Does anyone out there use their oboe to play jazz? I regularly jam on the oboe with a jazz group and love to improvise. I have passed this love on to some of my teenage students, but now am frustrated that they are unable to take a jazz exam. There are other alternatives with other boards that I could try. Is there anyone else out there who would like to see a jazz oboe option?

There are fairly few jazz oboe players. I think than Don Redman and Pharoah Sanders used to play a little oboe (or maybe shawm, or saz)...

Karl Jenkins (he of Adiemus etc fame) used to play jazz fusion oboe with The Soft Machine - there are some videos on Youtuibe - and of course Andy Mackey played rock oboe with Roxy Music...

Hi welcome to the forum!

I'm sure Emsoboe would love to play Jazz on her Oboe

To be honest, I wouldn't worry about the absence of "jazz exams". If you and your students want to play jazz do it for the love of the music. If you want a piece of paper then play classical.

Totally agree with you Tsax. Exams are certainly not a necessity! But I have students who have been disappointed by the traditional exam approach (they have achieved the necessary, but not had the chance to play in the way in which they would like) but want/need something on paper to enhance university entrance/sense of achievement etc. I would love the opportunity to offer an exam, rather than as we do at present, take the necessary grades, with a great deal of stress, and have lots of enjoyment away from the exams. I would like them to feel that they are valid musicians and, possibly unfortunately, in the current educational climate, this so often comes through testing/exams.

I do understand where you're coming from - but have a look at this thread and make your own mind up about the value of jazz exams.

The school systen has changed so drastically to the days I was there and I have very little contact with school age children, so maybe what I have to sat has little validity, but I'm going to say it anyway!

I don't think there's any harm, in fact, rather, I think it's a good thing, for children to learn that it is worthwhile to put effort into something that doesn't have a certificate or a grade attached to it.

I really do agree with your sentiments, TSax, and, at present, this is exactly the line we are taking. And I fully appreciate that turning something free and developing, like jazz, into an exam is constraining.

It's just that while these exams exist for other woodwind instruments, oboe players like mine struggle through the classical route because the world in which they exist demands bits of paper.

Just visited the thread you recommend, TSax. Very interesting! I find it a little shocking, but not all that surprising, that students are getting away without improvising in their exams. I hope I am producing students who can improvise in any given situation, if I'm not, then I'm failing in what I'm trying to achieve. My students are enjoying their music making, and this is my primary aim. The opportunity to gain a piece of paper is a secondary objective.

And Jean-Luc Fillon

How right you are!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TIP8swMSi8

Thanks, Nick, for that amazing Youtube link! I had not come across this before - I am not a jazz specialist, just keen to give my students access to a broad spectrum of music. I will show this to my teenagers and I do not doubt that they will be inspired!