Albert system

The Albert system clarinet is a design of the clarinet, the (mainly Dixieland ) is used mainly in the Eastern European folk music, klezmer and jazz. In the British language area it is called Simple System Clarinet. This design is known by its player Woody Allen.

It is in a sense, an older form of the commonly used in German-speaking German clarinet, which was based on the handle system by Iwan Müller. Müller had at the beginning of the 19th century the flap mechanism improves by decorated the doors with airtight pads. The Belgian instrument maker Eugène Albert developed from around 1850, the Albert system clarinet. The Albert system was formed about the same time as the Baermann clarinet. The fingering is the same as the German system; But train and mouthpiece are based on the Boehm system.

The Albert system clarinet has limited abilities compared to the more modern designs and has been largely replaced by the Boehm clarinet. However, its advantage for jazz and folk music are the tone holes that are not covered by flaps and allow it to play by partially closing the holes with your finger glissandos or blue notes. Therefore, it has many followers and is still produced some of the Selmer Company or Buffet Crampon. Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet played on the Albert clarinet.