Daryl Loomis:

>I would consider today's best clarinetist to be Don Byron.  Though he is
>primarily a jazz clarinetist and band leader, he does amazing work.  The
>albums that he has collaborated with Bill Frisell and John Zorn on have
>been great, and his album "Bug Music" has absolutly incredible arrangements
>of Strayhorn, Ellington and Raymond Scott songs, along with a fabulous jazz
>arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "Bounce of the Sugar Plum Faries." Nonesuch
>79438-2.  It is very much worth hearing.

I was delighted to see that another lister shares my opinion of Don
Byron as one of the outstanding musicians of our time.  While he is
known primarily in jazz circles (and innovative jazz circles at that)
he has a well rounded background and may have studied at the New England
Conservatory.  (Perhaps someone else can verify if that is accurate.)

Byron has been somewhat critical of Wynton Marsalis who, in Byron's view
is too "neo-conservative." Still, as Daryl points out, he too is capable
of taking existing music and making something exciting and new out of
it.  Much of Byron's composition (and his playing) is quite aggressive.
Personally, I think there is room for both composers, and I enjoy both
of their work.

List members may be interested to know that Byron is a frequent
collaborator with Uri Caine--the pianist whose recent jazz reflections
on Mahler provoked some comment here recently.  One of their other
collaborations is on an album of klezmer music.  I heard Caine on an
interview expressing his appreciation that Byron (an African American)
helped him (a Jewish man) appreciate the music as more than simply an
ethnic subgenre.

Ed