Donna Lee. Clarinet

[1more4carhur]

whyyyy is there not mooooore clarinet in jaaaazz these days? greeeeat job keeping it alive man

[ClearOutSamskaras]

Thanks for posting this.

[dariobuccino]

Great music!

Nonsense? Nonjazz? Maybe that's the reason why it sounds so fascinating unusual.

Thanks for playing and posting.

[1truffle]

belive it or not donna lee was not acctuarly by charlie parker

[MrPascalete]

@1truffle really?????

[ErinsClarinet]

You slured the whole song! Nice technique but next time dont slur

[AndresFranchi]

Awesome control over your clarinet... dreadful piece, so far from jazz...

[ErinsClarinet]

damn nice man how long did it take you 2 learn this?

[bones4ey]

way tooo fast!! i luv the way this piece sounds when every note is adored!! =] good job tho! =]

[drlluc]

oh that's definitly not jazz...

[Flyboy3245]

Is he wearing Jordans?

[MrChipper888]

trop de notes...pas de musicalité les solos n'ont aucuns sens comme tout le reste d'ailleurs. A quand des clarinettistes qui mettent des video de "jazz" en sachant faire autre chose que de la savonette...

[jamesbeckers]

nice!

true that the tempo was probably a little fast for you guys to handle but thats ok cos we are all learning and how can we learn without making a few mistakes.

perhaps work on more 'language'? good though!

[ralafriz]

Easily.

[HendrixcommaMartin]

What awful, awful comping.

[highwingprop]

hey hey hey, everybody starts somewhere.

[RyaZila24]

relax, enjoy playing the notes

[Frisbieinstein]

Very unswinging. Don't try to cover that up with speed. It just makes it worse.

[rmorfinq]

wow!!

[Tech502]

it's like when trumpets do free jazz lol..

good either way i thought

[theonendonlie]

Sounds like two classical virtuoso's tried playing success with mixed results.

[Reap3r07]

I hate how the first thing many people say is "slow the tempo down"

You never hear "that needs to sped up" when talking about a ballad. As if playing it slower makes it better. Granted, at slower tempos there is more time to craft your ideas, but if thats the tempo they wanted to play it, well let them. Bird frequently played songs that were anywhere form 320-340 so stfu...

[Radjammin]

I felt the tempo suffered for speed. Of course it was quick, but was it even. It not a syncopated tempo, it's 4/4. I would recommend listing to more recordings of the style or add a percussionist to keep it even.

It was very good overall.

[ddragsco]

?? Man, Donna Lee DOESN'T have to be EXACTLY like all others versions! of course, all the great musician in the world always try to bring something new and make ORIGINALS sound

so you, LISTEN to more recording !

[Radjammin]

hmmmm, Step one click your finger on 2 and 4. Step two start your you tube recording.

Does it sound like you are keeping a tempo? I loose the beat rather quickly.

I said the playing was very good, but the tempo seems to suffer. Alot of classical players feel they can blend the tempo to whatever they want, as long as it's faster its fine.

In Jazz the beat is constant, the tempo does not change.

[kantalope]

in any song, the solo can be bent out of time. especially in cases like this.

Jazz is more freely interpreted than classical, it should always have a sense of bent time.

[Radjammin]

Again, you can do whatever you want, but just try to find the beat in your recording. I can't. In jazz it might seem like magic but the beat stays constant. You might fall behind and in front of the beat, but the beat doesn't change. When the beat changes in Jazz, it's called a mistake.

[mortpwnz]

dynamics? wow get good lawl

JK u good my 3rd year on my ole clarinet

[butrunioigneor]

man that Pianist is sick. His solo made a lot of sense...the clarinet just sounds a bit like an annoying ring tone!!

[userdude334]

horrible accompaniment, and slow it down a bit =) but your playing was great

[iiirhd]

this is like dragonforce jazz...

[lbushkovski]

Yes, you can say that...

and Charlie Parker wrote this tune when dragonforce's mommies weren't even born yet.

Cheers to the original.

[losttoes92]

the comping sucks my balls

[wogandmush]

Well I thought it was ace!

[HendrixcommaMartin]

Bad, Bad, comping.

[georgeontherocks]

Really good. Slow it down though. Great solo clarinet dude!

[motosexy92]

marry me?

[musicroxmysoul17]

Great, but I have a small tip.

Move a little more, it'll make it more interesting and you'll probably have more fun.

[oabrahamsson]

I agree. They seem to possess great skill, both of them. But speed isn´t all, and their musicianship would come out more if they kept the tempo down by some tens of BMPs.

[oklahomma]

Yeah. Not to mention I didn't hear one bebop lick. All I heard was stale, linear improvisation with no feeling, just fluff, no motifs at all.

[metalheaven]

theyve got technical skill... but too fast. i agree with a lot of posts here, it sounds a lot like mush

[Applesandfries]

ahhh whats up with the piano?? haha hes way to fast and... idk mushy haha. xD no offense

[aag2345]

this is not boring

[Dshsm]

the piano player makes it sound like crappy white bread jazz... he needs to find better chord voicings.... or just crawl into a corner and die.

[iyeqwrtu]

right on man, I totally agree. the pianist makes it sound like a bunch of mush, there's too much activity

[BodaciouslyHST]

Fuckin sweet dude. Bebop clarinet owns.

[YOMAMA10444]

omg thats crazy@!!@! im adv and i suck

[saxoclar]

Good technique. Jazz needs work. Work on language.

[codyr222]

This shit is stiff.

[RaveKingZheljo3]

does anybody know where can i get the sheets (scores, notes) for this song....thx

[Virtuosic1]

In mostly any Charlie Parker music anthology. Unfortunately, most are wrong, one or two notes being transcribed incorrectly and the same mistake repeated over and over again, publisher to publisher as they copy from one another!

[Virtuosic1]

I agree. Excellent technically, but there's very people on the planet that can improvise beautifully crafted stretches, instant composition at 300 bpm+ without resorting to 90% filler, 10% content.

[etude5]

In the real book.

Besides, the chords go by the song Indaiana!! (credit goes to Corky Roberts, bass player, Minneapolis)

[fornello123]

technicality 10

musicality 3

nice tone too

[iyeqwrtu]

agreed. they worked too much on speed and flashy sounds and never got the style down at all

[janelso33]

This is an amazing display of virtuosic technical skill on the instrument. Can't really claim it to be anything other than that. It doesn't swing and can hardly still be considered jazz in this form. But it is very interesting, and obviously the clarinetist and pianist are both EXTREMELY skilled musicians. Cool!

[TheShortyMcShort101]

I have a dream of playing the clarinet like that. I didnt try out for sax because I wanted to be that good.

[nakajazz]

Very good man... very good.

[smurfo129]

lol.. yellow leaf.. you're probably still at a stage of musicality where you can't appreciate music.. "dude wtf is just sounds like a bunch of jumbled crap"?i remember marcus miller saying that when he was younger, he heard jaco's donna lee and, like you, thought it was a bunch of random jumbled fast notes.. until he learned jazz.. :/

[buffetcrampon93]

what a control and egality!

[yellowleaf93]

dude wtf it just sounds like a bunch of jumbled crap i bet you are like amazing but this song jst isn't

[MermaidGirl84]

It's not "jumbled crap," it's jazz, and it's incredibly virtuosic.......I WISH I could play that. You can sort of hear cadences at the ends of the phrases if you really listen hard, but jazz isn't like Classical music. I'm not a huge fan of jazz myself, but that doesn't mean I don't have respect for people who can do it. Oh, and before you ask, I've played the clarinet for nine years and I have my Bachelor's in Performance.

[buffetcrampon93]

It certainly is!

[panajazz]

be careful about your phrasing

[kylegeee]

your too good, play sax allready.

[dreadmaker]

don't degrade the clarinet by saying an awesome player should take the sax. I have played the clarinet for a long time, and I'll be damned before I trash it for a sax. it's a gorgeous instrument, and there aren't enough of us. too many go for the more common instruments, like the sax.

this guy knows what he's doing. appreciate it for what it is.

[Jaeve]

kylegeee, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard anyone say.

[sseries470]

That is amazing Great Job.

[foowah7]

Wow, that's fast!!!

[basnun]

WAY 2 FAST 1!!!!

[HaydnMozartBeethoven]

I agree, some of the accents are missing.

[kingqueenoff21]

way too fast ur solo was garbled and you weren't able to play any melodic lines just flurries of note that didn't fit the chords. sorry just slow it down.

[mc117spartan2]

speaking of fast and Donna Lee, has anyone else heard the Phil Woods/Richie Cole take on Donna Lee on the album Side by Side?  its the most ridiculous shit I've ever heard. They take that shit at 340. It rivals Clifford Brown's recording of Cherokee on Study in Brown. This track is insane.

[weasleytwins1234]

I ♥ it... it would of been better if you slowed it down though... if you were in a contest like thing you would probebly get an excellent which is a B... to be superb you probebly would need to slow it down... but other that the speed it was great... I ♥ YOU GUYS... keep playing...

[steelem71]

WOW your technique is awesome, but way too fast mate, slow down just a fraction, you and the piano ended up blending and it got to a stage where it just became noise instead of music... i dont mean to sound harsh but work on the colour of the piece instead of the pace!

haha

wish i was as good as you on the clari!

[CeepTheFairy]

Oooh, that's so awesome. You have great tone... Wanna take my all county tryouts for me? =D

[jftrumpetier]

when playing Parkers literature it's not about your ability to play passages fast, it's interpretation. your phrazes were to straight even at the faster speeds. that needs to be fixed by your ear. If you want to showcase playing fast grab the peices moto perpetuo or flight of the bumblebee this song was written at a tempo which you ignored.

[ORA123]

You certainly have really good technique for sure, but perhaps you had too many repititions on certain phrases you've used? Repetition isn't a bad thing but too many is....not too good in my opinion. Anyways, it had a good impact. I'm not saying that it was bad. I just suggested.

[Reap3r07]

But Hydra, Bird was not afraid of playing popular tunes at insanely fast tempos. Take "Bird gets the worm" for example @340BPM based off the changes to "lover come back to me" which was originally a ballad. There's nothing wrong with playing fast, just as there's nothing wrong with playing slow. That piano player is right in there, keeping the tempo perfect, now that's skill.

[Hydraxon1]

I Play Alto Sax, Clarinet, And Bari Sax, So I know What i am saying when i say that is way too Fast. you need to slow the song down a little more. if Bird had wanted the song to be played that fast he would have made it that fast, but he didnt.

[shenker88]

Both players have great chops, and prove that they can play fast. But fast isn't everything.

[banjalien]

one can sit and criticize music all day (its too fast, too many notes, blah blah), but it boils down to this...i listened and i enjoyed

[etude5]

W O W

To those who say it doen't swing - it needn't.

Sounds a bit classical in rhythm, true, so what.

I'd like to point out that if you want it to swing you can play the tune Indaiana - same chords exactly!

[smak99]

yeah dude your reaally good and youve got insane chops but this is just kinda jacking off

[mightlife]

Yea, but it doesn't swing.

Sorry to be negative, but it sounds like each musician is playing on his own.

[juanchiviris]

is very good but i think is a bit crazy the improvisation, i`d like the piano impro

[lafille91]

OMG

you're GREAT!

[manouche3]

'Hope you're already in tour in the whole world

[tattoedsoul]

buen trabajo chicos... muy bueno, felicitaciones

[lilr0ckera08]

W0W!!

THAT'S CR@ZY!!!

i CANT BEliEVE iT!!!!!

[Battlefield2Pilot]

That's crazy

[megasanaii]

GOOD JOB!!! wow!!! how old are you man???

[cnd987]

puro sinaloa compa!!!!! =)

[Haikoui]

That is BRILLIANT! I play the clarinet, and to be honest, you're better than my teacher ;)

[DerCorny]

Argh! I try Donna Lee, but I don't get it at that speed.

Excellent!

[gsco82]

WOW An excellent rendition of a great Charlie Parker piece. I am envious of the clarinet player's ablity to do those long runs so smoothly. Thanks for posting this.

[saxocopter]

OUTSTANDING!!! Buddy Defranco, eat your heart out!

[yalcos4]

hey nice man...check out my video, tell me whats up.

[woutersuren]

wow.... incredible fast. nice how you play the theme so well.

[MCKiran]

it does swing, it's just in semiquavers

[jasondownes]

This is really impressive. Your technical facility on clarinet is right up there. There are not enough BeBop clarinet players around so hearing your chops like that is great. I can't imagine the amount of woodshedding you had to do to get there! The only criticism I'd have is it doesn't swing, but at that tempo you're really just burning notes to impress.....and I'm impressed!

[mehmetpolat]

great!!!!!!

[calebleejl]

great!

[Vinthoveen]

you know they say if people are hating on you then you are doing something right. Keep it up fellas.

[Vinthoveen]

good job guys.

[yewnaasam]

hey ppl it's jazz

you enjoy the music

who cares if the tempo is abit shaky?

can you play fast as he can?

jeez he's good you know

try playing clarinet yourselves! ㅗㅗㅗ

[thebest504]

i can

[roawoo]

clarinet is easy when the whole freaking TEMPO is wrong; Tempo is what makes it so much harder; when ur just playing notes fast, its not hard at all since clarinet keys and chromatic notes are in a pattern

[joster917]

do you even play the clarinet. you need to learn to appreciate. everything takes practice and time. they present you their music, cant u have anything good to say?

[rightboss]

you know what i dont think you play clarinet at all. whay keys do clarinets come in?

[MCKiran]

that made absolutly no sense...... you're an idiot. stop talking. dont ever speak again. ever...

ever....

[Guticb]

It was great, but I also noticed that the tempo fluctuated.

[mieleke]

nice!

[TenorSaxx]

Time Problems..

[TenorSaxx]

Major Speed problems.. it speeds up and slows down. and the piano player during his solo just HITS it... totally speeding it up and then slowing it back down. There is no sense of it locking to one speed nad staying there. Dont get me wrong there good but its just there are a lot of speed problems

[Vinthoveen]

Thats not true. Keep the 16th notes constant when you listen to it. He went into a half time feel, thats why you thought it got slower but really he was just playing as if it were half tempo.

[toucanandbutch]

omfg. i NEVER comment. but this... this is the most amazing clarinet playing ive ever seen. i wish i was half as good as you!

[jewels728]

yo i was first chair and section leader and i can't even play like that!

[jackthe7th]

holy smokes speed demon

[yckwakj]

holy crap you are amazing...speechless...I feel so,,,cursed

[CSRjazz]

i think anybody giving this cat negativity should be spending more time practicing and less time on the web, because this video is KILLIN!!!

[markvilover]

you are amazing, very inspiring performance.

[jlbellan]

Uau!!! What an amazing clarinet player! I'd like to play as well as this guy!

[jaimerory]

El pianista tampoco es manco.

[slickvic16]

jefframel is so stupid. you have contradicted yourself in multiple occasions with these few text posts. I suggest you think about what you say before you write it down.

[jeffbramel]

2. For jazz, play with a much larger dynamic range than you would in classical. Lower notes in the middle of phrases, for example in beat 3 of measure 2, should be almost ghostly quiet (it's called "ghosting" in jazz) so they almost disappear. Conversely, the high-note peaks of the phrases should get a lot louder. Get loud when it's high and soft when it's low. This will make your music sound more exciting. Listen to players like Richard Stoltzman or Eddie Daniels to see what I mean.

[pavelitoo]

HI, thank U so much about your comments! I'm a classically trained clarinetist too, i'm totally agree with u about the microphone, we did the video, with an ordinary sony camera, so the microphone was not very good, so the quality of the sound mmmmm could be better!!

[pavelitoo]

About, point number 2!! mmmm ! to be honest i'm not agree with U! and hold on! i'm not saying you're wrong, it's just that i don't share the same idea, and i listen eddie, indeed, i was with eddie daniels in UCLA this summer and he told me completely the opposite of what you're saying,

[pavelitoo]

he told due to natural clarinet acoustics (the increase in the level of higher harmonics is much greater than that in the fundamental) when it's high it's soft, the thing is that play high notes louder, is too easy! It's necessary a lot of control for those notes, and eddie also said when it's low it's louder, for jazz or classical or whatever your're playing!! well thanks once again for posting! =)

[jeffbramel]

Eddie is right... the basic physics of the instrument make the high notes sound both louder and more pronounced, so to some degree you have to compensate for that. But sometimes you are compensating too well (I think)! For example, in measaure 3 the initial Ab-Bb-Ab triplet could be emphasized, same with the final D in the same measure.... just little things to make it spicy! But anyway it already sounds great!

[STEREOTONE1988]

tio muy chevere la interpretacion. buena digitacion. yo toco saxo y se ke esa pieza es dificil. mas bien si sacas mas videitos tio trata de hacerlo en un lugar con menos eco. se pierde un poco la precision y suena una como bulla. bien tio. saludos de peru. chau

[jeffbramel]

1. You will sound better with a good microphone closer to your instrument. A high-quality condenser mic positioned about 15-20 cm to the side of the lower holes (where your right hand goes) will pick up a great balance of the timbres that make the clarinet sound so good. Put it as close as you can without picking up the key-click noises.

[jeffbramel]

Wow, you have phenomenal technical talent and great tone! Donna Lee is such a fun piece. I'm a classically trained clarinetist who also does a lot of jazz work and it's a real pleasure to hear talent like yours. I wanted to offer some constructive feedback (see next posts):