The rise and fall of the clarinet

Just recently, I have been listening to some early jazz which featured the clarinet as the dominant instrument. This was prompted by a charity shop lp purchase: Golden Hour of Clarinet Jazz Giants. It became evident that the clarinet was common to both swing and trad performers and I got to wondering why and when the saxophone became the preferred lead instrument. This 2 part blog I found goes some small way to explaining the change in role.

www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/4/6/rise-fall-clarinet-one