When I was 12 years old I took clarinet lessons. From this distance I can’t remember if was my parents’ idea or mine. If it was mine it was because I loved the Sing, Sing, Sing track on the Columbia recording of Benny Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert. I could see myself playing like Benny in just a few short weeks. If the idea came from my parents it was because, like so many of their other ideas, they thought it would be good for me.
I always loved music – especially jazz – and the year before I started on the clarinet I bought a $10 ukulele out of the Sears Roebuck catalog and taught myself I Wanna Go Back To My Little Grass Shack In Kealakekua Hawaii and Ain’t She Sweet after first mastering the My Dog Has Fleas (G C E A) tuning on that four string beauty. The uke was great but the wood to wood tuning pegs were a bitch to keep in tune.
