Walking across to the Yorkdale Mall, I heard this guy playing “I Kissed a Girl” on the bassoon. Not a typical choice for bassoon you’d think, but what struck me as odd was that he sounded like a number of instruments playing all at once. 

Jeff turned out to be a really friendly and into all sorts of awesome musical geekery. As he explained, using his delay pedal, he would first play the ‘bass’ notes of the song, record that into the delay pedal, and then lay another, more complex chord on top. He’d progressively build the song up like this layer by layer until it was complete, playing the primary melody or theme on top of his reconstructed parts. Now and then he’d pull up his theremin and add its sound on top of his recorded parts. All of it right there on the spot, and with an impressive musical catalogue to boot!

I must’ve stuck around for at least an hour listening and chatting, which made me wonder how many other innovative musicians are busking around the city largely left unnoticed. 

He’s got a myspace page up, so go say hi:

www.myspace.com/jeffbassoon

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