Re: Re: Re: Re: Tubists playing Euph.....


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Posted by Joe S. on November 27, 2000 at 03:36:27:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Tubists playing Euph..... posted by Jay on November 26, 2000 at 22:40:17:

Again, I made it clear in my first post that I am NOT an "artist-level" baritone player, that I don't practice on the instrument, but that playing it comes easily enough to occasionally get hired to play it. In my original post, my personal experience (as a tuba player) with "the ease of picking up the baritone and playing it" is what I was referring to as encouragement to the inquirer to pick it up and to give it a try.

I'M ANSWERING MORE QUESTIONS, BUT W-A-R-N-I-N-G ! THESE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS ARE BORING:

Mostly with the Memphis Symphony, I've played "Don Quixote", "Don Juan", "Ein Heldenleiben", and "The Planets" on (for the sake of your conductor friends and with respect to the scores) "tenor tuba" for $$$$. Fairly recently, I doubled on tuba and baritone in the pit with the touring company of "Ragtime", a Broadway musical. Thinking w-a-a-y back, I suppose the first time that I ever played the baritone for $$$ was when I was about 19 or 20. There used to be a "green-sheet" (union) concert band here in Memphis. We did a concert which incorporated an appearance by John Philip Sousa's son, who gave a brief lecture. In that concert (maybe before you were born?) I played all of those "warhorse" marches, the "bari-'cello" part to 1812, etc. Today, most of the playing that I do for $$$ that utilizes baritone horn skills actually involves the valve trombone, and this would mostly be with jazz combos, etc.

I really don't play with any particular organization, but I have been affiliated with "organizations" in the past: A couple of decades ago (after I finished my bachelor's degree), I took a job teaching tuba at the University of Kansas. Being newly-married, supporting myself, and trying to adjust from (in a 1978 economy) about $15,000/yr. in jingle recordings and misc. gigs ("on the side" while going to school and living at home with "mommy and daddy") to a $6,000 teaching stipend (with no tuition consideration, no "gigs on the side", and also rent and utilities to pay) was a bit of a shocker. After a year, and with an offer to play in the Memphis Symphony (along with all of the other gigs and recording work that were waiting for me back in Memphis), I resigned from the KU tuba teaching job and returned to Memphis. (Scott Watson took my place and has been there ever since doing a super-fantastic job. Sean Chisham, among others, is one of his proteges.) I played with the Memphis Symphony for one year. During that year with the Memphis Symphony, I ended up also playing with a Memphis-based jazz band, the "Hot Cotton Jazz Band" (a play on the term: [You're in]"high cotton", which is "southern" for "You're doing quite well".) that played at a lot of jazz festivals on the west coast and in Europe. Those festivals, as we did more and more of them, began to interfere with the Memphis Symphony subscription season. Although Hot Cotton would only net about $300/man per festival, we sold TONS of recordings (in addition, at those festivals) which made that those festivals end up paying very well indeed. Therefore, the obvious choice was the Hot Cotton band. In the meantime, my wife and I started a music store which had become successful enough that eventually I had to get off the road and resign from Hot Cotton also. Since then in-town jazz jobs, Broadway shows, symphony subbing, some brass quintet work, and church gigs, are what I have been doing tuba/baritone-wise UNTIL LAST YEAR. Last year, I accepted a tuba teaching job at the University of Mississippi. Although I absolutely didn't have time and I knew that it would have a negative impact on my income, I couldn't resist because I really missed teaching and the two trumpet teachers/faculty quintet members, Dr. Charles Gates (LSU grad.) and Dr. John Schuesselin (Eastman and LSU grad.), are both DYNAMITE players and I really wanted to perform with them. After this last year of running back and forth to Mississippi, my wife looked at the bank balance and at the days that she ran our store by herself and said "ENOUGH!!!" (and she was right), so I resigned that position. I still, however, do the freelance work in Memphis (mentioned above), and I might get back with the University of Mississippi faculty brass quintet this spring for a couple of special concerts.

Now back into your trombone/baritone adjustment argument: You continue to site extraordinary artist-level players. I believe that there are enough people reading these posts who have sat next to a FINE professional trombonist doubling on baritone horn and getting a "forced" sound, that they know exactly what I am talking about (the occasional regional orchestra principal trombonist honking out "Bydlo", etc.). Yes, it is easy to site people who can do more than one thing extraordinarily well, but in general musicians tend to be stronger on one instrument than on others that they also play (just as I am stronger on tuba than on baritone). However, I STILL prefer MY not-an-artist-level-baritone-player-but-still-good sound on baritone to the sound offered on baritone by most professional trombonists...and I STILL encourage young tuba players to give the baritone horn a try.


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