Jazz Articles about Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith: Jazz Suite for Bassoon

by Jack Bowers
June 25, 2015

Jazz Suite is the second album by bassoonist Daniel Smith to be reviewed in these precincts (Smokin' Hot Bassoon Blues was the first). This one is far more agreeable, for at least two reasons: first, the territory Smith traverses seems to be relatively more familiar (especially the “Baroque Adaptations") and, second, he manages to play squarely on-key, which wasn't always the case on Smokin' Hot Blues. The Scott Joplin rags (there are three) are always a pleasure to hear, even ...

Daniel Smith: Bassoon Goes Latin Jazz!

by Nicholas F. Mondello
May 24, 2011

It's about that sound--that down there, frog-like bellowing encountered on cartoon soundtracks, novelty TV commercials, and that marvelously masculine sound heard in the greatest of orchestral and chamber music repertoire. Rarely is the bassoon heard blowing improvisation in the jazz idiom, athough with the works of Daniel Smith, Paul Hanson and others, that's changing. Daniel Smith Goes Latin Jazz! is a good-natured, upbeat effort to take Smith's crossover bassoon into the world of Latin Jazz. And the ...

Daniel Smith: Bassoon Goes Latin Jazz!

by Dan Bilawsky
May 21, 2011

The bassoon seems to be the homebody of the orchestral woodwind family. This double-reed dynamo rarely leaves the confines of the classical world, instead finding contentment in its comfort zone, playing classic works of yore. On the rare occasion that the instrument does wander outside of its safety net to converse in other musical environments, it often meets with mixed results and critical derision. While the skilled bassoon practitioners who are willing to take a chance in jazz deserve a ...

Daniel Smith: Blue Bassoon

by Dan Bilawsky
June 20, 2010

When many people hear discussions about the bassoon, they are far more likely to think of “Peter And The Wolf" than Charlie Parker and Wayne Shorter tunes. While jazz is open to any-and-all-comers in every instrument family, the technical demands of the bassoon--an unwieldy double reed instrument that rarely leaves the confines of classical music--and its unique voice have always made it an unlikely candidate. Fortunately, unlikely and undoable are two different things and Daniel Smith aims to show this ...

Daniel Smith: Blue Bassoon

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 21, 2009

Di Daniel Smith, virtuoso di uno strumento atipico nel mondo del jazz come il fagotto, avevamo già recensito Bebop Bassoon, tentativo non proprio riuscito di coniugare la rigidità dello strumento e la sua naturale difficoltà d'intonazione con le veloci e intricate trame improvvisative del bebop. In questo Blue Basson ci si sposta dalle parti del blues e delle sue diverse declinazioni ma il risultato non cambia. Rispetto all'episodio precedente vi è in Blue Bassoon una maggiore varietà nelle atmosfere dei ...

Daniel Smith: Bassoon Reaching New Places

by R.J. DeLuke
February 5, 2008

The bassoon is an instrument that isn't a total stranger to jazz. Some have doubled on bassoon at times, but even that isn't often. Others have incorporated it into their compositions and arrangements. (See Michael Rabinowitz tear it up as part of the Mingus Orchestra some time). But it's reaching new places and new audiences with the “arrival," as it were, of Daniel Smith, a Brooklyn-born musician who reached acclaim with the instrument in the classical world and is taking ...

Daniel Smith: The Swingin' Bassoon

by Jerry D'Souza
October 28, 2007

The bassoon is a difficult instrument to navigate. Yusef Lateef, Ken McIntyre and Frankie Trumbauer are among the few who have played it, although the fit into jazz is often less than tidy. Daniel Smith has sufficient technique to give his instrument of choice an interesting enough voice.

Smith has focus and creativity, which he shows to a large extent on this recording of standards. While he entices when he swings and stokes the flames of a ballad, there are ...