'They were different, they were originial … think about a great painting from the past that still seems original today'

The Daily inter Lake

Clarinetist Buddy DeFranco has played with most of the other 34 jazz greats who will be honored March 3 at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

But he can't pick a favorite.

"That'd be kinda difficult. I've worked with most of them. Each is special in their own way," said DeFranco, 83, who lives in Whitefish and Panama Beach, Fla.

The Kennedy Center is host to a "Jazz In Our Time" celebration and performance.

Although he won't be performing, DeFranco will be among the 35 jazz artists to receive Living Jazz Legend awards. Others include pianist Dave Brubeck, singer Al Jarreau, pianist Michel Legrand and trumpet player Wynton Marsalis.

"It is important to honor musicians while they are alive. So often, jazz luminaries are recognized for their achievements only after their deaths," said Billy Taylor, the center's artistic advisor for jazz, according to a Kennedy Center press release.

DeFranco is quick to list the three now-dead jazz pioneers who influenced him the most - cutting-edge pianist Art Tatum and his hyperkinetic hands, iconoclastic saxophone player and self-destructive bebop pioneer Charlie Parker, and the eight-times-married clarinetist Artie Shaw, an innovative arranger who fused classical and jazz while adding bits and pieces from other styles.

"They were unique. They were different. They were original. … They were so ahead of their time that if you hear them now, they seem timely. … Think about a great painting from the past that still seems original today," DeFranco said.

DeFranco built his legacy on being creative with a clarinet.

"There's the never-ending search for the pot of gold at the end. The brain is always ahead of what you can physically do. … You're always trying to catch up with your brain," DeFranco said.

DeFranco finished recording a new album in December, with the release of the still-to-be-named CD expected in two or three months. Most of the music is straight swing jazz, with a couple of original DeFranco compositions .

Born in New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Boniface DeFranco's earliest musical influence was his father, a blind piano tuner who also played guitar. At 9, DeFranco began taking clarinet lessons - playing in high-school bands with his father's band of blind musicians.

His big break came when, at 13, he entered a contest sponsored by band leader and trombonist Tommy Dorsey.

With some razzle-dazzle - he wore short pants to show up his older competitors and played a high E on "Honeysuckle Rose" with his left hand while raising his right hand up in the air - DeFranco impressed Dorsey.

DeFranco played in numerous bands, including three stints with Dorsey between 1943 and 1948.

Both stubborn, DeFranco and Dorsey butted heads over their different approaches to performing. Dorsey preferred songs to be played the same way at each gig. DeFranco wanted to experiment and improvise. Eventually, they accepted each other's stances.

DeFranco's career has been a long line of small innovative jazz ventures, ranging from a septet with Count Basie to a five-album partnership with jazz accordionist Tommy Gumina.

He was also leader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, participated in countless festivals and clinics, and did some soundtrack work that included "Ocean's 11, "Route 66" and "Tom and Jerry" cartoons

in the late 1980s, he played at a jazz festival in Whitefish, and was invited back twice.

After hanging around Whitefish after the third festival, he and his wife, Joyce, decided to buy a home there - and now they spend April through mid-October in Whitefish and the rest of the year in Florida.

DeFranco will be in Missoula on April 27-28 for the University of Montana's annual jazz festival that bears his name.

DeFranco always picks the festival's lead jazz artist. This year, it will be an Australian clarinet player - Andy Firth - with whom DeFranco has played with before.

"He's copied a lot of clarinet players, including me, but he still sounds like himself," DeFranco said.