ABOUT

Melissa Pipe is a baritone saxophonist, bassoonist, composer and arranger who lives in Montreal. 

As well as leading her own quintet and sextet, she performs regularly with jazz, hip hop, popular, indie, and classical ensembles as a freelancer. A versatile player and writer, she has written for small group, chamber ensemble, big band and symphony orchestra.

While pursuing her formal studies in jazz saxophone and composition, she began exploring the woodwind doubles conventionally played by saxophonists (flute, clarinet, bass clarinet), but soon became intrigued and enchanted by one of the more unusual doubles: the bassoon. This sparked a long parallel road of independent study, exploration and fortuitous meetings that allowed her to hone her skills as a bassoon player and writer.

In 2013, she had the honour of interviewing Yusef Lateef, whose playing and compositional style have greatly influenced her, for an article about his double reed playing which was published in The Double Reed, as well as on Lateef’s website.

Melissa founded the Misterioso Bassoon Quartet for which she composed and arranged. In 2014 she was invited to perform her arrangements of Charles Mingus pieces for bassoon quartet at the Jazz Standard in NYC alongside Michael Rabinowitz, Paul Hanson and Mark Ortwein, as part of the International Double Reed Society conference.