Review of Michael Rabinowitz’s “Next Chapter”

Sometimes you hear of some unlikely combination that you think can only be a bad idea that isn’t going to work, and Surprise! It turns out to be a bad idea that doesn’t work. The latest example is Michael Rabinowitz’s album Next Chapter. There’s no question that Rabinowitz has serious chops. He also has serious jazz cred as a founding member of the Charles Mingus Orchestra, plus having recorded with Ira Sullivan, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Douglas, Chris Potter, and Joe Lovano, plus four albums on his own. He’s a fine composer, he has good taste, and he can swing. But he plays the bassoon.

Jazz can take just about everything you can throw at it, and musicians have wailed convincing jazz on almost every conceivable instrument, from the cowbell to bagpipes. Maybe the bassoon can fit on some Anthony Braxton free improvisation efforts (and Rabinowitz has played with Braxton), but it just doesn’t sound right on straight-ahead jazz.

Pianist Matt King plays with a nice Bill Evans-style touch, and bassist Andy McKee and drummer Tommy Campbell round out a sensitive and flexible rhythm section. The ballad playing, as on Rabinowitz’s title track, is especially fine. Maybe it’s just me, but as soon as the bassoon comes in, it kind of falls apart.

No other instrument, other than perhaps the timpani, carries the baggage of classical music so heavily. Violins, cellos, French horn, all the other instruments (including the oboe, thanks to the masterful Paul McCandless), have successful track records in jazz. But the bassoon, sounding like a duck mellowing out to Mozart, just doesn’t get there for me.

I salute Rabinowitz for following his Muse, doing his own thing, putting out his own records, and stretching the boundaries. But those jazz bassoon solos… I don’t know, man.

(Originally published on the Arts Fuse, May 1, 2023)
https://artsfuse.org/272249/may-short-fuses-materia-critica-3/