Paul Whiteman`s tuba player

[Steven Noel]

Would anyone have any info on who played tuba for Paul Whiteman`s band and also what make tuba he played ??

[Chuck Jackson]

For years, Whiteman's Tuba player was a gent named Min Leibrook. White man also carried either a bass player who doubled on String Bass or Bass Sax. For the former, the player was Mike Trifficante, and the latter was Adrian Rollini. Leibrook also doubled on Bass Sax as needed. I have numerous pictures of the Whiteman around and in all of them the tuba player was playing a sousaphone. Nothing special, the best look show a basic sousaphone with 3 valves.

Chuck

[Chuck Jackson]

I am going to correct myself on one thing. I can find no mention of Adrian Rollini on the Whiteman payroll, although he did make some recordings with Bix, who played with Whiteman, thus I made the assumption he played with Whiteman.


Chuck"who is aware of what assumes stands for"Jackson

[LoyalTubist]

Paul Whiteman used two tuba players. They both doubled on string bass and often alternated the instruments. They sometimes both played tuba. As far as I know, this was the only use of multiple tubas in this venue. The other tuba player's name was Mike Trafficante in the late 1920s. Steve Brown also had the position at one time.

Min Leibrook was a close friend of Bix Beiderbecke. They both played with a small Midwest pop band in the early '20s called the Wolverines. The Wolverines' trombone soloist was Tommy Dorsey. Min died in the early 1940s, still in his 30s.