When you begin to
play the bassoon, it is natural that you will start with classical
music repertoire. When I started to play the bassoon, I heard as much as
I could of bassoon recordings. I bought several recordings of great
musicians, such as Klaus Thunemann, who in my opinion, is the greatest
bassoonist of all times. I used to listen the concertos on Thunemann's
recordings and try to play Mozart, Vivaldi and other bassoon concertos.
Even though there is a huge list of repertoire to be played on the
bassoon, I feel that many bassoonists around the world are willing to
play something different.
When
I started to play jazz on the bassoon in 1993, I was trying to learn
something different from the stardard bassoon etude books. I was
searching for something new to practice with my bassoon teacher at that
time, Francisco Formiga. Formiga and I were trying to find etude books
in different instruments such as violin and flute and we found the
Charlie Parker Omnibook in bass clef. We bought the book and I started
to read that crazy music and I was astonished with that.It was so
difficult to play that music and I did not have any reference of
bassonists playing jazz. My reference to play jazz on the bassoon was
and still is the saxophonists and pianists. I heard many recordings of
amazing jazz legends for example, Gerry Mulligan (bariton saxophonist),
Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Serge Chaloff , Michael Brecker, Steve
Grossman, Nailor Azevedo(Proveta), Chris Potter, Dave Liebman,Paul
Desmond, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Michel Camilo, Duke Ellington.
I
try to play both styles and it is not easy to do sych thing. The reason
is because you must have time enough to practice both styles.
Actually, I think that is very helpful for your playing when you learn
classical and jazz because you can be much more creative.
Listen
to great musicians and do it very carefully is a very important way to
learn from them and also is a way to challenge yourself on how to play
better.
I
think that every classical musician should know at least a little bit
of jazz and vice versa. In the end, these two styles are wonderful
universes and complete each other.
