Odd instruments in jazz

[sonic1]

In a Dolphy thread we got to talking about oboe players. What other unusual instruments are found in jazz?

Off the top of my head:

Roland Kirk: a whole lot of weird horns including the stritch, manzello, slidesophone....others...oh and a siren...

Call Cobbs: harpsichord on Ayler's "love cry"

Braxton: almost the entire sax family including the gigantic bass sax and contra basoon.

Ken McIntyre: oboe, basoon,

Alice Coletrane: Harp

Stephanie Grapelli: Violin

Paolo Angeli: ???what the hell do you call that thing? Extended guitar?

Guy Klucevsek: accordion with Bill Frisell

Béla Fleck: Banjo (though I don't know this is really jazz) and banjo was a regular instrument in early jazz.

Julius Watkins: French horn

and of course the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago whose strange instrumental menu is too large to list.

[Underhound]

Steve Turre's shells.

[Sergio Zamora]

Andrea Parkins - accordion, sampler

[sonic1]

Matthew Welch: Bagpipes on Braxton's comp no. 247

Brett Larner: Kyoto on Braxton's 11 compositions (duo) 1995

in fact, many Braxton records can lead you to strange instrumentation

George Haslam: Tarogato

[hornplayer]

they're only "odd" if you think they're "odd."

and there are a lot more Jazz hornists than Julius Watkins, and a lot more Jazz violinists than Grapelli.

[sonic1]

Agreed, and I know...

Though I would definately call Braxton's No. 247 odd...Even for this huge Braxton fan.

[Steve Reynolds]

Paul Dunmall's wonderous bagpipes

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

We had an extensive thread on this, on the top ten of the old board.

Off the top of my head:

Colin Walcott -- sitar

Don Cherry -- many

Howard Levy -- harmonica

Enrst Reijinser -- cello

the whistler on Muhal's BluBluBlu


>>Paolo Angeli: ???what the hell do you call that thing? Extended guitar?<<

Sardinian space-guitar???



I have trouble accessing the Archives, but if someone else can bring up that old thread it will add much to this one.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Squaredancecalling Steve

We had an extensive thread on this, on the top ten of the old board.

Off the top of my head:

Colin Walcott -- sitar

Don Cherry -- many

Howard Levy -- harmonica

Enrst Reijinser -- cello

the whistler on Muhal's BluBluBlu


>>Paolo Angeli: ???what the hell do you call that thing? Extended guitar?<<

Sardinian space-guitar???



I have trouble accessing the Archives, but if someone else can bring up that old thread it will add much to this one.

Here's the thread to which you were referring, hopefully. If so, you created that thread on February 3, 2001, nearly four years ago. How's that for a time warp, SCD Steve?

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Thanks, Ron! Yeah, I've been odd for a while

[drumultima]

Andy Narrell-- Steel Drums
I heard some guy on the radio playing accordian-- real good too.
Deborah Henson-Conant -- harp (electric and upright)
Futureman from Bela Fleck's group -- that... thing.
That's really all I can think of at the moment...

[mtaylorjazz]

Originally Posted by drumultima

Futureman from Bela Fleck's group -- that... thing.

SynthAxe Drumitar - i think

http://www.mark-taylorl.biz
http://www.cdbaby.com/marktaylor

[bigtiny]

Don't forget Yusef Lateef with various reed instruments ...

bigtiny

[PHILLYQ]

Rufus Harley- bagpipes

[Dr Dave]

Adrian Rollini, a whiz on the bass saxophone, also played the goofus and the hot fountain pen. Here's the lowdown on the goofus, aka the Cousenophone

The hot fountain pen was a miniature clarinet of Rollini's own design. Click here

This information, plus tons more about Adrian Rollini, can be found at the Norman Field website

[claude]

I have a CD where an instrument called an aquaharp is listed as being played by one of the trio members. I still have no idea what an aquaharp is, but I like the music.

[John B]

Henry Threadgill played the "hubkaphone" on Air's Air Time

[Uli]

[drumultima]

Originally Posted by Uli

What the hell?

[Jesse]

It was the oboe, I think, that spawned the digression on the Dolphy thread.
On Dave Liebman's Homage To Coltrane, Curtis Visentini contributes his oboe work to the Trane chestnuts Crescent & After The Rain.

[clinthopson]

When HenryMc visted here a few years ago, we listened to an old Australian Jazz Quartet disc which featured Dick Healy on several reeds including piccolo and Errol Buddle on basoon. They swung like crazy. You haven't heard anything until you've heard a bebop basoon.

I wonder if anyone has ever reissued that old Bethlem disc from about 1956.

[Gentle Giant]

Just recently on another thread, I mentioned seeing Bob Moses do a percussion solo with two boxes of Nerds candy as shakers.

Pharoah Sanders solos on some cool, reedy African thing on "Blue Moses" from Randy Weston's Songs Of Our Ancestors.

[idlehands]

Originally Posted by Jesse

It was the oboe, I think, that spawned the digression on the Dolphy thread.
On Dave Liebman's Homage To Coltrane, Curtis Visentini contributes his oboe work to the Trane chestnuts Crescent & After The Rain.

Actually, that's CARIS Visintin, Mr. Leibman's wife. Is it really printed like that in the liner notes?

[mtaylorjazz]

Originally Posted by PHILLYQ

Rufus Harley- bagpipes

'nother jazz guy in a kilt!

http://www.mark-taylor.biz

[Jesse]

Interesting. Thanks for the correction.
Yes, it is as such on my vinyl copy. Being the sole date I own with Liebman as a leader, I was unaware of her name, much less his marital status, even less that he was betrothed to someone named Curtis.
Do I have it right now?


It is a good session, imo.

[José Domingos Raffaelli]

Bassist Ahmed-Abdul Malik recorded several times with an Arabian instrument called "oud" - its format is like a mandolim or something like that.
He played that instrument in Brasil in 1961 when he toured with a tour package named American Jazz Festival (the others were Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge, Kenny Dorham, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Herbie Mann, Curtis Fuller, Tommy Flanagan, Ronnie Ball, Ben Tucker, Dave Bailey, Jo Jones, Ray Mantilla and singer Chris Connor).

[groover]

Roy Brooks used a "musical saw" for a gong-like percussion effect with Max Roach's M'Boom and on the "Free Slave" album. I've never seen any pictures of it, so I have no idea exactly what type of saw it was. He also used a "breath-a-tone" device that allowed him to heighten or lower the pitch of his drums by exhaling or inhaling through a pair of plastic tubes.

[Bayernjazz]

Ali Ahkbar Khan - sarod
Zakir Hussain - tabla
Berliner Jazztage, 1971

Willem Breuker (free jazz icon in Germany) - vacuum cleaner
Berliner Jazztage, 1976

I'm not kiddin' - it was even taped for TV.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

I LOVE Ligeti's piece for 100 metronomes! (I know, it's not jazz, maybe not even music.) Wind up 100 metronomes, position them according to Ligeti's instructions, then start them and let them go until the last one winds down. It's a concrete and powerful textbook demonstration of entropy, as well as a fascinating ride through a series of unexpected rhythms and motifs rising and decaying and morphing.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Bayernjazz

Willem Breuker (free jazz icon in Germany) - vacuum cleaner
Berliner Jazztage, 1976

Pete Barbutti plays the acoustic version.