Bassoonarama is back baby. Professor Frank Morelli’s band of merry Christmas low-enders basswooned the crowd with their annual holiday recital. Check that, the pandemic upended the low end for the past few years, but the intrepid Professor powered through. Six bassoon students and Frank showed their stuff to a raucous packed house. The theme was “ and now for something completely different”, starting with Sousa’s The Liberty Bell March, more commonly associated as the Monty Python theme song. Next up was a passage from Rigoletto and then The Nutcracker. For those of you not familiar with the bassoon, the loping sound graces the movements of many a cartoon turtle. The next section had some early American pieces, Go Tell It On The Mountain, Amen, and Mary’s Boy Child. Back to some passages from Rigoletto and The Nutcracker, I was struck by the difference in embouchure of the players. The truly diverse (race and gender) cast of musicians mouth positions ranged from a suck on a lemon pucker to a Gillespian peep frog affair. Closed the evening with the Latin tinged Mi Burrito Sabanero and Jose Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad. This recital has become an oddball holiday tradition for me, and I am truly grateful for the access. Judging from the crowd, next year’s concert would be wise to move next door to Sprague Hall. This is feel good music and I could feel the smiles behind the masks.
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