40th Anniversary of Miles Davis's Tutu Album

40 years ago today, Miles Davis released Tutu - a radical departure even from his own controversial fusion albums of the 1970s and early 80s, making extensive use of drum machines and synthesizers on compositions mostly by Marcus Miller.

I was a freshman in High School, and this album had a lasting effect on me. You could call it part of the soundtrack to my formative years, but also well beyond that: It's been a constant companion.

A year and a half after its release, I met the namesake of the album, Archbishop Desmond Tutu himself, at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. A greater contrast between the man and the music he inspired would be hard to imagine, at least superficially. The music is dark, foreboding, stark, strong. Tutu himself was something more of an effervescent personality filled with the most natural sunlight and a constant unforced smile, humor, and wit. I've often pondered that contrast, admiring both the man as he seemed when I met him, and the music he inspired from Miller and Davis. What I find in both was strength and resiliency. And what I think Miller gets to in his musical portrait is also what the man meant to so many people in that time and place. Tutu was, in a sense, a man who was undeniable - and he was willing to play his part at a juncture in history that demanded strength and faith even through trying darkness.

Musically speaking I've long admired and sought after the starkly elemental style of Marcus Miller's compositions. His music has a clarity and simplicity of utterance that is immediately arresting and demands your attention. Miles's soloing is likewise elemental, and he hits his spots with such deliberation that it always opens up the musical ideas around him. I'm happy to say I'm as intrigued by this at age 54 as I was at age 14.

Jazz Clarinet Gear Review: 1927 Selmer Albert System Clarinet - fine tuned by Arthur Benade

To round out my collection of historical jazz clarinets, I've long needed a Selmer Albert, the clarinet of choice for the famed second generation of New Orleans jazz clarinetists - Sidney Bechet, Jimmie Noone, Johnny Dodds, Omer Simeon, Barney Bigard, Edmond Hall, and others. Sometimes referred to as "Simple" System, the Albert differs from Boehm System clarinets not only in key arrangements and fingering, but in bore and timbre. 

Opinions differ as to how great a degree the Albert contrasts with the Boehm, and whether one can achieve the same timbres on either. Albert Nicholas, for example, switched mid-career for the technical facility offered by the  Boehm system, claiming there was no real difference in the sound. Many others disagree, using all sorts of adjectives to describe what can or can't be replicated on a Boehm. 

My own opinion is that they are very different instruments. The upper clarion and altissimo on this Selmer Albert open to a much wider, sheet like sound that can be heard on recordings by Jimmie Noone and Sidney Bechet. Among other tonal aspects of the horn, I don't think I could ever fully replicate that timbre on any of my various Boehm system clarinets. 

The clarinet reviewed here was another acquisition from the Benade Collection, and from exterior evidence and the name stamp Arthur Benade put on it, suggests a good deal of acoustic fine tuning was done by the master himself.    

1927 Selmer Albert System Clarinet
fine tuned by Arthur Benade  
Eric Seddon Collection
Marlboro Man Music 

Readers of this blog will know that I hold the late Arthur Benade's contributions to our understanding of wind instruments in very high regard, and that I'm hopeful clarinet makers will study his clarinets and incorporate his advances into their own models - most specifically learning from the instruments in my collection reviewed earlier this year.  That pair of clarinets was unique, so far as I could tell, in the Benade collection, in that he had essentially used Selmer clarinets as blanks, altering them to such a degree that he erased the Selmer logos on them and inscribed his own name and the date he considered them to have been completed. 

This Selmer Albert System clarinet clearly wasn't altered to the same degree - the logos and serial number have been left intact. 

1927 Selmer Albert System Bell
fine tuned by Arthur Benade
Eric Seddon Collection/Marlboro Man Music

And yet, just below the old Selmer "Lyre" Logo (prior to Selmer's famous "laurel" logo that dominated most of the 20th century) we see the stamp "A. H. Benade." To me, this indicates that Benade did enough fine tuning to warrant putting his name on the work - and perhaps that he was satisfied enough with his results that he wanted it to bear his name.  

It may seem a niggling point, but I think it's important, when we are talking about historically informed performances - I don't consider the Benade Pair in my collection to be "Selmers" - they were originally Selmers, but were transformed into Benade's ideal clarinets. Contrastingly, this is indeed a Selmer Albert clarinet - it responds and sounds like one. Hence my labeling it as being fine tuned by Arthur Benade. 

Some more photos:

1927 Selmer Albert System Clarinet (detail)
fine tuned by Arthur Benade
Eric Seddon Collection/Marlboro Man Music

1927 Selmer Albert System Clarinet (detail)
fine tuned by Arthur Benade
Eric Seddon Collection/Marlboro Man Music

This instrument is in need of a thorough overhaul before I'll be able to perform with it - but I'll keep everyone posted regarding when they might be able to hear it in the future. 

Once again I would like to thank Martin Benade, son of the late Arthur Benade, for entrusting these instruments to my care.  

 

1927 Selmer Albert System Clarinet
fine tuned by Arthur Benade
Eric Seddon Collection/Marlboro Man Music

Introducing the Eric Seddon [FUSION] Trio

I've always said jazz is a full contact sport. You must engage your intellect, emotions, memory - your very soul - and your body. And as you get older, there are various challenges each of us has to face. Some struggle with nerves on stage, others with tendonitis or arthritis, while some lose their hearing. As I've neared my fifth decade of music, the biggest struggle has been with my ears, which cannot sustain clarinet or saxophone work as long as they used to. Years of playing in symphony orchestras and in loud jazz bands, combined with countless hours practicing in the altissimo register, has resulted in tinnitus, and forced me to limit my time on traditional acoustic instruments. 

Necessity being the mother of invention, I weighed my options and bought an Akai EWI SOLO last summer. As one who had never worked in the realm of electric instruments before, everything about this experience was new. I fell in love with this powerful and expressive instrument immediately, though, and soon was out playing concerts. 

Akai EWI SOLO - Eric Seddon collection

Fast forward a year, and I've launched a new project - Eric Seddon's [FUSION] Trio. As one who grew up in the 1980s, with a profound love of jazz fusion, this need to play EWI has turned into a blessing in disguise, forcing me to expand into a realm of jazz that is quite possibly underserved and certainly deeply rewarding artistically. The immediacy with which jazz fusion speaks to our culture without the need for historical references is tantalizing. It's great to write and perform music that speaks to the people of today with an immediacy like no other. 

We made our debut at The Treelawn in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, and I'll keep everyone posted as to our whereabouts going forward. 

Eric Seddon [FUSION] Trio debut at The Treelawn in Cleveland 
September 2026

You can follow us on Facebook  and on  X (Twitter)  @FusionEWI

I'm not retiring from clarinet, nor from posting about the clarinet in jazz, but you can expect more content relating to jazz fusion and the EWI in addition to the writing you've read here for the last 14 years or so. 

Excelsior!