We grad bassoonists were asked to assemble a quartet to play on the evening concert. As it turned out, only 3 of us (out of 5) were going to be around the week before DRD, so we asked our prof., Marc Vallon, to join us. For the occasion, Brian and I spent a few afternoons creating a bassoon quartet arrangement of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Our performance was very well received, and a number of audience members approached us later to say, “that should be on YouTube!” We liked that idea, and so here it is:

In my search for reed cases from various double reed suppliers, I came across the web site of Roger Garrett, who is professor of both clarinet and instrumental conducting at Illinois Wesleyan University. On the side, Garrett is a skilled woodwright. He makes reed cases, batons, baton cases, pens, and a variety of other items. On his site, he provides a wealth of information about his reed cases — standard sizes and configurations, examples of bespoke cases he’s made, and photos of cases in a variety of common and exotic woods.

I corresponded with Garrett a bit before placing an order, asking about the prices of different woods and the possibilities of modifying his standard bassoon reed case design. His basic case has a foam strip that holds six bassoon reeds, but I have a similarly sized case that holds nine. I ended up having him send along one of his oboe reed strips, which with a little modification allowed me to fit eight bassoon reeds instead of six. He happened to have a curly maple contrabassoon case and a quilted maple bassoon case ready to go, so I bought them:

Bassoon and Contrabassoon Reed Cases

The Cases Opened

The prices were very reasonable (the same or less than I would’ve paid for less interesting cases from a double reed supplier), and as you can see, the cases are gorgeous. Someday when I’m rich and famous, I’ll order some African blackwood or cocobolo cases with a matching fountain pen.

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The UW Little Big Band had its fall concert a few weeks ago, and I’ve just gotten around to posting the recording. This semester, our instrumentation was trombone, cello, bassoon, guitar, piano, bass, and drums. We’re a little bass-instrument-heavy, but I think our arrangements neatly dealt with that fact. One big change this time around is that Pat (the cellist) and I played amplified, in order to achieve a better balance within the ‘horn’ section. It worked well in concert, but the balance is sometimes off in the recording. See the program and hear the tunes here.

Previously:
Little Big Band April Concert
Little Big Band Concerts
Front Page News
Little Big Band
My Jazz/YouTube Debut

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Bonus points if you can find the second thing wrong with the picture. Westminster Gold strikes again…

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 is an insertion of the filmmakers, though — there is no reference to a bassoon in Mowat’s book. In any case, the wonders of Netflix brought the movie to us, and we watched it a couple of weekends ago.

The government agency that funds Tyler’s expedition sends all sorts of unnecessary equipment with him — pallets full of toilet paper, crates of government carbon-copy forms, etc. But Tyler himself brings along a seemingly superfluous item: his bassoon. But, shortly after he and his gear are dropped off by a bush pilot (Brian Dennehy), he finds a use for it. Standing alone in the middle of a frozen lake at dusk, Tyler hears the howls of wolves. He grabs the closest weapon-like thing he can find without any serious unpacking — the boot joint of his bassoon — and hides under his upturned canoe:

Tyler (and his bassoon) escape unscathed, and he manages to set up camp and begin his observations. He befriends two Inuit men, Mike (Samson Jorah) and Ootek (Zachary Ittimangnaq). They help him survive the inhospitable climate, and aid in his study of the wolves and caribou. A couple of times in the movie, we see the three sitting outside together in the evening, Tyler playing his bassoon. He tries to mimic the howls and cries of distant wolves:

At one point, Mike gives the bassoon a try, too:

I won’t say anything more about the plot, but the soundtrack is worth mentioning. As one might expect with so much on-screen time for Tyler’s bassoon, there’s quite a bit of bassoon in the movie’s music, as well. Rufus Olivier, currently the principal bassoonist of the San Francisco Opera, plays throughout.

Every bassoonist should see this movie, and I’d probably also recommend it even if it didn’t have any double-reed connection. The film is beautifully shot, and the arctic scenery is gorgeous. The plot is also quite compelling (although, I wonder how accurate the tagline “A True Story” is). So, add it to your Netflix queue!

P.S. — Thanks to the wonders of Wikipedia, I am also happy to report that Never Cry Wolf “is also noteworthy for being the first Walt Disney film to show naked adult buttocks.”

Update (3/31/09): I had to upload a new version of the video, so if you’ve linked to this, you’ll need the new URL.