The great clarinetist Artie Shaw once told me — in characteristically provocative fashion — that at any given moment there were maybe five or six people in the world who could really play the ...

Buddy DeFranco has the unprecedented distinction of winning twenty Downbeat Magazine Awards, nine Metronome Magazine Awards, and sixteen Playboy All-Stars Awards as the number one jazz clarinetist in ...

Virtually singlehandedly [DeFranco] has kept the clarinet alive as a jazz instrument since it fell out of fashion with the demise of the Swing Era over 50 years ago. At 83, he continues to practice on ...

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Renowned jazz clarinetist Buddy DeFranco, who led the way on his instrument in the transition between the swing and bebop eras, has died at the age of 91, his family said ...

MISSOULA -- The world-famous clarinet player who lent his name to the University of Montana’s premier jazz festival and transformed the international genre through his unique bebop style passed away ...