The Tuba players

[soulpope]

Kirk Joseph (!!) ....

[optatio]

DAVE BARGERON / MICHEL GODARD: TUBA TUBA. ENJA CD 9133-2 [2001]

[JSngry]

Dave Bargeron?

 

[optatio]

Yes! - See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood,_Sweat_%26_Tears_4

[soulpope]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Dave Bargeron?

 

👍!

[uli]

Aaron Dodds

 

 

 

 

Theon Cross

 

[DougFelt]

Laymon Jackson was perhaps better known as a string bass player.  But as demonstrated here (and more effectively elsewhere on this album) he could handle brass bass as well:

 

 

[Steve Reynolds]

I saw the *great* Bob Stewart probably 3 times during 2015-16 with the Lucien Ban/Mat Maneri Quintet.

It’s a damn shame we don’t have a recording of this incredibly exciting ensemble. Maybe a bit more accessible than some of Mat’s various ensembles as it utilizes compositional sketches of his and even more fleshed out composed pieces from Lucien that still leave huge open areas for creative improvisation from everyone in the group.

The band included Tony Malaby on soprano & tenor saxophones and had rotating drummers which included Billy Mintz, Billy Hart, Gerald Cleaver & Randy Peterson.

as expected the show I saw with Peterson was the most exciting and outrageous almost going off the rails more than a few times. Peterson takes things to extremes and sometimes it’s just about too much but that is what made it great. 

Edited October 4, 2018 by Steve Reynolds

[jlhoots]

Dan Peck on the Ingrid Laubrock CD ubatuba.

[Steve Reynolds]

1 hour ago, jlhoots said:

Dan Peck on the Ingrid Laubrock CD ubatuba.

First time I heard Dan Peck it was the first time I saw Tony Malaby’s Novela maybe it was 2009 or 2010. I had never heard the band and I was astounded all 9 of them fit on the very small Cornelia Street Cafe stage (although they had 2 or 3 of the reed players sitting where the 2 small tables were).

point is (I guess) that the first set started with this outrageous duo between Peck on Tuba & Ben Gerstein on trombone. I guess this might have been the start of my extreme interest in Tony Malaby’s diverse projects and open ended vision. 

I sure wish he’d get that band back together as the 3 shows I saw of the 9 piece ensemble have been among the best sets of music I’ve seen/heard over the past decade.

[medjuck]

Marcus Rojas and Scott Robinson with Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project. 

[Steve Reynolds]

31 minutes ago, medjuck said:

Marcus Rojas and Scott Robinson with Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project. 

I saw Marcus Rojas guest with ICP maybe 3 years ago and he was fantastic. I also saw him with Michael Moore’s “American” Available Jelly on a quiet summer Sunday night second set @ The Stone maybe 5 or 6 years ago and he and that band played an hour or so of some of the most amazing live music I’ve ever heard with Gerry Hemingway bringing the whole thing to a couple of awe-inspiring peaks especially during the second half of the set. Sure would love to see another performance of this music by a Michael Moore led band.

[mjazzg]

On 30/09/2018 at 11:37 PM, uli said:

Aaron Dodds

 

 

 

 

Theon Cross

 

Good to see Theon Cross namechecked. He's all over the current London scene's resurgence.

Also, I love that 8 Bold Souls album

Another good London band from a few years ago, anchored by Oren Marshall on tuba. Theymake no secret of their inspiration, obviously

 

[optatio]

On 4.10.2018 at 6:02 PM, Steve Reynolds said:

... the *great* Bob Stewart ... with ... Mat Maneri ... Lucien Ban ... Tony Malaby ... Gerald Cleaver ...

Look instead here:

Edited October 5, 2018 by optatio

[Steve Reynolds]

1 hour ago, optatio said:

Look instead here:

That is at Cornelia Street Cafe and I was at that show.

(I can tell from the background)

very cool this was posted and it’s from exactly my perspective where I normally sit at the club but I think 2:00 of a clip of this sort of music does nothing except give more pause to anyone thinking about giving this music an honest listen. All vibrations and so forth. In between the notes. Microtonal stuff, etc.

I’m actually going to Cornelia Street tomorrow night but not for Mat:(

 

Edited October 5, 2018 by Steve Reynolds

[optatio]

28 minutes ago, Steve Reynolds said:

That is at Cornelia Street Cafe and I was at that show.

(I can tell from the background)

very cool this was posted and it’s from exactly my perspective where I normally sit at the club but I think 2:00 of a clip of this sort of music does nothing except give more pause to anyone thinking about giving this music an honest listen. All vibrations and so forth. In between the notes. Microtonal stuff, etc.

I’m actually going to Cornelia Street tomorrow night but not for Mat:(

 

I saw Bob Stewart here November 7, 2015 with Tony Malaby´s TubaCello instead of the announced Dan Peck at the 38. Goettinger Jazzfestival: Tony Malaby (ss), Christopher Hoffmann (cello), Bob Stewart (tuba), John Hollenbeck (dr).

 

 

[Steve Reynolds]

6 minutes ago, optatio said:

I saw Bob Stewart here November 7, 2015 with Tony Malaby´s TubaCello instead of the announced Dan Peck at the 38. Goettinger Jazzfestival: Tony Malaby (ss), Christopher Hoffmann (cello), Bob Stewart (tuba), John Hollenbeck (dr).

 

 

Good gritty band.

[Rabshakeh]

Listening to this one right now, Tuba Sounds by Ray Draper (Prestige, 1957). 

[Niko]

I like that album... it was such a weird idea to let a 16 year old tuba player record his own album... many 16 year olds would have done so much worse... then again it's really not easy to look good next to McLean, Waldron, Young when your instrument is a tuba...

[Rabshakeh]

Two things strike me about it:

First, that this is some of Mal Waldron's best playing for Prestige.  He does some really exciting and unique (to my ears) stuff. Possibly one of his best pre-breakdown showings?

Secondly, it seems to me that there is still a sense of slight awkwardness around the idea of jazz tuba in a small group bop context on this record. I guess that "bass" wasn't so prized in the 50s, so the huge extra oomph that players like Joe Daley and Theon Cross bring to their groups isn't there. At the same time, the tuba isn't really allowed to take the bass player's role or to supply counterpoint (save for at one nice point where Draper enters his solo before the end of Webster Young's trumpet solo). It ends up with Draper mostly soloing, sometimes a little shakily, given the tempos.

Perhaps it is telling that the discussions above in this thread mostly focus on tuba players who reached their prime in the 70s onwards, when new ideas had emerged. 

As someone mentions up-thread, going by the London scene in particular, the tuba has since re-emerged as one of the main jazz instruments in a small combo, and as perhaps the key to helping the the group sound bass heavy and contemporary.

6 minutes ago, Niko said:

I like that album... it was such a weird idea to let a 16 year old tuba player record his own album... many 16 year olds would have done so much worse... then again it's really not easy to look good next to McLean, Waldron, Young when your instrument is a tuba...

Ha ha. Yes. You beat me to it. I like it as well. But it is perhaps half brilliant half shaky, often during the same tracks.

I hadn't realised how young Draper was.

Edited February 8, 2021 by Rabshakeh

[Niko]

that's the strange thing, Draper was just a year older than Howard Johnson... and there must have been something incredibly convincing about him, just going by his credits, the jobs and opportunities he had - so many people thinking "this is the guy I want in my band". Born in 1940, McLean, Coltrane, Max Roach, then addiction problems stopped his career for the first time from 59 to 64, age 19 to 24, then a band with Philly Joe Jones, Horace Tapscott (he's on the Sonny Criss album), played the Amougies festival as part of a Don Cherry quartet, worked with Archie Shepp, with Jack McDuff, with Dr John, with the Sun Ra arkestra in the 80s ... before being murdered at age 42... that list of credits is pretty hard to beat and on some of those albums he contributes quite significantly (with the McDuff and Dr John albums being particular favorites)... but by that time he'd somehow rethought his role, being more of an arranger / band leader who also plays the tuba and sings a bit rather than a horn player in the front line... I'd like to hear that Don Cherry quartet one day, it's his only small group recording from later years... Draper's only leader work from later years, 1969, sound quite different

 

[Rabshakeh]

I like that Black Beans and Rice album. Quite different, as you say.

What Dr. John and Brother Jack McD records is he on? Those had passed me by.

[Niko]

 

those two, the Dr John album also has Graham Bond, Kenneth Terroade, Walter Davis Jr, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and other talented people... so it's kinda hard to say who contributed what in terms of arranging etc. On the McDuff album, Draper has actually composed most of the material, plays percussion, sings... so I guess one could argue that this is almost a Ray Draper album....

[Rabshakeh]

Thanks. 

I actually knew the Dr John record, but had never stopped to check the cast out.

[Niko]

btw, regarding your points on Draper and the role of the tuba within a jazz band: I haven't played the Roach albums in ages but iirc there is already some development from Draper's first recordings with McLean and Coltrane (age 16/17), where the tuba is used like a trombone, to those with Max Roach (age 18/19), if only because of the different lineup (tp ts tuba b dr)

Edited February 8, 2021 by Niko