Every Friday night from 5 to 9 p.m. Rick Bogart and his jazz trio will be doing their level best to bring the clarinet back to the forefront of modern music through their playing at the New York Yankee Steakhouse located at 7 West 51st Street across from Rockefeller Center.
Bogart regrets the decline in popularity of the clarinet and is on a mission to bring it back to center stage as a lead instrument. Bogart believes the clarinet declined for three reasons:
First, the clarinet is a difficult instrument to play; it was easier to get those warmer, richer solos on the tenor saxophone.
Second, there was a certain reaction to the great clarinet band leaders of the 1930s and 40s, so that the new players shied away from the instrument and wanted to play something different.
Thirdly, in the United States after the Big Band era, instrument makers made the clarinet primarily for school, their biggest customers. Children couldn't handle the wide bore, couldn't fill it with air. Thus the manufacturers narrowed the bore, altering the sound. Many of those playing professionally, including Bogart, have their clarinets customized to get the sound they want -- similar to Boosey and Hawkes 10-10, the great English clarinet.
Bogart's selection of tunes come from what NEWSWEEK not long ago referred to as the ''classical music of the 20th century." Among them are ''My Blue Heaven'', ''Don't be that Way'', ''Begin The Begiune'', "On The Sunny Side of the Street", ''If I Could Be With You'', ''Exactly Like You" and ''Lady Be Good''.
He is certainly appreciative of other styles, such as be-bop and avant-garde players.
In a recent press release touting his New York Yankee Steakhouse Friday night residency, Bogart explains that what matters most to him about a piece isn't the genre -- but the melody:
''The great players of the past inspired me by keeping the melody in mind. The big tone concept of sound.
"They had respect for the melody. They always tried to state the melody repeatedly so people would know.''
To ensure you have a seat to watch the Rick Bogart Trio celebrate the role of the clarinet in modern jazz call New York Yankee Steakhouse at (646) 307-7910 and make your reservations today.
You can also catch Rick Bogart at Tom and Toon's Broadway Thai Jazz Restaurant, 245 West 51st Street across from The Gershwin Theatre every Saturday from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. and every Sunday from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m.
