Lawrence B. Johnson
Daniels' clarinet charms a rain-damp crowd
At a festival rife with tributes to jazz families and jazz greats, clarinetist Eddie Daniels managed something special Monday afternoon at the Carhartt Amphitheatre. He mesmerized a rain-pummeled crowd in a tribute to Benny Goodman with the Wayne State University Big Band.
Daniels, perhaps unsurpassed among clarinetists today, didn't exactly study at the knee of the immortal Benny Goodman. In fact, Daniels recalls meeting him just once. But he surely has that swinging style down. Small wonder several hundred listeners, many of them shielded by umbrellas and many more huddled within marginal earshot out of the rain, stuck around to the end.
In the easy swing of "Stompin' at the Savoy" and the gentle caress of "Autumn in New York," Daniels drew out his warm tone in liquid phrases. But then he caught another feature of Benny Goodman's fabled musicianship. In a parody of Goodman's pulsing romp "Sing, Sing, Sing" that Daniels calls "Sing, Sang, Sung," the dampened Carhartt bowl rocked to the blend of Daniels' swooping clarinet and the driving sound of WSU's super band.
Rain? What rain?
