For those of you that don’t know, Nadina Mackie Jackson is a fantastic Toronto based bassoonist. We met for the first time at the IDRS conference this last summer (2013). Unexpectedly she asked to come down to Minneapolis to get an electric bassoon tutorial from me. Flattered, of course I said that I’d be delighted. We arranged for her to come down on a weekend that I was performing with the Cherry Spoon Collective and the Improvistra, so she got to hear me play improvised/amplified/effected bassoon with some of the coolest cats in the Twin Cities.
Hooked her up with a new Little-Jake and preamp and had her Leitzinger F bocal (!!!!) modified for it. Then I set up all my gear for her to hear and try various effects and the qualities of different amps on the bassoon.
She’s having a concerto written for her that the composer wanted some electronic effects on, so I think I got her squared away with enough info to get her on the right track.
I also played on her 15,000 series Heckel bassoon, which surprised me in that I actually liked it an awful lot. She owns probably the only modern Heckel bassoon that I’ve ever played that I have liked.
Trent Jacobs, bassoonist 