The bassoon is an instrument with a very unique sound and
Daniel Smith adds his deft bassoon touch on his latest project titled
Smokin Hot Bassoon Blues. This is his 20th solo album and five of those were
jazz albums. Daniel Smith plays classical, jazz and crossover music. This project is dedicated to his wife Judith who passed away in April of 2013.
On this CD you will find great songs that are part of jazz and music history that were recorded by the likes of Ray Charles, Horace Silver, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins and Jimmy Smith among others. Smith performs on songs like
Senor Blues, Night Train, C Jam Blues, Back At The Chicken Shack, Blue Seven and Hallelujah I Love Her So.
Smith is backed up by Robert Bosscher on piano, Michael O'Brien on bass and Vincent Ector on drums.
There are guest musicians on the album including: Ron Jackson on guitar, Efrat Shapira on violin, Neil Clarke on Latin percussion, Greg 'Organ Monk' Lewis on Jazz organ and Frank Senior on Blues vocals. These guys really provide energy to the project. It would have been great to hear more from them on this album. Sometimes the bassoon kind of drowned them out at times. This is still an album you might want to have in your collection.
— Oscar Brooks, LA Examiner