Can’t believe I forgot to mention Marshall McDonald, another great player from Pittsburgh, PA. He completely changed my sound and way of thinking about playing.

Been shedding “Big Time” by Linda Eder, a great clarinet part for the big band. Also working on “12 Key Blues Solo” by Bob Mintzer, transposed by Steve Neff. There are enough licks in this to last a lifetime. I have been using SK’s Bebop Etudes books for sight reading practice.

Most of the gigs I play are in the summer, so my practicing has been geared toward those charts. We played a lot of clarinet and some flute stuff this summer, so I had to keep up on those instruments. Admittedly haven’t practiced SK’s stuff much, but that will improve after this weekend. One of the bands doesn’t rehearse, we show up and they…

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BTW, I apologize for humble bragging and name dropping. I definitely didn’t mean to infer I am anywhere near as good as the folks I mentioned. I’m well aware of how good I’m not. Steve – I also played for a couple of years with a tenor player you might know – Tim McCall. He played at Smalls.

Just curious, do you pronounce your name Alan, or with the accent on the second syllable with a long a? I played hockey with some Canadians who pronounced it like the latter.

Okay, I’ll bore you with the details :). I was a clarinet ed major in college in the 70’s. Decided not to teach but played in a very good cover band after graduation. Also was fortunate enough to play lead alto in the Pitt Jazz Band under Nathan Davis for two years. Kenny Clarke conducted the band for two months, which was also an…

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I really liked your use of space.