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39 albums · 1925–2015

The clarinet, from Mozart and New Orleans to swing, klezmer, the Balkans and Turkey

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

A boxwood clarinet with ivory rings and five brass keys, standing upright against a grey background
Benny Goodman in glasses and braces, seated on a high stool, playing the clarinet beside a music stand, his band behind himGiora Feidman standing and playing the clarinet on a dark stage, with an accordionist, a double bass player and a tsymbaly player
A five-key clarinet Hijd van den Horn made in Leiden around 1800, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Photo: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Benny Goodman at the 400 Restaurant, New York, around July 1946. Photo: William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. · Giora Feidman and his trio at Cosmopolite, Oslo, 2019. Photo: Tore Sætre, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The clarinet is a wooden tube with a single reed on its mouthpiece. It was made from the chalumeau in Nuremberg around 1700, in the workshop of Johann Christoph Denner, to whom it is credited. It sounds dark and warm in its low register and bright above, and it can play very softly.

Mozart wrote a quintet and a concerto for it, and Weber and Brahms followed; the list has Jack Brymer, Gervase de Peyer, Sabine Meyer and Martin Fröst. Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone took the New Orleans clarinet to Chicago in the twenties, and Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw led the big bands of swing with it. Dave Tarras recorded klezmer in New York, Ivo Papasov plays the wedding music of Bulgaria, and Mustafa Kandıralı, Selim Sesler and Hüsnü Şenlendirici the clarinet of Turkey.

The list has 39 records from 1925 to 2015; the oldest come as later collections, dated by the first year of their recordings, and Şükrü Tunar's by the year the catalogue gives it. The saxophone has a list of its own, and records where the clarinet plays behind a singer are left out. About 36 hours of music, 4 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

From the rondo of Weber's Grand Duo Concertant for clarinet and piano, Op. 48William McColl, clarinet, and Joseph Levine, piano

Recording: William McColl and Joseph Levine, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

Jazz 29%Classical 14%Folk & Country 9%Other 48%
  • Jazz 29%
  • Classical 14%
  • Folk & Country 9%
  • Other 48%

The genres named most: clarinet, jazz, classical, klezmer, folk, turkish folk.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 12 countries: United States 17, Turkey 4, United Kingdom 4, Austria 2, Bulgaria 2 and 7 more. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1920s

The 1930s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list