This hospital CEO started an all-bassoon band to jam Led Zeppelin and Queen Eskenazi executive assembled woodwind supergroup for Tonic Ball

David Lindquist | IndyStar

Show Caption Hide Caption Meet Rock E Bassoon, the woodwind supergroup that jams MJ, Queen Hospital CEO Matt Gutwein formed an all-bassoon band for 2016 Tonic Ball. Rock E Bassoon returns to the event Nov. 16.

The local electric bassoon ensemble — perhaps the world's only electric bassoon ensemble — began as a joke.

Matt Gutwein mused about his teenage hobby of playing bassoon, the double-reed woodwind cousin of the oboe, during a conversation with Tonic Ball chairman Matt Mays three years ago.

Gutwein is president and CEO of the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, parent organization to Eskenazi Health. The hospital is the presenting sponsor of Tonic Ball, the annual Fountain Square music festival that raises money for hunger-relief organization Second Helpings.

"You know, Tonic Ball is great," Gutwein told Mays, "but have you ever had a bassoon band?"

Cue the disastrous sound of a needle scratching across a record. Gutwein not only lacked a "bassoon band," he hadn't played the instrument in 37 years.

It's true he toyed with the idea of dusting off his 1977 Fox Model II bassoon, partly because Health and Hospital recently brought on a National Urban Fellow, Diana Ortega, who happened to a professional bassoonist in addition to being a public administrator in training.

Mays didn't need to hear more. Tonic Ball arrives each November with magical performances by Indiana musicians paying tribute to acts such as the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Prince. Here was a chance to make more magic.

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"Matt, I'd really like to put your bassoon band on the Beatles stage," Mays wrote in a follow-up email to Gutwein.

That's the story of what became Gutwein's band, an unlikely sextet that covers pop and rock songs on a decidedly non-pop/rock instrument.

Now the deep-cuts story of Rock E Bassoon, which returns to Tonic Ball Friday to play the ABBA stage:

Stadium jams

Carrying her beer in a Lynyrd Skynyrd koozie, Putnamville resident Patty Stwalley signaled the type of music she'd like to hear before the Sept. 30 Indianapolis Colts game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

What are the odds Stwalley would find Rock E Bassoon covering Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps" a few yards away from the Peyton Manning statue outside the stadium?

The NFL team invited Rock E Bassoon to play for two hours while fans formed pre-game lines and passed security checkpoints. The scene was set for the musicians to surprise and delight.

"I used to play a woodwind in high school," Stwalley said after the rendition of "Gimme Three Steps." "Clarinet. This warmed my heart."

Another passerby used his fingers to throw "metal horns" when Rock E Bassoon played Metallica's "Enter Sandman." The group worked up an arrangement of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" specifically for the Colts game, and a Mark Ortwein solo sounds remarkably similar to what late guitarist Randy Rhoads played on the original studio recording.

Ortwein, a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and also an accomplished jazz saxophone player, makes the most of the bassoon's versatility.

"Bassoon has a 3-1/2 octave range, but we like to say we can play bright, dark, whatever," Ortwein said. "It can sound like a flute, blend with trombones. It's often put with French horns. It's a really unique instrument."

And that's before factoring in Ortwein's secret weapon: effects pedals similar to what you'd find at the feet of Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s or Eddie Van Halen today.

All members of Rock E Bassoon use a transducer pickup positioned at their instrument's bocal, or mouthpiece, that is connected to an amplifier. Effects pedals are an added component between pickup and amplifier.

Rock E Bassoon member Ortega won't forget her introduction to Ortwein's shredding sound.

"At our first rehearsal, Mark came in with all his gear," she said. "I thought, ‘What? What is he doing?’ And he just started ripping it. My jaw dropped."

Ortwein said he first experimented with effects pedals and bassoon while living on the East Coast in the 1980s. He mentions Paul Hanson, who's played with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, as an innovator in the field.

"It sounds similar to electric guitar," Ortwein said. "But you’re playing different than a guitar player. It’s a whole different thing."

Woodwind supergroup

Along with Gutwein, Ortega and Ortwein, the bassoon personnel of Rock E Bassoon includes Kelly Swensson, Mike Muszynski and Doug Spaniol.

Swensson plays the bassoon version of Jimmy Page's guitar solo when the band covers Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

Muszynski is a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

"We kind of have the bassoon part down," Muszynski said of Rock E Bassoon. "It’s now trying to come up with what kind of sounds can we make. What can we make work with the equipment we have?"

Spaniol, who teaches bassoon at Butler University, brings impressive academic credentials to the ensemble. A Marshall Scholar in 1992 and a Fulbright Scholar in 2011, Spaniol wrote instructional book "The New Weissenborn Method for Bassoon."

"Every bassoon player in the United States and Europe starts with this book," Gutwein said.

And Spaniol displayed quick wit when talking about Rock E Bassoon's ABBA assignment at Tonic Ball, which also will celebrate the music of Pearl Jam, Elton John, Johnny Cash and Beyonce Knowles.

"What a lot of people don’t know really is that ABBA is an acronym for 'A Bassoon Band? Awesome,' " Spaniol said.

Craig Hetrick, a percussionist in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, adds backbeat muscle by playing drums with Rock E Bassoon.

It's a musical experiment that wouldn't exist without Gutwein.

A renewed passion

"In high school, I never had a penny," said Gutwein, who's led Health and Hospital since 2003. "Every time I made money, I had to go down the the bank."

Yes, buying a bassoon left Gutwein paying off a $1,500 loan throughout his days at North White High School in Monon, a town of about 1,800 residents 30 miles north of Lafayette.

He stopped playing the instrument his junior year, partly because he became a keyboard player a rock band. The bassoon payments didn't stop until graduation.

Gutwein studied economics and then law at Indiana University. After early jobs in California and Washington, D.C., he returned to Indiana — where he worked in the attorney general's office and made oral arguments in the appeals phase of Mike Tyson's rape conviction.

The bassoon, an instrument that's more than 4 feet long, made every trip.

"When I moved, I always took it with me," Gutwein said. "California, D.C., Bloomington. I never played it."

Jane Henegar, Gutwein's wife and executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, didn't hear him play until the founding of Rock E Bassoon. But she saw the bassoon daily during the first 25 years of their marriage.

"It wasn't in an attic," she said. "It was downstairs, prominently."

Gutwein, who helped usher Health and Hospital's transition from outdated Wishard Memorial Hospital to the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Health campus along 10th Street in 2013, eventually got around to organizing his bassoon band.

With Ortega as a fellow player and the 2016 edition of Tonic Ball on the horizon, Gutwein turned to Michael Kaufmann for help in recruiting more bassoonists. Kaufmann, director of special projects and civic investment for Health & Hospital, has maintained strong connections to the city's music community since he worked for the Asthmatic Kitty label a decade ago.

Kaufmann suggested Butler's Spaniol and the ISO's Ortwein to Gutwein. Muszynski and Swensson joined when Rock E Bassoon wanted to tackle a six-part arrangement of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Is Rock E Bassoon the only band of its kind?

"We've spent time on the internet," Gutwein said, "trying to find, 'Is there another electric bassoon ensemble with pedals?' I’m not saying they don’t exist, but we’ve not found them."

At the Sept. 30 Colts game, Henegar wore a Rock E Bassoon T-shirt advertising a "2018-19 World Tour." If you can't catch Rock E Bassoon at this year's sold-out Tonic Ball, the group will perform Jan. 12 at the Hi-Fi as part of the "Such a Night" fundraiser for GiGi's Playhouse Indianapolis.

"Matt's had to work really hard to keep up with these guys," Henegar said of her husband's role in Rock E Bassoon. "They're professional musicians. They can walk in and sight-read and say they're done, and Matt's saying, 'Uh ... Can we just run through that one more time?' "

The other members of the group have plenty of good things to say about Gutwein's musical aptitude: "good ears," "quick learner" and "kind of a genius."

A fun release

While Gutwein gets to reconnect with his bassoon and perform in front of audiences, you may wonder what's in it for esteemed musicians when they trade Vivaldi for "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

"For me, it’s fun," Ortwein said. "We play classical music for a living. It’s a release."

Traditionally, bassoonists sit near the back of an orchestra. Contrast that to last year's edition of Tonic Ball, where Rock E Bassoon played a front-and-center version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the Hi-Fi stage.

"I think it was the most energetic audience that I’ve ever played for," Muszynski said.

The 2017 Tonic Ball raised nearly $150,000 for Second Helpings. Rock E Bassoon is scheduled to perform 11 p.m. Friday at White Rabbit Cabaret (Ortwein and Muszynski will arrive directly after playing "Star Wars in Concert" with the ISO).

Gutwein said he's grateful his band mates moonlight in Rock E Bassoon.

"They take their music very, very seriously," he said "I do think it’s fascinating that they’re willing to come together to do this."

Ortwein said it's a blast.

"We did think about doing some Mozart or similar things. But, eh, let’s just rock out," he said.

Q95 on-air personality Don Stuck was one of the Colts fans who discovered Rock E Bassoon outside Lucas Oil Stadium.

"I told my wife, 'We're going to be late to the game. We're hanging out here to watch this,' " Stuck said. "They say rock 'n' roll is dying off because of pop music. It will never die. As long as you have bassoon bands, rock 'n' roll will live forever."

Tonic Ball

>> WHEN: 7 p.m. Nov. 16.

>> WHERE: Fountain Square venues Radio Radio, White Rabbit Cabaret, the Hi-Fi, Pioneer and Fountain Square Theatre.

>> TICKETS: This is a sold-out event.

>> INFO: Visit tonicindy.com or call 317-632-2664.

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Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at 317-444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.

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