Clarinets at High Altitude

As I type this I am listening to a Israeli jazz clarinetist based in Manhattan named Anat Cohen play a song called "In the Spirit of Baden", a Brazilian-inspired piece with a cool Latin feel. Before that I was listening to Moonglow, a haunting old Benny Goodman selection from the 1930s. And also on play list this evening was a Klezmer clarinet standard called Hava Naglia--Klezmer is a Yiddish/Jewish pre-jazz orchestral fusion that traces its roots to the 19th Century and Eastern Europe.

Since moving to Kyrgyzstan, I've adopted the incredibly strange habit of tuning into clarinet music. I feel as though I have morphed into Sponge Bob's friend Squidward. At one time in my life, I was very much like Squidward as my parents coerced me into playing in the school band for several years...why they chose the clarinet for me I do not know. It was certainly not the manly musical instrument I was hoping for--I would have just as soon pounded on a bass drum or lugged around a sousaphone. So, from fifth through tenth grades, I squawked and honked around ineptly on my old plastic Leblanc clarinet until I wore my parents down enough with my years of endless complaining and musical incompetence and finally they allowed me to drop out of band.

It must be the altitude. That is the reason I give here in Naryn for any inexplicable behavior I engage in. Listening to clarinet music joins the list of altitude-induced peculiarities that have overtaken me. Yet, decades removed from playing the clarinet in the school marching band that performed the Bowdish Junior High School Fight Song 883 times in one year, I suddenly have a new appreciation for the slender black instrument that is almost extinct today, unlistened to and unappreciated by modern audiences.

Listening to bad clarinet playing is like being stuck in the center seat on a transatlantic flight between two shrieking babies or enduring the endless cries of an injured goose or other pained waterfowl. But the clarinet well-played can be a beguiling treat--the low register the smooth and soothing tune of a snake charmer, the higher registers possessing an intensity that can drive a melody to a fierce conclusion.

Living in the Kyrgyz mountains, some say, can be a challenge with its lengthy winter and slowish pace. Yet somehow I manage, listening to a clarinet tune or two each evening, wondering how odd, newly-acquired habits can feel so nurturing and sustaining.

Listen to Anat Cohen:

https://youtu.be/nQQk9U77jeM

https://youtu.be/O4-49T5TNYo

Anat Cohen in concert