Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday May 4th, 2011 with Bernard Stepien
Alsatian Clarinet Trio, Angster/Hassap/Foltz

Sometimes I think that there has been some revenge of the clarinet going on in the last few Jazz history decades. Somehow, the French are fascinated with Eric Dolphy's clarinet solos (Alone Together being a corner stone of the genre). Thus, this explains the Louis Sclavis and Michel Portal. However, in Strasburg, Alsace, Armand Angster is involved with a collective, Accroche Note, that straddles both the world of Jazz and contemporary classical music. One of its components is a clarinet trio (first recording in 1990 with Berlin's FMP) that happily stands up to other famous clarinet trios like Berlin based Gebhard Ullmann's trio and the Brooklynn based The Clarinets (Anthony Burr, Oscar Noriega, Chris Speed) not to mention the legendary clarinet quartet with Alvin Baptiste's Clarinet Summit with John Carter, Jimmy Halmilton and David Murray. Tonight, we will explore Armand Angster's Ramdam (2007) release.