Jazz on a ram's horn / shofar

[Rabshakeh]

Move over, Mr Turre.

There are a few jazz records out there where the list of instruments includes a ram's horn trumpet, such as the "shofar" used in Jewish ritual practice.

On example is on The Diverse Yusef Lateef. I also believe that Lester Bowie played a shofar on at least one record (although I cannot recall which).

However, I am not sure that I can recall any ram's horn solos. 

Does anyone know whether there are any recorded examples in jazz?

[mjazzg]

I have an album somewhere with a credit for shofar.  I think it's a eastern european sax player, possibly Trzaska.  I'll have a look

2 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

I have an album somewhere with a credit for shofar.  I think it's a eastern european sax player, possibly Trzaszka.  I'll have a look

Looks like I was thinking of this

https://kilogramrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shofar

just in the name not played

Edited August 28, 2024 by mjazzg

[clifford_thornton]

I am sure I have a few things. Not "jazz," but Alvin Curran played it in MEV.

[Rabshakeh]

43 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

just in the name not played

That seems to be the constant. I wonder if there's a shofar solo out there.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

Unless you put some holes in it, it would be hard to do much more than bugle tunes.

[clifford_thornton]

looks like outside of MEV, Alvin Curran has made an entire album on shofar:

https://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/12/alvin-curran-shofar-rags-tzadik-2013.html

[Rabshakeh]

32 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

looks like outside of MEV, Alvin Curran has made an entire album on shofar:

https://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/12/alvin-curran-shofar-rags-tzadik-2013.html

That's a great find. Of course it would be on Tzadik...

Streamable too, from the looks of it.

[Stompin at the Savoy]

The video is interesting and the horn he uses is not the familar ram's horn of synagogues.  It's a lot bigger and more resonant.  Nevertheless, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson, the shofar's use as a musical instrument "is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It's not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

[medjuck]

Did Steve Turre olay on a sea conch?  My friend Ira Nepus, also a trombonist, sometimes does that soloing with big bands. 

[Rabshakeh]

14 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Did Steve Turre olay on a sea conch?  My friend Ira Nepus, also a trombonist, sometimes does that soloing with big bands. 

I think so. Or a variety of shells.

16 hours ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The video is interesting and the horn he uses is not the familar ram's horn of synagogues.  It's a lot bigger and more resonant.  

It's a ram's horn for the Yemeni rite. I think you'd only see them in a Temani synagogue. Not Ashkenazi or mainstream Sephardic.

Those Yemenite shofars are popular with non Jews (e.g. Hebraising protestant Christian denominations). Probably because they look cool.

That might be why Curran is using it there.

Edited August 29, 2024 by Rabshakeh

[Stompin at the Savoy]

2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I think so. Or a variety of shells.

It's a ram's horn for the Yemeni rite. I think you'd only see them in a Temani synagogue. Not Ashkenazi or mainstream Sephardic.

Those Yemenite shofars are popular with non Jews (e.g. Hebraising protestant Christian denominations). Probably because they look cool.

That might be why Curran is using it there.

The animal that produces that horn is not a sheep.  It's a kudu, a sort of antelope.  I've blown an actual ram's horn and they are much smaller and kind of hard to get the horn to come alive and vibrate.  The kudu horn he has is quite different and produces a vastly different tone.

[Rabshakeh]

3 minutes ago, Stompin at the Savoy said:

The animal that produces that horn is not a sheep.  It's a kudu, a sort of antelope.  I've blown an actual ram's horn and they are much smaller and kind of hard to get the horn to come alive and vibrate.  The kudu horn he has is quite different and produces a vastly different tone.

You're right, and I apologise. I was replacing "shofar" with "ram's horn" without thinking. A yemenite shofar is not made of ram's horn, as you say, but kudu's. It is however suitable for halakhic purposes and can be found in synagogues, just not Ashkenazi or Sephardic rite synagogues. Interesting what you say about the very different sound: I have only ever heard a ram horn blown. 

[Stompin at the Savoy]

I suppose it is possible to make music with an animal horn that has no holes or keys.  Historically I think the shofar is similar to horn fanfares, or fanfarade, also referred to as a flourish.  The idea being some loud, fixed tones which would draw attention (to the entrance of royalty, an announcement, etc) or signal action in battle.

I'm not even sure that shofars are tuned to a specific pitch (or pitches).

Edited August 29, 2024 by Stompin at the Savoy

[Stompin at the Savoy]

 

Edited August 30, 2024 by Stompin at the Savoy

[optatio]

Saw Karl Seglem, Norway (ts, goat horns) in Göttingen, November 11, 2010

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Seglem 

 

Karl Seglem – Urbs    ... Norway 2006

[optatio]

Paul Shapiro: Shofarot Verses. Radical Jewish Culture, 185. Tzadik TZ 8185 [2014]