| Most of the instruments in the symphony orchestra lead double lives as members of jazz bands. Some, such as the double bass, the trumpet, the trombone, and the piano are generally considered to be more or less standard jazz instruments. Others, such as clarinet, flute, and violin, are less common but still have their famous proponents. The bassoon, however, is not an instrument that one typically associates with jazz. While there may be no widely known jazz bassoonists, the instrument has been used throughout the history of the genre, appearing on recordings as early as 1921. Practically nothing has been written to date about the use of bassoon in jazz, other than liner notes to recordings and passing references in jazz histories and biographies. While this may represent a small hole in jazz scholarship, it is a significant gap in the existing bassoon literature jazz represents the only extensive use of the instrument outside the Western classical music tradition. With this project, I seek to rectify this omission through the discussion, cataloging, and analysis of the bassoon's use in jazz.Jazz is an art form that has always been primarily transmitted by ear musicians typically learn by listening to other musicians either live or via recorded performances. Thus, recordings form the raw material for this study. I used published jazz discographies to locate relevant recordings, assembling a list of nearly one thousand recording sessions that include the bassoon. I spent hundreds of hours listening to as many of these recordings as possible, learning about the various roles the bassoon has played in jazz and tracing historical trends therein, identifying the recordings with the most prominent or interesting bassoon content (a somewhat subjective judgment), and noting which performers have contributed the most to the history of jazz bassoon. Thus, the project consists of a history of the instrument's use in jazz, an analysis of its various roles in jazz ensembles, a discussion of performers with biographical sketches for the most prominent among them, an annotated list of particularly interesting recordings, and an extensive discography of jazz recordings that include bassoon. |
