Given the tragic events in Paris last week, I was deciding what to do with this video. I had planned to publish it today, but then wondered if I should. In the end I decided that yes, yes I should. As life slowly returns to normal in Paris today, it is with my deepest condolences and respect, that I offer up the following video that Henri Selmer Paris posted on its YouTube site late last month.
Henri Selmer Paris released this video for the 2015 SaxOpen World Saxophone Congress, in Strasbourg. The video features: bass saxophonist Frédéric Gastard, percussionists Martin Deutsch, Christophe Grezes, Florent Milhaud, and Jérôme Selmer on various unfinished bass saxophone bits, and Jean-François Charmard on chalumeau.
Now as a bass saxophone player I am of two minds about this piece of work. Technically I am impressed by Frédéric Gastard’s playing, and I love some of the multiphonic stuff he does. It gives credibility to the “chicken choking”—as it is referred to in our house—that I do on my horn. Having played with only a drummer once, I can tell you it’s incredibly difficult to pull off. This was fantastic.
That said, why was this Henri Selmer Paris bass saxophone relegated to the boiler room? Sure it gives this whole thing a kind of postmodern feel, but really, this entire thing would have worked better, and been less insulting to bass saxophones, and their players—since we seem to be forever striving for credibility in the eyes of composers and even our peers—had the musicians been dressed in steampunk attire.
Think about it for a minute: The setting pretty much could have passed for steampunk. All Frédéric, Martin, Christophe, Florent, and Jérôme would have had to have done is dress in something like this…
Or maybe something like this…
Although admittedly, we don’t know if any of the musicians have the legs to pull of that skirt. 😉
In all seriousness though, I think a themed video would have showcased the music better. Come on Henri Selmer Paris, splurge a bit and hire a set designer the next time you want to do something like this. You’re in Paris after all. There are lots of highly creative people there who could have done an amazing job with this.
The instrument does have a certain odd-bachelor-uncle status…something that prestigious families might think twice before letting out of the house. This only makes the stereotype you discuss a little more genteel. But I can easily imagine craftspeople not thinking too hard about that, and focusing instead on a little dignified fun, with a minimum of show biz. M. Gastard’s playing (and his highly un-stereotypical altissimo and multiphonics) might overcome any odd stereotype in their minds.
Thanks, Helen Great post )
Hi Helen,
Hmmmmm, I didn’t feel “boiler room” from this, but rather “atelier”, a workshop where artists get things done.
I think it’s kind of cool that flawed sax bells were repurposed for their percussive musical potential before they were melted down and recycled.
Peace,
paul
True, it is likely Selmer’s manufacturing room. That doesn’t take away from my feeling though that the bass sax is “industrialized” in this video. It is reminiscent to the days when the bass saxophones—and other disused brass instruments—were melted down for the war effort.
And then after the war, the shell casings were melted down and made into Mark VIs, so it’s not all bad.