Tuba Renaissance of the 1970s

[LoyalTubist]

I first heard about it in 1973 from my band director, Harold Warman, at Colton High School. He had a copy of the Instrumentalist magazine, an issue that was totally devoted to the tuba. Although I knew I wasn't ready yet, I knew that a tubist could do anything a trumpeter could do.

Outside that, there was the First International Tuba Symposium at Indiana University. Every university marching band played "The Stars and Stripes Forever" with the sousaphones and piccolos swapping parts at the trio. There was a Carnegie Hall tuba recital series. KFAC radio in Los Angeles played the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto every day.

The fever faded out. We learned a lot from it and younger tuba players today need to go back and find out what happened back then.

Then we all need to go back and find out the REAL heyday of tuba playing, the 1920s! Every pop band had a tuba player--he provided the rhythmic bass.