[Dixielandjazz] Re: Oboe - King of Reeds.

[LARRY'S Signs and Large Format Printing]

For the past several new years eves I have played a private house party.
The host invites his musical(?) friends to set in with the band.  They
mostly play on a Jr. High level and we try to make them sound good but there
is one of them that plays the Oboe.  What a sound.  I would rather sit in a
guitar shop listening to bad guitar players and drummers torture me.  This
guy has embraced the "ill wind that blows no good" method of Oboe playing.
Saying he sounds like a duck would do a disservice to ducks.  Now the true
mark of a pro is to, without cracking a smile, try to make him sound good
and the host want to hire us back because his friends had a good time.

The oboe is such a demanding instrument it cries out for a specialist.  When
I was actively playing the instrument my teachers had fits because I was
playing sax, in the dives across the river, which they regarded as a non
instrument.  I would think that most guys just don't have the time to devote
to it.  Another problem is, if you read any of my thoughts on this,
symphonic players just don't swing and jazz requires a "looser" personality
and the Oboe is really at the other end of the spectrum from jazz.  Having
said that the Oboe is one of the instruments of the orchestra that is
allowed some leeway in the music and is allowed to be more free than let's
say the third violin player who is expected to stay within the lines.  This
trait would be slightly closer to jazz than the others but the amount is
microscopic.

There is a form of jazz that does use the oboe as a doubling instrument and
that's in the old burlesque (stripper) houses.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Haesler" <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
To: "Stephen Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>; "LARRY'S Signs and
Large Format Printing" <sign.guy at charter.net>; "dixieland jazz mail list"
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: Oboe - King of Reeds.


> Dear Steve and Larry,
> [A little late, as I have been busy.]
> I am surprised that in all the DJML talk about the oboe, that no specific
> mention has been made of its use on early jazz records.
> Don Redman has a 16 bar oboe solo on Fletcher Henderson's "After The
Storm"
> (c.28 April 1924) and 16 bars on "Shanghai Shuffle" (c.7 Nov 1924) - just
> prior to Louis Armstrong's magnificent 32 bars.
> Paul Whiteman's big orch included oboe in some early arrangements.
> Alex Wilder used oboe (Mitch Miller) on Mildred Bailey's Columbia sessions
> (Sept, Nov 1939 & April 1940). Although these sides are somewhat
> 'commercial'.
> Then there is reedman Garvin Bushell.
> He played oboe regularly in the 1920s and used it on the Berlin recordings
> of "By The Waters Of Minnetonka" (July 1925 & Sept 1926) by Sam Wooding's
> orch.
> He used bassoon (the big sister to the oboe) on the Louisiana Sugar Babes
27
> March 1928 Victor session (Jabbo Smith, James P Johnson, Fats Waller).
> He also used bassoon for "Yesterdays" on a Wild Bill Davison Circle record
> date on 27 Dec 1947 (Jazzology JCD-83).
> And again on some Wilber DeParis Atlantic LPs I have.
> What is not generally known is that Mr Bushell played oboe and bassoon
> professionally with the Chicago Civic Orchestra in the 1950s.
> There are also some pre-1940s blues records which feature oboe, but I
can't
> quite bring them to mind.
> Maybe my mate Anton Crouch can help here.
> Kind regards,
> Bill.
>
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