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Frank Tiberi played some badass bassoon on Woody Herman records in the 80s and he still leads Woody's ghost band. He is a professor of winds at Berklee. Unique tenor sound too.

"Unique tenor sound" indeed! Frank is a true original and definitely falls under the category of underrated. Well into his 70s, Frank's still playing his ass off- just ask Sangrey's band mate Pete Gallio (or pretty much anyone who's heard him w/the band or elsewhere). Frank has practically developed his own language on the instrument (actually, he pretty much has his own language verbally, too! :alien: ) and is a huge Trane fanatic.

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  • 3 years later...

In his 'fake' stage announcements on the Candid set Mingus presents Mingus, Mingus announces a slew of intruments for Dolphy, including bassoon.

Is there any evidence that Dolphy ever did record on bassoon?

Bertrand.

Forgot about that, you're right. That was odd, and I haven't heard any evidence.

Karen Borca rules!

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Frank Tiberi played some badass bassoon on Woody Herman records in the 80s and he still leads Woody's ghost band. He is a professor of winds at Berklee. Unique tenor sound too.

-m

In the mid '70s my middle school band played at a jazz festival in Fort Wayne, Ind. with Woody's band as the guest. There were individual instrument clinics during the day and Frank did the one for saxophonists. What I remember most was that he was adamant that the best thing we could do to improve our sound on saxophone was to take up the bassoon. Any double reed instrument would do, he said, but especially bassoon. At 13, we thought the advice (and him) were among the weirdest things we had ever heard.. I mean, we could barely play the saxophone and here he was telling us to take up the bassoon. Anyway, it was only much later that I began to understand what he was surely getting at -- since a double reed instrument is played with a "double lip" embouchure you have to have your diaphragm-breathing-air column together or you can't produce a full sound or stay in tune. The idea is to transfer that air column to the saxophone, where many players bite down too hard on the top of the mouthpiece, constrict the air flow, cause intonation problems and don't produce a full or even sound in all registers. I had a saxophone teacher once who suggested practicing double lip for the same reason.

Edited by Mark Stryker
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Currently, there's a guy named Michael Rabinowitz who is a terrific bassoon player. He's done several albums in recent years. "Bassoon in Orbit" is a quartet date with Joe Fonda on bass, Grisha Alexiev on drums, and Diana Herold on vibes. Another disc, "Gabrielle's Balloon," has got him with John Hicks, Ira Coleman, and Steve Johns. Great playing on both, though I prefer the lighter sound of the ensemble on the Orbit album.

Michael Rabinowitz plays the bassoon with the Mingus Orchestra, on Tuesday nights at the Iridium (when the Mingus Big Band or Mingus Dynasty is not playing).

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A couple other places to hear some bassoon:

James Newton Ensemble-Suite for Frida Kahlo-Audioquest...Julie Feves on bassoon and there's some nice George Lewis on this one too.

Beaver Harris 360 Music Experience-Beautiful Africa-Soul Note...Ken McIntyre on bassoon and GM III in the front line as well.

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Guest Bill Barton

A couple other places to hear some bassoon:

James Newton Ensemble-Suite for Frida Kahlo-Audioquest...Julie Feves on bassoon and there's some nice George Lewis on this one too.

Beaver Harris 360 Music Experience-Beautiful Africa-Soul Note...Ken McIntyre on bassoon and GM III in the front line as well.

It's nice to see Makanda Ken McIntyre's name come up. He recorded quite a few pieces on bassoon.

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One of the most outstanding jazz bassoonists out there is Paul Hanson. He plays both tenor as well as bassoon. I used to work occasionally with him in the Bay Area in the mid-late 80's.. I first heard him with Peter Applebaum's fantastic band the "Hieroglyphics Ensemble"... Didn't hear much from Paul until he surfaced in a concert video a few years ago with Bela Fleck...

If you haven't heard him check him out!

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Bob Cooper of the "Lighthoue All Stars" played basson and he was terrific on it. Just look up The "Lighthouse All Stars" on google, and "Lighthouse Live Recordings", or even type in say Benny Golson Live at the Lighthouse or any one you favor from that era, and you will find a lot of overlooked performances, and in all likelihood of some of your favorite jazz men from the 50's and 60's. A lot was recorded there and with them in a few studio settings, and then there were recordings which were never released due to contractual obligations and would I ever love to get my hands on those. He probably even wrote music just for it as he was prolific, or so it seemed to me.

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