old Day. The street won't be closed off, and there should be parking available. The attractions are free samples of desserts, and drinks, and flowers; kids' events; store sales; and... oh yeah, music! Get the lowdown at http://www.grandave.com/Blooming_Day.htm.

I'll be playing twice along the avenue:

My mixed clarinet quartet, The Cylindrical Bores, will be performing from 10: - 11:30 a.m., in front of the Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand, between Victoria and Milton. Our mixed-up clarinets consist of two B-flat soprano clarinets, one E-flat alto clarinet, and one B-flat bass clarinet (that's my baby!). We play a variety of jazz and classical tunes, and the occasional movie theme (think Inspector Clouseau). Up tempo, down tempo, and always fun.

Then, from 1:30 - 2:30 p.m., my self-accompanied solo bass clarinet band, Bruce Has the Talking Stick, will perform in front of Kowalski's Market, 1261 Grand, at Syndicate. I play jazz, classic rock, a bit of classical, a show tune or two, accompanied by either A) me on a recorded bass clarinet bass line, or B) a recording of my computer simulating (nicely!) a piano accompaniment. (NO, my accompaniment is NOT a pair of cymbals between my knees, or a bicycle horn in my armpit -- but maybe I'll work up to them someday!) Some classic rock and Leonard Cohen sing-along sheets will be provided.

Why THAT instrument on THOSE tunes, you ask? 'Cuz it's music I love, and an instrument I know how to play, one that burbles along, sweetly and resonantly, in the lower register of a man's voice. The BC is typically a low-register support instrument in a band or orchestra. I've done that, still do, and enjoy it, but I've been wanting to take me and that horn to unexpected places, and work with some of the music I've loved listening to.

My musical bona fides: seven years of recreational bass clarinet, in junior/senior high and college, followed by 27 years of intensive album and CD playing (where I refined (?) my eclectic tastes). Then came five years of on-and off tenor sax lessons and community band work. (Tenor sax seemed much more sympatico with my musical tastes than did bass clarinet.) Then, I decided to try BC again, researched and bought one (using my trusty factotum the World Wide Web), and fell in love.

See, the upper and lower registers of clarinets are a twelfth apart, so the same note an octave up is fingered totally differently. On a sax, the register key is a true octave key, so the fingerings are the same for two octaves. (Never mind the altissimo, for now.) And the upper register of a tenor sax and a bass clarinet, both B-flat instruments, are fingered very nearly identically. So it should have been easy to move from clarinet to sax, never mind the 27-year grand pause.

But, but, but... when I got that BC in the mail, and tried it out, I felt like I'd come home. My fingers and their kinesthetic memories naturally sought out the right notes. And those delicious low tones! The BC's range extends from the bottom of the baritone sax range to the top of the tenor sax range. And I'm having lots of fun nudging my BC repertoire out of traditional band and orchestra tunes and into jazz, and classic rock, and more. I've been playing for two years now, and I just can't stop.

So come on by and check it out tomorrow. Or see me at Leslie Ball's Cabaret in the wee hours of some Sunday morning. Oh, and what the hell is "Bruce Has the Talking Stick" all about? If you'd like some background on that band name, and a brief glimpse into my head, check out my 1/23/04 blog at http://www.musiciansconnected.com/Blog/Low_Reed.aspx?ID=1/23/2004112647AM#1/23/2004112647AM . Enter at your own risk.

Gotta go now. My BC is beckoning!