School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Barney Bigard

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Barney Bigard, in full Albany Leon Bigard, was an American jazz clarinettist, born in 1906 in New Orleans into a Creole family. His uncle Emile was a jazz violinist. He studied clarinet with Lorenzo Tio. In the early 1920s he moved to Chicago, where he worked with King Oliver and others. In those years he often played tenor saxophone, including on recordings with the clarinettist Johnny Dodds, and he did so with great lyricism, as in Oliver's Someday Sweetheart.

Music and breakthrough

In December 1927 Bigard joined Duke Ellington's orchestra in New York. He played there until 1942. Until 1931 they were mostly at the Cotton Club, after which they toured the country almost without rest for more than ten years. With Ellington he was the regular clarinet soloist and also played tenor saxophone in the section. He is credited as composer or co-composer on several numbers, including Mood Indigo. In 1936 in Hollywood he recorded, with his Jazzopaters, the first version of Caravan, the Juan Tizol piece that was later rearranged by Ellington and has since become one of the most covered songs ever. After Ellington he moved to Los Angeles, worked for film studios, appeared in the 1947 film New Orleans with a band led by Louis Armstrong, and worked with Kid Ory and later with Armstrong's All Stars. His autobiography is called With Louis and the Duke. He died in 1980.

Influence

Bigard shows how the clarinet of New Orleans jazz could cope with the swing of Ellington. His fluid, warm tone became part of the sound of the orchestra in the 1930s.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Mood Indigo in an Ellington recording from the 1930s. Notice the low, warm clarinet at the beginning, the kind of sound for which Bigard was known.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists