Clarinet Masters: Essential Listening Guide for Students

Anat Cohen and Paquito D’Rivera, two of the world’s top jazz clarinetists, reflect on the recordings that transformed their musical journeys — and have the power to transform yours as well.

So you’ve been playing the clarinet for a while now, and you’ve fallen in love with the instrument. You’re starting to think that you could become a serious clarinetist — maybe even a professional musician.

If this is your path, chances are you’ve got a good instrument and some solid method and etude books. You’ve likely got a dedicated teacher as well. But one crucial element might still be missing: You need to listen to great clarinet performances for information and inspiration.

Unfortunately, focused listening is too often overlooked by young musicians. “Students who come to me don’t want to listen; they want to play,” says the renowned jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen, who was born in Israel and is based in New York. “But it really is important to listen. It’s going to shape your taste, the way you hear things — everything you hear is going to affect the way you produce sound. So it’s important to listen to as much — and as much variety — as possible.”

What Clarinetists Should I Listen To?

“Any type of music that you want to learn, you have to listen to,” says clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera, the Cuban-American legend celebrated in jazz, Latin-jazz and classical circles. “If you have not been listening to a certain type of music, what you play is just a caricature of the original. The abuse of the glissando, for example — if you haven’t listened, I can tell right away when you play [that way] because it sounds very corny.”

But who should you listen to? You might already know about some remarkable classical clarinetists, like Martin Fröst, Anthony McGill, Sabine Meyer or Julian Bliss. Or you might be aware of classic jazz figures like Artie Shaw, Sidney Bechet and Johnny Dodds.

Probably the best way to get recommendations is by asking extraordinary musicians who they grew up listening to. Every player has their particular influences — the artists who directly impacted their unique sound — and Cohen and D’Rivera are no different. We recently chatted with these versatile masters to gain some listening guidance that can help you reach the next level.

Benny Goodman: The King of Swing

There are several names these two great musicians agree on — some more than others. For example, both Cohen and D’Rivera heartily endorse checking out Benny Goodman — by any measure the most famous and successful jazzman ever to wield a clarinet.

“I recommend Benny for various reasons,” says Cohen. “For his round, beautiful tone, which is a very classical sound. For the swinging lines all over the instrument. And for the various ensembles, but in particular the small groups.” Those bands include Goodman’s trio with pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Krupa, and his sextet featuring trumpeter Cootie Williams, saxophonist Georgie Auld, guitarist Charlie Christian and a rotating rhythm section. “They have a very intimate sound and impeccable arrangements,” she says of these groups, who “make you understand that the presentation of the song is really important.”

D’Rivera prefers to point listeners to the big band that made Goodman a star in the 1930s — especially the legendary Carnegie Hall concert of January 1938 (released, appropriately enough, as The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert). He emphasizes its excitement, which changed his life when he first heard it at age 10. “My father played that for me when I was a kid, and I said, ‘Wow, fantastic!’” D’Rivera recalls. “Ever since then, I was dreaming to be a musician in the city of New York.”

Jimmy Giuffre: An Interactive Sound

Cohen and D’Rivera are also enthusiastic about two later clarinetists who took a very different approach than Goodman. The first is Jimmy Giuffre, who initially built his reputation in big bands as a gifted arranger and saxophonist, working with bandleaders including Jimmy Dorsey, Woody Herman (both clarinetists themselves) and drummer Buddy Rich. In the mid-to-late 1950s, Giuffre began shifting his focus more toward the clarinet. During this time, he also formed one of the pivotal bands of his career, a trio with guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ralph Peña. “The [1957] album The Jimmy Giuffre 3, I listen to that a lot,” says Cohen. “Jimmy Giuffre has a completely different, gentle sound. It’s an interactive and inviting sound.”

“That is a unique player,” agrees D’Rivera. “Jimmy Giuffre was something else. He played mostly in the lower register of the instrument, and it sounds very cozy. I don’t think he was a great technician, but the way he played the instrument is absolutely original.”

Tony Scott: New Age Pioneer

The other player that both get excited about is Tony Scott, an American clarinetist who was adept at bebop, spent much of his career in Italy, and pioneered what would become known as “new age” music.

“The whole way he was playing the clarinet was different,” Cohen elaborates. “All the classical clarinetists told me, ‘You should not have air in your sound; that’s a no-no.’ So I didn’t know that the clarinet could produce this kind of airy but still clean sound.” Her go-to recording is one of his works that innovated new age, 1965’s Music for Zen Meditation, which features Japanese accompanists playing traditional instruments.

Masters in the Present Tense

D’Rivera and Cohen also love two contemporary jazz clarinetists, Ken Peplowski and Eddie Daniels. Cohen points to Peplowski’s 2012 recording Maybe September, a quartet session. For Daniels, D’Rivera refers players to his 1985 album Breakthrough, with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, which, true to its name, is Daniels’ signature achievement. “Fantastic LP,” he says. “I think that recording was ideal for letting us know how a clarinet could break out of the classical world and into jazz.”

Buddy DeFranco: Mr. Clarinet

The Cuban clarinetist’s strongest recommendation, after Goodman, is Buddy DeFranco, the musician who first translated the modern language of bebop to the clarinet. As with Goodman, D’Rivera was blown away by DeFranco’s sound after his father played him a record. “He came home one day with Buddy DeFranco playing ‘Out of Nowhere,’” D’Rivera says, referencing a standard the clarinetist recorded in 1951. “That was so much fun. To me, it sounded like Charlie Parker playing the clarinet. So it was a revelation; I was like a kid with a new toy. Buddy DeFranco, he’s the one who really turned the page for me.”

Paulo Moura: Brazilian Icon

Next on Cohen’s list is Paulo Moura, a Brazilian clarinetist who mastered choro, a style of popular dance music that’s indigenous to his country (and comparable to early jazz in the U.S.). “I discovered the clarinet coming from the tradition of New Orleans jazz, but you discover a whole other side of it with choro music,” she explains. “In Brazil, the clarinet is on a pedestal. It’s part of the style, and nobody’s going to think it’s weird that you’re playing the clarinet, like they do sometimes in jazz.”

Cohen now spends several months each year in Brazil. “For every clarinet player that asks me, ‘How do I get into jazz?’ I say, ‘Start by playing choro music.’”

Moura also played jazz, bossa nova, samba and classical music, but it’s his virtuosity as a choro player that Cohen recommends young players check out. “Paulo played with a whole other flavor than I’d ever heard before,” she says. “It made me re-learn the sound of the clarinet and how expressive an instrument it is. He has so many beautiful recordings, but my favorite is Dois Irmãos, with a guitarist named Raphael Rabello. Very influential for me.”

Cohen & D’Rivera: Mutual Admiration

Of course, Cohen and D’Rivera recommend each other as well. “Paquito — the clarinet is so gorgeous in his hands,” says Cohen. She suggests Song for Maura, an album of Brazilian jazz that D’Rivera and Trio Corrente released in 2013.

Likewise, D’Rivera is most impressed with Cohen’s Brazilian stylings, such as her Grammy-nominated albums Outra Coisa: The Music of Moacir Santos (2017), a collaboration with guitarist Marcello Gonçalves, and Rosa Dos Ventos (2017). “Anat Cohen is Israeli, but she plays Brazilian music as if she was born in Rio de Janeiro,” he says.

In closing, Cohen has one more invaluable piece of advice for clarinetists: Cast your net wider than just your own instrument. “I grew up with two brothers: One is a saxophone player and one is a trumpet player,” she says. “My influences are more [saxophonists] Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon and [trumpeters] Miles Davis and Art Farmer. When I play the high octave on the clarinet, I hear the Harmon mute of Miles much more than I hear Sidney Bechet. So I always tell students, ‘Listen beyond the clarinet. Everything you hear will influence the way you produce sound on it.’”