Clarinet Thing

Clarinet Thing is a quartet of virtuosic clarinetists from the Bay Area. Sheldon Brown, Beth Custer, Ben Goldberg, and Harvey Wainapel perform arrangements of a wide range of jazz, world, and new music on the entire family of clarinets. Clarinet Thing performs in medium sized halls and has enjoyed many sold-out performances with audiences of all ages. Clarinet Thing has created a large repertoire of arrangements of unusual tunes by Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, John Carter, Pixinguinha/Larcerda, Eubie Blake, Bobby Bradford and others.

Clarinet Thing has created a large repertoire of arrangements of unusual tunes by Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, John Carter, Pixinguinha/Larcerda, Eubie Blake, Bobby Bradford and others. Original compositions by band members are also performed.

Clarinet Thing performs acoustically using no amplification whatsoever. The entire family of clarinets is used, from the baby Eb clarinet up to the large contra alto clarinet. Clarinet and jazz enthusiasts abound at our concerts.

BC Records released Agony Pipes and Misery Sticks, Clarinet Thing's first CD a retrospective disk culled from fifteen years of live recordings. The CD has enjoyed brisk sales and the group will be recording another CD in studio in '07.

"I founded Clarinet Thing 1989. I had been attending many ROVA saxophone quartet performances and listening to the World Saxophone Quartet and thought, why not form an all clarinet group that performs a wide range of musical styles, from Kurt Weill to free jazz?"
-founder Beth Custer

"Clarinet Thing's Agony Pipes and Misery Sticks CD featuring 16 lush and woody tracks...the startlingly beautiful music is pithy and expansive, like a great collection of short stories."
-Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Chronicle

"Clarinet Thing is a killer quartet that plays a rich, woody blend of original music and Ellingtonia, Polish polka, Brazilian choro, Kurt Weill Weimar waltzes and other pieces that pop and sway with the pregnant sound of an improvising clarinet choir."
-Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle