In the past years the bassoon has started appear in more and more and unusual places. For those of you aren't sure what I mean, and even those who are, spend some time looking at the Bassoon Brothers (they have a wonderful electric bassoon, with effect pedal!, cover of Purple Haze), Daniel Smith (some nice sounding jazz), Michael Rabinpwitz (funk bassoon, search for him on YouTube), Paul Hanson (a very polished and accomplished jazz bassoonist, he even has his own jazz bassoon book you can purchase), just to name some some that quickly come to mind.
I think the amplification of the bassoon has started to allow the bassoon to play in louder settings such as jazz and to play in larger outdoor concerts with ease. The amplified and distorted bassoon is quite fun to listen to, but I doubt its practicality and acceptance. I found that I really like bassoon jazz, it seems to be able to mix well with other jazz instruments, especially when it is amplified, and is a very nice solo jazz instrument.
Some people such as my teacher object to the bassoon being used outside of a classical situation. He thinks the bassoon is a classical intrument and should stay where it been.
yeh i can see your teachers point, i dont really appreciate jazz on the bassoon, i went to see daniel smith perform once, and well the best bit was the silence between changing pieces. i'm tellin you it wasn't gr8! listen to the other bloke you mentioned on you tube and hes quite good. i've just found something that may have changed my mind about keeping the bassoon to just classical! its on youtube!
its quite long and the start is a bit dodgy but well once you get into the music, its quite appealing. i'd actually now quite like to play some jazzier type pieces!
I enjoy seeing the bassoon in other settings beside classical. It was listening to a ballad on bassoon which got me interested in the instrument. I started listening to Arthur Weisberg & Arthur Grossman. Later on I got into Vivaldi and attending live woodwind quartet performances.
I have heard Michael Rabinowitz live, I really enjoyed his playing. I have the Bassoon Brothers CD's but haven't listened to Paul Hanson yet.
I am actually a clarinet player, I hope in a few years I can add the bassoon. I want to get to the point I can play very well before adding another instrument.
In the meantime, I am working to improve my bass clef reading and get a handle on tenor clef. I also want to learn more
about the bassoon audition repertoire.
And making bassoon reeds from cane tube to finished reed, I know that's gonna knock me for a loop.
Another jazz musician who played bassoon is Makanda Ken McIntyre.
I think the bassoon is a beautiful instrument and I love listening to it. I don't really feel using bassoon outside classical music is disrespectful to the instrument.
I also quite enjoy the "bubonic bassoon quartet", alas, their pieces are too short.
Got to love the "Peter and the Wolf" excerpts with the sopranino recorder playing the grandfather part. During my random googlings I also happened onto this interesting site :
I quite like his reconstructed Jiranek bassoon concertos.
And it's rare for someone to put up some free to download pieces of bassoon music.
Also quite interesting for people who are interested in the sound of the baroque bassoon
or even the dulcian.
Cheers
James
<Added>
sorry for using the word "interesting" so often, but it IS so much interesting to me.
I haven't listened to much of Daniel Smith, but I have heard that he has a reputation for churning out solo works and Cd's with out always having a seat in any orchestra and thus lacking many fundamentals. Like him or not, I still think that jazz can sound very good on the bassoon.
Thanks altoclardude, Ode to a Toad was wonderful, I might have to track down the music to that! Also bareego, great site link, listen to the tracks at the very bottom of the page for some intriguing bassoon jazz.
Small group such a quartets seem to be more popular with the mainstream public than full orchestras. Lots of them popping up, the small group's of like instruments seem to lend themselves to more free and "appealing" interpretations of many works. Just something I've noticed. Most all of the music popping up on this thread seem to be performed by small groups.
Hey, Bass2, that link you posted, that quartet was playing music from a video game, and I'm not quite sure that was jazz. My school has a jazz band with a bassoon in it and, actually, I think it sounds really nice. Though bassoon was made for classical type pieces, it is that type of instrument that is easily flexible to play other types of music, if it is played correctly.
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