RICHARD STOLTZMAN

classical and jazz clarinetist

“Well, of course, my folks bought me a couple of kiddie albums, but I think that the first one that I ever bought - the first one that was conscious on my part that I really wanted to have this album - was probably the Hi-Lo’s, who I suppose were probably the equivalent of Take 6 today, a four-man vocal group whose harmonies were so unbelievable and so well-proportioned. I just loved that quartet, and my dad liked them, too, so maybe that was part of it - that I found a kind of music that we could both relate to.

“But pretty soon I left the Hi-Lo’s behind and went to Miles Davis. I think his ‘Porgy and Bess’ album with Gil Evans was something that really dominated my life for at least half a year. It was the sound that I heard more than anything else. Not the improvisation or the arrangement, but the actual sound, the tone of Miles Davis’ horn.”