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DIY
Editions
History
Jazz and Pop
Pedagogy
Recordings
Reed Making
Repertoire
Reviews
I keep a variety of online feelers out for bassoon-related things. Much of what comes back to me is spam or otherwise uninteresting. But, I do find out about articles and concerts that I might not otherwise. My favorite sort of discoveries, though, are of obscure and often long-forgotten bits of bassoon miscellany. That’s exactly what I came across a couple of weeks ago in the record whose cover you see below. It’s a 7‑inch 45 rpm single by the Novelty Disco Band, recorded and pressed in France in 1977. After finding mention of it online, I bought a copy […]
Whenever possible, I prefer standing up to play. I do this for solo works, small chamber pieces, and I’ve even helped convinced a woodwind quintet to stand to perform. Standing gives me more freedom of movement, which I feel allows for more musical freedom, as well. This freedom of movement also makes it easier to communicate with my fellow performers, whether through eye contact or physical gesture. Of course, he bassoon also tends to project better when played standing up, and a standing player is generally just more interesting for the audience to watch. To facilitate standing it’s important to find […]
A couple of days ago, I received Nadina Mackie Jackson’s new CD, Twenty Four Solos by Jean-Daniel Braun in the mail. I had been eagerly awaiting the disc since its release at the end of October. Of course I wanted to hear Nadina’s recording (which is wonderful!), but my enthusiasm was also partly selfish; I wrote the album’s liner notes. This came about a bit by chance. Nadina put out a call on Facebook for help with liner notes, and I happened to see and respond to it in pretty short order. So thanks to her for giving me my first […]
Never Cry Wolf is a 1983 film adaptation of Farley Mowat’s 1963 book of the same name. The film features Charles Martin Smith as Tyler (a fictionalized version of Mowat), a young biologist sent to study the impact of wolves on the caribou population in northern Canada. Tyler discovers that the wolves subsist mainly on small mammals, and that their reputation as ruthless killers of larger animals is completely unfounded. A while ago someone (I can’t remember who now — tell me if it was you) suggested that I watch Never Cry Wolf because it prominently features a bassoon. This […]