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Does anybody here have any substantial non-tuba/low brass player influences? I know I do, but I was wondering what everyone else's opinion was. For the record here's my short list of non-tubists I consider a prime influence on my playing:

Mike Patton(vocalist/singer)
Jonny Greenwood(is in Radiohead)
Yo-Yo Ma(come on, everyone should know this)
Tom Waits(singer/songwriter extraordinaire)
anyone from the Kronos Quartet
Jaco Pastorius(bassist)


Just wondering what everyone else thought of this. Of course, I have my list of tubists I look up to, inlcuding Gene Pokorny, Eric Bubacz(sorry if I misspelled the name,) Dan Perantoni, Russel Tiede, Floyd Cooley, all of those guys. But that's only been a part of my musical upbringing, which I find very helpful in approaching a piece of music. Thanks for listening, Aaron "Tubafatness" Hynds

tubafatness wrote:Does anybody here have any substantial non-tuba/low brass player influences?

Cool thread. I'll jump in with mine:

1. Rush (all three members)
2. Maynard Ferguson
3. Doc Kupka
4. Michael Brecker

Victor Wooten
Jaco Pastorius
Herb Ellis
Maynard Fergusson
Duke Ellington
All of the Canadian Brass
Glen Miller Orchestra

And all of the people in my everyday life! I am also heavily influenced by punk music, Funk, Rock and Roll, Blues, and (obviously) Jazz music.

Freddy Hubbard
Stan Getz
João and Astrud Gilberto
Bonnie Raitt
Bela Bartok
Alexander Scriabin
John Adams

Let's not forget all of the local guys we've gigged with over the years, especially the ones we've ripped off 'our' best ideas from.

Maynard Ferguson
Grover Washington Jr. (Sax)
Jean-Luc Ponty (Electric Violin)

GC wrote:Let's not forget all of the local guys we've gigged with over the years, especially the ones we've ripped off 'our' best ideas from.

Indeed. With that in mind:
"Boss Cat" Morgan (Bari sax)

Louis Armstrong/ a musician's musician - and a good person - and still underappreciated for how truly talented he was and how much he contributed to music

Mozart/ musical talent to create simply some of the most beautiful music ever

Buddy Rich/ unbelievable drummer and never wavered in trying to get his band to achieve his vision/sound. Not the nicest/tackful guy to play for but I believe he was a misunderstood perfectionist.

BB King - long live Lucille - did he ever find his dog? He was offering as a reward one of his guitars signed - talk about a great reward!

Itzhak Pearlman - simply makes the instrument sing and willing to play non-traditional music that other primma donnas of the violin thought was beneath them

Arthur Fiedler - curmudgeon who gave the people the music they wanted to hear not the music that traditional classical music world wanted to jam down their throats because the masses must be "educated". A first class showman.

Leonard Bernstein - again a superb conductor/showman who made music on a grand scale.

John Philip Sousa - another man that made music that the public wanted to hear. Gifted composer, conductor and knew exactly the sound he wanted his band to make and then got them to produce it.

Dr. Frederick Fennel - a gifted musician who brought great energy and enthusiasm and passion to his music and made you want to play beyond your capability

George Gershwin - created unique music that has yet to be duplicated

My high school band director ( a great drummer in his own right) who srceamed, yelled and bullied us but made us play way beyond our abilities to create the sound he wanted to make. Hated him then but realized later as an adult what he taught and truly did for us.

A whole lot of other folks including a lot of female and a few male singers like Frank Sinatra and his amazing way to phrase a song.

It's amazing when you start to sit down and think about it how many
non low brass influences one can have

David Phelps,one of the world's great talents.He used to be the tenor with the Gaiher Vocal Band and is now a full time solo act.Wynton Marsalis,Phil Smith,David Shifrin for their sound.Yo Yo MA,Itzhak Pearlman for their unbridled devotion to the music.Steven Mellilo for his manic enthusiasm for his music.This thread has made me realize how many of my influences are tubists.I'm going to make an effort to expand on this...

Doc Severinsen
Benny Goodman (his brother Harry started on Tuba and played bass in his orchestra)
Tommy Dorsey
Dennis Brain
Jack Jones (lounge singer)
Gary Karr

Since I am/was a french horn player largely active in the historically informed performance practice, I'd be hard pressed to find someone who influenced me who does/did play tuba. I'd say Arnold Jacobs because indirectly he taught me to breathe and as a consequence stopped me from splitting so many notes on natural horn.
The list of non-tuba players is endless, and most of the names wouldn't ring a bell with most of you...

tofu wrote:My high school band director ( a great drummer in his own right) who srceamed, yelled and bullied us but made us play way beyond our abilities to create the sound he wanted to make. Hated him then but realized later as an adult what he taught and truly did for us.

This story brings back a memory and now I must admit that Dr. Alvin Fulton is the greatest influence on my musical life.
When I started playing trumpet back in 5th gragde, I was the typical elementary music student*. One day, we were playing as individuals and after I finished playing Fulton said, "Son, that was without question the worse trumpet playing I have ever heard". From that day on I swore no one would ever be able to say something like that to me again. From that day on I always practiced and within a month I was ahead of all of the other 5th grade trumpet students. From then on I never settled for just being in the section and always wanted to be the best one there.

*never practiced

I'm amazed that so many people list so many jazz artists, but not many classical artists.

I'm not going to name names (because they probably wouldn't mean anything to you) but I look up to many professional musicians. I love listening to how they shape their phrases, which is something I ain't a natural at. It would probably be a good idea to listening a lot to the following instrumentalists:

these, of course, should be top notch professional players...
flute and OBOE players
trumpet players
violin and cello players

quinterbourne wrote:I'm amazed that so many people list so many jazz artists, but not many classical artists.

Music is communication and many Jazz artists have excellent line techniques. Being a more "popular" idiom, their work is also more accessable...

Jazz vocalist, Kurt Elling. The #1 most amazing musical experience in my life was a live concert with his trio. Check him out!

Andy Rummel

One of my top non-tubists influences would have to be Joe Alessi. He plays with the most amazing musicality and glorious sound. My twin brother is a trombone player, so I own/listen to almost just as much trombone music as tuba. Others would include A. Herseth (of course), David Hickman, Phil Farkas, Reed Thomas (my current university band director), all of the applied faculty at my school for their great information and guidance, and Joe Stegemann (bass trombonist) for introducing me to Arnold Jacobs and all the Chicago guys while I was still in high school.

I've always said that my perfect idea of my sound would be a 40' tall Johnny Cash, so he'd have to be on the list.

Others include (INPO):

Wilco
Dave Brubeck
Gershwin
Cage
Count Basie
Emmylou Harris
Elvis
Neutral Milk Hotel
Gram Parsons
T. Monk
Stravinsky
Public Enemy
Sinatra
Hank Williams
Townes Van Zandt
Chuck Berry

and last (BCNL): Charles Ives.

I have my reasons for each. The explinations of which I'm too lazy to type out.

Gershwin
Stravinsky
Lebedev
Tchaikovsky (you know who im talking about)
Yo Yo Ma
Wagner
Berlioz
Herbie Hancock
Frank Sinatra

Amazing that no classical bassists made it to the list thus far, say Gary Karr and Edgar Meyer, or even Serge Koussevitzky.

I guess this goes toward the theory that tuba players don't really want to think of themselves as basses.