Page 2 of 2

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 11:09 pm
by The Big Ben
Mr. Bobo sounded badass doing C of V on Carson. You gear guys will have to say what instrument he's playing.

https://youtu.be/eyJkyi0BKPk" target="_blank

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:14 am
by bisontuba
The Big Ben wrote:Mr. Bobo sounded badass doing C of V on Carson. You gear guys will have to say what instrument he's playing.

https://youtu.be/eyJkyi0BKPk" target="_blank" target="_blank
B&S Symphonie F tuba....

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:08 am
by Alex C
My favorite Bobo recording was a Rite of Spring album, don't know the conductor. The entire performance is excellent but the F to high-flat quarter notes in the "Glorification of the Chosen One," are monumental. It is the most exciting tuba playing I can remember hearing. Any description I could write would fall far short.

Add his solo albums, which were both technical and musical landmarks of the day, to his orchestral recordings, and you have an unmatched career as a tubists. Take nothing away from any other great tubists, Bobo was singular.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 4:11 am
by Alex C
58mark wrote:He might have played a miraphone at some point, but now he's playing this, and it sounds amazing

http://news.schagerl.com/index.php?cont ... anguage=en" target="_blank" target="_blank
Bobo is playing a 3-valve bass trumpet?

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:58 pm
by poomshanka
If you'd dip your toe in the soundtrack pool, Roger played principal on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Tommy played a few dates, but it was mostly Roger. Some great stuff there.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 12:12 am
by Billy M.
Norm Pearson wrote:He played a Mirafone 188 prototype around 1979-80 and a production 188 in starting in 1981

Norm Pearson
What was he playing before that during his tenure in LA? I'm listening to the Mehta recording of Alpine Symphony and find his playing to be exquisite.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 8:50 am
by TubaDrummer
Billy M. wrote:
Norm Pearson wrote:He played a Mirafone 188 prototype around 1979-80 and a production 188 in starting in 1981

Norm Pearson
What was he playing before that during his tenure in LA? I'm listening to the Mehta recording of Alpine Symphony and find his playing to be exquisite.
I studied with Roger in 1980. He was on his 186 still. The 188 was just coming out at the time and after I left in '81, he played the 188 for the most part as far as his main CC. He was just getting into his B&S F tuba at the time.

As far as before LA? I can't say when he switched to the 186 but I know his first solo record was a 184 and bits of his 180. I am pretty sure he was on his 184 before L.A.

It was interesting to see him work on the B&S F tuba at the time in 1980. As much as he ended up playing that horn, I never felt like he fell in love with it. Seemed to be a lot of work. Lots of slide pulls. Very different non-centered pitch unlike his Miraphones. He made due with a 180 when he had to but before the B&S, he covered most all bass tuba parts with his 184, 186.

When he started playing the B&S regularly in LAP, he would have both the B&S and his 186 on stage and from the balcony, they looked the exact same size.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:09 am
by groth
Cool info TubaDrummer,I know he wasn't fond of BBb tubas or people that insisted on playing them. Never understood that.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:47 am
by rudysan
And don't forget Indiana Jones 2, where Roger is playing. The first movie is Fletcher and the third one is Johnson. Quite impressive playing on all of those !

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 3:57 pm
by SirCharls
Terraplane8Bob wrote:I had the pleasure of being a classmate of Roger Bobo when I attended the Eastman School of Music in 1956-1961. It was amazing to me that a Freshman in our class was the tubist with The Rochester Philharmonic, but such was the talent of this amazing guy. Technically, Roger was a student of my instructor at ESM, Donald Knaub, who was the bass trombonist of the Philharmonic at the time. Many times during our lessons, Don would make reference to Roger and to the incredible talent he was. I have a reel-to-reel tape recording of Roger's concerto performance to earn the "Performer's Certificate" from ESM. He played the Vaughan Williams tuba concerto. For years I would play that tape to other musicians asking them to identify the instrument that was playing. Almost no one was able to do so because of the incredible sound and technical mastery that he managed to pull out of the tuba. Such power, such focus, such finesse ---- seemingly all without precedent. I remember when his beloved Heissner [sp.?] tuba literally wore out from use and he became the American "rep" for Mirafone. I bought a Mirafone "Bass Trumpet" from him [a tenor horn identical to the one that the "Lonely Boy" of the Mnozil Brass uses] and enjoyed it for years. It is still in my possession although I specialize on bass trombone and rarely play it. At one point, Roger showed up with a contrabass trombone that Mirafone made up for him. I recall him sitting in a concert with the ESM Symphony Band using that contrabass trombone which programmed a Clifton Williams piece, the title of which escapes me at the moment, and covering the entire ensemble with a couple of exposed pedal notes. Truly unbelieveable ! The next I heard of his use of that instrument was in the famous Leinsdorf/Wagner album on Capitol Records. Any accolades that you may have heard about Roger Bobo are well deserved !
Any chance you could convert that reel-to-reel to digital and post it for those of us out here who would love to hear it? Hell, I know there are services that would do it, and I would pitch in for the dough!

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 5:05 pm
by Ace
In 1954 at age 18, I played second trumpet in the All-California High School Honors Orchestra. I was told that the tuba guy behind us warming up on the Mozart Bassoon Concerto was 16 year old Roger Bobo. I did not personally meet him. At that time Bobo was a student of Robert Marsteller, principal trombone Los Angeles Philharmonic. I wonder what tuba he might have been playing in 1954? He had a huge sound. The big number on our concert in Santa Barbara was Tchaik 5.

Ace

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Wed Aug 28, 2019 1:08 am
by poomshanka

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Thu Aug 29, 2019 10:48 am
by Big Toot
As a recent convert to tuba-as-serious-instrument-for-me, this entire thread has been a real ear-opener. Geez, can he play. Now I just want to practice harder.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:57 pm
by mbeastep
Highlights for me are a Zubin Mehta recording of Pictures and a Previn recording of Prokofiev 6th. Both are exemplary.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2020 11:55 pm
by SirCharls
Thanks, I will look for those!

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2020 7:21 pm
by Matt G
bloke wrote:
doublebuzzing wrote:Here is Roger playing probably that B&S F and sounding like only he does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC4DMdULlcc
I'm one of his greatest admirers, but - in particular - I find that Dies Irae rendition to be disturbing. I hope the music director told him to do that, and that it wasn't his own idea.
It’s like someone asked the brass section to put a ton of front on their sound and then the recording engineer dialed it back. So many recordings need to be discounted due to overzealous engineering and mixing.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 3:49 am
by Ken Herrick
It is often said that if you can't say something nice.................................. I wouldn't spend good money for this recording is about as nice as I can think of.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:23 pm
by toobagrowl
bloke wrote:It was wild.
One of the pitches was even split (2nd tuba, or Mr. Bobo?)
Just listened to it. I only hear one tuba, playing the 1st part. Typical tight/bright Bobo sound.
Bobo always sounded like he wanted to play louder than the tuba/mpc would let him play...
That said, sounds like a bootleg recording of the live perfomance.

Re: Roger Bobo

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 2:33 pm
by EdFirth
I have a recording of LA, on London, playing all Liszt.Battle of the Huns, Orpheus, and Mazeppa with Mehta. The playing on Battle of the Huns is just like that Fantastique recording. You can probably find it on YouTube. Ed