Bb wooden full-Albert clarinet with low Eb-key by Henri SELMER Paris

Dear Kjeld,

Believe it or believe it not: A Bulgarian friend offered me a low pitched Bb wooden clarinet and I bought it because it’s an extremely rare SELMER K-series improved full-Albert clarinet with a low Eb-key (Because of its low Eb-key this SELMER hasn’t three pads in a row but four!). I'm sure you and other jazz friends have never seen such a SELMER. Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow played a wooden SELMER clarinet with a low Eb-key - but his was in the Boehm system. This Albert clarinet from Sofia will complete my collection of SELMER Bb wooden Albert clarinets.

In principle it's the same type of the SELMER clarinet Jimmie Noone played but with a lengthened body to 70 cm and with an additional Eb-key & key touch. We can be sure that there are only a few of this in the mid 1920s made clarinet around the world as it is with my 1932 made "George Lewis" PEDLER metal Albert clarinet.                                                  

Kind regards,
Eberhard Kraut / September 2011                                       
chris.ebe@t-online.de

 
Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow a. 1960 playing his SELMER, a wooden Bb clarinet in the full-Boehm system with low Eb-key.