Hi djwesp,
I am biased, but I had a blast putting my duet books together. It was set up so that the first book would be easier and then they would gradually become more difficult. The duet, "Si y Si", featured in the ITEA Gem Series, is the last duet in the second book, so in theory, that's the "hardest" one of the set. There are samples of some of the duets on the Beautidel Jazz site.
My focus when writing the duets was to come up with a series of duets specifically for the tuba that would expose players to idiomatic jazz rhythms and chord progressions and be fun to play....and not have to buy a jazz book written for another instrument.
The duets don't focus on improvisation since I felt that there were plenty of other great resources for that kind of playing.
I wanted to start the series out with basic concepts of swing and where to put accents, etc. and then gradually make the tunes more complex. Most of the duets focus on one aspect of playing, be it rhythm, range, phrasing, etc. The pet project I'm currently working on is getting the play-along recordings I made for the duet books mixed and mastered.
Our move from Wisconsin to Kentucky is taking much longer than we would have liked, but we are slowly getting our shop set up in Williamsburg. We should get our mail orders caught up this weekend(after my football game), as a matter of fact.
The duet books sold quite well at the ITEC in Denver and are our best seller on the website - But don't forget we also have solos, quartets, trios and large tuba/euph ensemble pieces available for purchase on our website.
What's the best of the bunch? I don't know, but I really like the second duet book and Grant Harville's "Two Classic Melodies for Two Euphoniums".
Our webmistress is setting up an updated website pretty soon, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that looks like.
Please feel free to send me an email or PM me on this site if you have any more questions.
Have a great day,
Sean
