Description
Buddy’s Boogie-Clarinet
Dedicated to my friend & mentor, Buddy DeFranco
Boniface Ferdinand Leonard “Buddy” DeFranco (February 17, 1923 – December 24, 2014)
Buddy DeFranco was unquestionably one of the finest jazz clarinetists the world has known.
His amazing technical prowess, inventive melodic approach to improvisation and complete mastery goes unmatched.
Buddy was also a major innovator of BeBop music and was a pioneer in the field of poly-tonality which he applied to his improvisations with breathless ease.
He conducted the famous “Glenn Miller Orchestra” for a decade in the 1970s and toured the world many times sharing his love of jazz and the clarinet wherever he appeared.
About Buddy’s Boogie
Level: Intermediate Level. 6th-grade Exam standard.
This piece was composed in 1996 when I was a clarinet & saxophone music tutor at a prestigious Girl’s College in Sydney.
I used to compose and write pieces for my students or just to fill in time between students’ lessons and had a nice little upright piano in my teaching studio.
“Buddy’s Boogie” emerged from a riff I was on one such occasion and the altered breaks I came up with reminded me of Buddy’s clarinet fills
on the recordings of him, my dad used to play at home when I was a young lad.
I never dared hope that I would actually have the good fortune to meet, work with and be able to call him a friend only nine years later, but this happened and it is one
of my most cherished memories.
In 2006 Buddy invited me to appear as his guest artist at his Jazz Festival in Montana, USA and then further honoured me by appearing as
my guest artist at my Carnegie Hall debut in 2008. Buddy and his wife, Joyce stayed friends with me and my wife up until his sudden passing in 2014 at the age of 91 years of age.
He was one of the most generous, kind and brilliant people I have ever met and his achievements and accolades as a jazz clarinetist and composer are and I believe, will remain unmatched.
I dedicated the final movement of my “3 Pieces for Solo Jazz Clarinet” to him, “Jazz Tocatta”
In 2000 Buddy wrote to me to tell me how thrilled he was to hear my 16 Clarinet big band album, “Me, Myself & I” (2000).
“Buddy’s Boogie” Includes a soloist part, piano part, performance and backing tracks.
Buddy DeFranco
“3 Pieces for Solo Jazz Clarinet”
