GORDON INMAN

plays on the RZ/magoo Bohema hybrid

When Gordon Inman was ten years old, his mother became a working folk musician in Chattanooga, Tennessee, playing mountain dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, and autoharp with the likes of Tom Morgan, Lynn Haas, and Dan Landrum. During this time young Gordon fell in love with the timbre of the instruments and the soulful, unapologetically emotive nature of the music of his home. When he began playing the clarinet two years later, early attempts at transposition in order to play his mother’s music were devised and eventually tabled.

Robert Cirlot and David Butler were his band directors; Jonathan Cathell sold him his first clarinet; Steve Tonkinson was his private instructor; Jay Craven was his mentor; Todd Waldecker was his professor; and Jessica Harrie was his big sister. 

Mr. Inman served in his mentor Jay Craven’s Chattanooga Clarinet Choir from 2013 to 2023 in the following roles, respectively: alto clarinet, soloist, concertmaster, artistic director, manager, conductor, and his favorite, emeritus.

One of Mr. Inman’s proudest artistic achievements was a combined chamber music/film series experiment in responsible indoor live music in the Spring of 2021 known as the Northshore Karass Series, named for the word coined by Kurt Vonnegut in Cat’s Cradle (‘karass’) and the Chattanooga district in which it took place (‘northshore’). The series was a collaboration with the Chattanooga Theatre Centre and was dubbed by a local publication as “the return of live music” in Chattanooga post-lockdown. As per the mission statement, it compensated all artistic collaborators according to each discipline’s scale, marking one of many economic resets in the now legendary Chattanooga march toward gainful employment in recent years. 

In 2021, the regionally celebrated American roots ensemble, The New Quintet, was formed with folk historian/podcaster Nicholas Edward Williams (guitar/harmonica/vocals), Jade Watts (bass/vocals), Emma Dubose (fiddle/vocals), Cody Ray (guitar/vocals), and Gordon Inman (clarinet/vocals). Mr. Inman uses four separate clarinets with this ensemble, predominantly the RZ C clarinet he purchased in 2019. His mother is one of their biggest fans. 

At present, Mr. Inman is working on his next project: a center dedicated to clarinet research and pedagogy in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Far-flung collaborations welcome.)

His proudest achievement outside of music: for two years before joining the RZ family, Mr. Inman taught the theory of film and art of filmmaking at Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts. His students came to him as training musicians, painters, poets, dancers, fashion designers, craftspersons, soccer Capos, and actors.  Their collective work in those two years have been celebrated by the likes of Cecelia Condit (Possibly in Michigan), Bryce McGuire (Night Swim), and Emily Steele (Goodnight, August). Mr. Inman told a few of his students on the last day of classes that he used to marvel at the fact that the great Jackson Browne could have lived, lost, and loved enough again to write the song ‘These Days’ when he was only sixteen years old; that is, “until I met all of you.”  

 

Works performed in the Northshore Karass Series:

  • Clarinet Concerto, Aaron Copland

  • Black Dog, Scott McAllister

  • Misty (arr. Ben van Winkle), Erroll Garner

  • Naftule’s Leave (arr. Gordon Inman), Helmut Eisel

  • Creekwalk - Gordon Inman (Premiere)

  • Wading Through Water, Matthew Weaver (Premiere)

  • Old Man with Turnip, Tim Hinck

  • Trio, Aram Khachaturian

  • Serenade for Three, Peter Schickele

  • Hommage to Zoltan Kodaly, Bela Kovacs

  • 4 Pieces, Sergio Assad

  • Off Piste, Svante Henryson 

 

Notable Collaborators/Venue Sharers:

  • Milan Rericha, friend of RZ

  • Roy “Futureman” Wooten, Flecktones/The Black Mozart (ca. 2009)

  • Jim Lauderdale/Verlon Thompson, country musicians (ca. 2023)

  • Roy Roman, trumpet & clarinet (ca. 2019-present)

  • Steven Malone, Newsies/Schmigadoon/Sound of Music LIVE! (ca. 2007)

  • Carol Nies, conductor (ca. 2008-2013)

  • Bruce Dinkins, conductor (ca. 2007)

  • John Mackey, composer (ca. 2009, 2011, 2016)

  • Bob Stagner, The Shaking Ray Levis (ca. 2015-present)

  • Kofi Mawuko, Milele Roots (ca. 2001)

  • Michael Dexter, Giant Steps: The Musical (ca. 2019-present)

  • Ethan McGrath, composer (ca. 2018-present)

  • Tim Hinck, composer (ca. 2015-present)

  • Matthew Weaver, composer (ca. 2013, 2021)

  • Ann Law, dancer/choreographer (ca. 2001-present)

  • Jonathan Miron/Philip Sheegog a.k.a. ARKAI (ca. 2021)

  • Lou Wamp, folk musician (ca. 2019-present)

  • Lynn Wamp, folk musician (ca. 2019-present)

  • Owen Saunders, folk musician (ca. 2019)

  • Eb Saunders, folk musician (ca. 2019-present)

  • Ben van Winkle, renaissance artist (ca. 2005-present)

  • Emerald Butler, country musician (ca. 2022-present)

  • Butch Ross, folk musician (ca. 2014-present)

  • Cremaine Booker, cellist (ca. 2006-2013)

  • Lon Eldridge, folk musician (ca. 2019-present)

  • Amanda Cagle, renaissance artist (ca. 2015-present)

  • Amelia Graber Jacobs/Rachel Graber/Rosie Graber a.k.a. Call Me Spinster, (ca. 2021-present)

  • Steely Bruno, trumpet (ca. 2021-2023)

  • Dillon Davis, dancer/choreographer (ca. 2016-2022)

  • Mark Reneau, violin (ca. 2010-present)

 

Gordon currently plays on the RZ/magoo Bohema hybrid clarinet.

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