Wah-Wah Oboe

In my recent flurry of buying baritone saxophone albums — Pepper Adams, Gerry Mulligan, Serge Chaloff, Cecil Payne, Nick Brignola et al — I ran across a Mulligan track (one only) where he plays clarinet.

Now there have been several jazz clarinetists, like Benny Goodman, Pete Fountain, Sidney Bechet, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmy Giuffre, Woody Herman and many others.  I believe the fingering is similar(?) to the sax so if you can play one you can play the other fairly easily.

But what about double reed instruments, oboes and bassoons?  I could only think of one jazz reed player who occasionally played oboe, Eric Dolphy.  Paul Winter’s Consort (and later Oregon) included oboist Paul McCandless, but he didn’t really play in a jazz idiom.  He was one reason those groups bridged jazz and classical — he played classically.

Well, Karl Jenkins played occasional oboe in Soft Machine.  He was sorta jazzy.  Bob Cooper and Yusef Lateef played occasional oboe.  Roscoe Mitchell too.

And the RIO jazz-rock groups like Univers Zero, Present, Aranis, Henry Cow, Art Zoyd usually employed a bassoonist (always one of the same three: Michel Berckmans, Dirk Descheemaeker or Lindsay Cooper).

But IN GENERAL, seeing how many saxophonists also played flute or clarinet, or other sizes soprano/alto/tenor/baritone/bass sax, it struck me that jazz oboe and jazz bassoon are almost unheard of.  So I went looking.

I read several articles online that said the double reed instruments are really hard to “swing.”  Dunno why exactly, but everyone agrees.

Found two jazz bassoonists, both fairly young, both fairly unknown.  Michael Rabinowitz is a New Yorker (by way of CT) who has “introduced the bassoon to jazz.”  His 1995 release “Bassoon on Fire” is described in the liner notes as the first-ever jazz bassoon album.  On one track his plays through a wah-wah creating a very unbassoonlike sound.

The other is Californian Paul Hanson, who includes electronic effects and electric guitar so his “Voodoo Suite” (2000) isn’t really straight jazz.  But it’s very, very interesting.

I still think it’s odd these instruments are so rare in jazz.

Correction: Dolphy played bass clarinet. Not oboe.

Bought or downloaded about nine albums by clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre, whose ensembles have been notable for not having any rhythm section (bass & drums).  For instance, his “Travlin’ Light” (1958) includes just clarinet, Bob Brookmeyer’s trombone and Jim Hall’s guitar.

Without a rhythmic foundation to the music it sounds a lot closer to chamber classical music than jazz.  This reminds me of Dave Brubeck’s octet recordings (1946-9) which were written while he was a student of Darius Milhaud.  Whether these are jazz or classical is really a matter of interpretation.  One thing is sure, they point up the “seriousness” and respectability of jazz that only the Modern Jazz Quartet and Jacques Loussier later established on stages in New York.  I guess Igor Stravinsky wrote a concerto for Woody Herman’s band in 1946.  

George Barnes had an octet in the forties that similarly blurs the line between well-rehearsed ensemble jazz and small-ensemble chamber music.  Even Ozzie Nelson (of “Ozzie & Harriet” fame) had a hot little band that did a lot of neo-classical themes, as did, come to think of it, John Kirby and his “Biggest Little Band In The Land” both about the same time (pre-War).

Too bad all this merging, cross-fertilization, convergence of the forties and fifties seems to have been followed by fence-building and unbreachable domains ever since.

Could've SWORN I posted about this before but can't find my post now, so forgive me if this duplicates.

In my never-ending search for weird jazz instruments I bought a couple of CD compilations by Don Elliott, who played mellophone, which is a French Horn with a straight bell.  It sounds like a cross between a French Horn and a cornet.  He also did the soundtrack to "A Thurber Carnival" which I used to have on LP.

Bob Cooper was a saxophonist who played occasional oboe so I had to get a box of his recordings too.

Which leads me into today's discoveries, French Hornist John Clark.  I had a couple ECM records he was on*, but turns out there are four albums where he was the leader on jazz French Horn.  Sought, downloaded, burned.  Quelle fromage!



* - Wow. Discogs lists 232 credits for albums he contributed to.

Also, while filing away Rabinowitz and Hanson, who I decided to file under "bassoon" because I'll never remember their names, I discovered that several years ago I'd bought two CDs by the Caliban Quartet, which is four bassoonists. They play mostly light classical fare, but occasionally venture afield as in Raymond Scott's "Music for a Pack Of Hungry Cannibals." Nice stuff!

After having listened to all three Clark albums I downloaded -- the fourth one, which included electric guitar and attempts to be "funky," sounded just too disjointed and ill-advised to burn -- I have to say this is some of the oddest "jazz" I've ever heard. The French Horn does not swing.

Clark certainly doesn't lack in bona fides. He's been a member of several well-established big bands such as Bob Mintzer, Paul Bley, Gil Evans, New England Conservatory, and others. But then, there probably isn't a whole lot of competition in his field.

His playing sounds very conservatory-trained: always on the beat, always cleanly articulated. Not "jazzy" in other words.

What he lacks in swing he attempts to make up with occasional extended playing techniques -- humming through the mouthpiece, overblowing, underblowing, and riding the gray area between the valves. It doesn't work, for the most part.

The best of the three, "Faces," which has never beeen issued on CD, takes a very ECM-ish approach with long floating chords of brass against a shimmering backdrop. This is less jazz than soundtrack music, mood music, in search of a film.

Fascinating attempt to bridge two very different worlds.

Ran across this graphic today:


Another jazz french horn player.  My jazz bassoonist (mentioned above).  A jazz cor anglais player (which is a larger oboe).  And Rufus Harley, whom I'd forgotten about, a "jazz" bagpiper.

Just kidding. You can't play jazz on a bagpipe.  It's still just bagpipe music.  Unlistenable.

NoCoPilot wrote:

It's still just bagpipe music.  Unlistenable.

Whew. Not completely crazy, then.

Listening to some jazz on the radio this morning I heard a nice double bass (bass viol) solo and thought to myself, Gee, I wonder if anyone's ever released any jazz recordings of the octobass, an extremely rare (I think only three exist) instrument that is ten feet tall and requires the player to stand on a platform.  The low string is tuned to 16Hz.

Turns out, no.  The instruments are too rare and delicate (made in the 1850s) to allow them to be played anymore.  They're museum pieces.

But there is a handful of more recent versions, called "triple contrabass viols" which are the same size but have four strings instead of three.  There's a dozen or so of these monsters in the world.  Needless to say, hauling around a ten foot fiddle limits their use somewhat.

Turns out there's exactly one jazz recording according to my research: one track (only) on a 1987 album by Roscoe Mitchell - so I had to download it.  The track also includes bass saxophone, contrabass sarrusophone (a floor-standing tuba), and voice.  It's pretty wild free jazz, and the voice pretty much ruins it.  But gawd what a racket.

The ultra-low saxophones led me to another album, "Thinking Big" by Scott Robinson wherein he plays bass clarinet, baritone sax, bass sax, contrabass sax, and a contrabass sarrusophone.  Oh, and theremin!  The back cover shows a monster saxophone, about ten feet tall with a bell the size of serving platter.  It's sitting outdoors on a wheeled farm cart (which I think(?) is a joke). This album is straight-ahead (palatable) jazz with some mighty fine squarewaves.  Yessir, mighty fine squarewaves.

https://imgur.com/gallery/SJwnA

NoCoPilot wrote:

Bought or downloaded about nine albums by clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre, whose ensembles have been notable for not having any rhythm section (bass & drums).  For instance, his “Travlin’ Light” (1958) includes just clarinet, Bob Brookmeyer’s trombone and Jim Hall’s guitar.

Without a rhythmic foundation to the music it sounds a lot closer to chamber classical music than jazz.  This reminds me of Dave Brubeck’s octet recordings (1946-9) which were written while he was a student of Darius Milhaud.  Whether these are jazz or classical is really a matter of interpretation.  One thing is sure, they point up the “seriousness” and respectability of jazz that only the Modern Jazz Quartet and Jacques Loussier later established on stages in New York.  I guess Igor Stravinsky wrote a concerto for Woody Herman’s band in 1946.  

George Barnes had an octet in the forties that similarly blurs the line between well-rehearsed ensemble jazz and small-ensemble chamber music.  Even Ozzie Nelson (of “Ozzie & Harriet” fame) had a hot little band that did a lot of neo-classical themes, as did, come to think of it, John Kirby and his “Biggest Little Band In The Land” both about the same time (pre-War).

Too bad all this merging, cross-fertilization, convergence of the forties and fifties seems to have been followed by fence-building and unbreachable domains ever since.

Was playing some old favorite CDs of mine by the Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet: Ruby on cornet, George on guitar, Wayne Wright on rhythm guitar and Michael Moore on bass. I was about halfway through the first one before it dawned on me -- no drummer! These recordings were taken between 1974 and 1976 so they're well outside the timeframe I laid out above.

Fabulous recordings too.

Also listening to Charles Mingus "Let My Children Hear Music" which was orchestrated for large band by Sy Johnson in 1972 from notes, fragmentary recordings and a piano solo by Mingus. It sounds like Don Sebesky or Quincy Jones gone crazy with a 30-piece jazz band. Although parts are improvised, most of it is written out and played like some massive jazz concerto. Very genre-bending.

Great video, NoCo. Lots of instruments there I have never heard of, much less seen or heard.

Am I the only one who thinks that the bass trumpet sounds just like a trombone?

Well, it should. It's essentially the same horn, with different bends in the tubes. Especially if you add valves, as Bobby Brookmeyer's instrument famously did.

Speaking of jazz on usual brass instruments...

I ordered a 4-LP-on-2-CD set by Red Callender, the bassist who sat in on Norman Granz's first production. Because I didn't have any!

Turns out in addition to upright bass, Callender started out, on his early records, playing tuba. And not Oom-pa-pa bass lines either, but actually taking the lead and playing it like a jazz horn.

The result is... pretty odd. Like the French Horn, it's hard to swing.

As we are discussing somewhat unusual instruments, I've got a challenge for you, NoCo.

When I was in school, I played several instruments: some for marching band and some for orchestra : ranged in size from pocket trumpet to sousaphone. One of the instruments was a trumpet which I have not seen elsewhere. The odd quality of the horn was that it had two settings: One for B-flat and one for E (or C or E-flat, maybe). There was a rotary valve on (if I remember correctly) on the side of the second valve which was turned to change the key.

If you have any info on this horn I would appreciate it. I will sit down sometime and try to come up with a list of all the brass I managed to insult.

Last year, I gave away my last horn - it was a clarinet which I had played maybe an hour in total.

 Rotary trumpet perhaps?

Tunable bell trumpet! There's one I've never seen.

I found an article about the trumpet just like the one I played 65 years ago. The one I played was silver plated. It belonged to the grade school music teacher.



My brother was an outstanding trumpet player and was always first chair trumpet from fourth grade through high school - even the county-wide high school orchestra.  Playing just seemed effortless for him. But he had little real interest in music. I don't think he ever picked up a horn again after high school.

Watch the guy at 2:30.  It beggars belief.