Jazz Alphorn: Arkady Shilkloper

When I was working on my graduate degree, I attended an International Horn Workshop at which I first heard Arkady Shilkloper perform. He performed jazz horn and I ended up purchasing a signed copy of his album which I still in my collection.

Since 1998, Arkady has been performing jazz on the alphorn, not an instrument one would immediately think of as a jazz instrument. (The alphorn is the instrument used in the old "Ricola" commercials.) However the instrument, which can create pitches of the harmonic series, is unusually suited for the task.




Here is another video where Arkady is playing jazz alphorn taking advantage of multiphonics and circular breathing. Multiphonics is an extended technique whereby the performer creates two pitches by singing one note while buzzing another. A third or fourth pitch can appear with the addition of the sound waves. Basically, it's a pretty cool technique.