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My concept for Baby Won't You Please
Come Home was to make a "gumbo" using influences from
each of the places I’ve loved—each of the places that
have brought me to this point in my life and my music.
It all started in the 1930s in Oklahoma,
which was an actually a hot-bed of jazz back then. Jack Teagarden,
Chet Baker, Charlie Christian all came from there. My grandfather
was a professional clarinetist and my grandmother was a professional
violinist; they met in the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra,
established by the WPA.
I remember when I was six years old,
mowing my grandfather’s lawn. He had me turn off the mower
and said, “I think it’s time you learned the clarinet.”
I had seen thousands of students walk in and out of his studio,
so I was definitely ready. Though he was a jazz lover, he was
first and foremost a classical musician. So I learned scales,
arpeggios, concertos, cadenzas—a really good foundation of
music. I still approach jazz from that foundation, trying to get
a really pure, clear clarinet tone and using music theory to guide
my improvisation.
When I was in junior high school, my
grandfather gave me a set of music charts for a Dixieland band,
one for each instrument. I put a group together and played at
a local ice cream parlor. Somewhere I’ve still
got the newspaper write-up to prove it. Ever since then, I've
had my own band–the Redwine Jazz Band. The name of the band
has changed a bit, the mailing address has changed, the players
have all changed (except me), but I’ve always got to have
a band. Once the jazz bug bites you, you’re infected for
life.
After living in Oklahoma for the first
20 years of my life, I moved to Louisiana—mainly because
that’s where jazz was born. Oh yeah, also to get a master’s
degree in clarinet performance from LSU. I recall driving from
Baton Rouge to New Orleans to jam with local bands.
One time I decided I should set up on the street, you know, be
a street musician. As I played all the tunes I knew, a bum kept
riding by on his bicycle yelling “Find your own corner, man.”
I put my hat out and got all of 25 cents before I decided my time
was better spent in the practice room at college.
Right when I was starting to get some
really good gigs in New Orleans, I finished my degree and decided,
the conservative that I am, that I should get a job. So
I joined the U.S. Army Band and moved to Atlanta, Georgia. Actually,
the jazz scene was better in Atlanta than it was in Louisiana!
I really started to develop my jazz there, playing a ton of gigs—paying
my dues, so to speak. When the time was nearing to change assignments,
I decided to audition for the U.S. Naval Academy Band in Annapolis,
a premier military band. Here, one of the
perks is that you can stay in the band until you retire. This
was the best move I ever made. I’m close to Washington, D.C.
and Baltimore and even Philadelphia, places where work is plentiful
and rewarding. So my clarinet's found a new home.
— Ben Redwine
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THE
REDWINE TRIO
