TubeNet

I'm curious what specific tuba parts (not playing tuba on bass trombone parts or string bass parts) are like, when they exist, in big band.

My only option is bass tuba, though I think I'd pick my smaller, brighter one unless there was a lot of low register playing.

I'm gonna vote for big bass tuba, but I'm not really sure whether or not my 983 fits in the big or small category but that's what I use

After looking through such books as "Black Beauty, White Heat" and from what I have learned from 25 years of playing Big Band and "Dixie" recordings on my radio show, I think the brass bassists played whatever tuba (or helicon. or Sousaphone) they had handy, exclusively! Big bell front "Recording Bass" horns were popular, but I see about the same number of Sousaphones in the early pictures. Very few upright tubas, however.

Remember that Big Band Music is supposed to be dance music (or at least it was until "Stage Band" concepts took over in the 1950-60s) so the bass beat was important - and loud. Also, less importantly, the "look" of a large belled horn did have some "stage value."

I really like the Yamaha 621 for big band work. Its tone is centered and the response is FAST. Big sonorous bass presence is cool for for orchestra and band work, but with a small group, laying it down, you can drag them down if your sound doesn't keep up. Check out Bob Stewart and his 621. He's moving his group along. He couldn't do that if he was lugging a less-responsive axe. (Bob is an outstanding musician who happens to play the tuba.) I also like that the smaller bass horn voice allows you to occupy a different bass space than the electric guitar. I think that my Miraphone 186 is sometimes so mellow and diffuse that it gets confused, (at least by me), with the electric bass. The 621 is more like a punchy contrabass t-bone.
But thats just my stupid opinion.

David Richoux wrote:After looking through such books as "Black Beauty, White Heat" and from what I have learned from 25 years of playing Big Band and "Dixie" recordings on my radio show, I think the brass bassists played whatever tuba (or helicon. or Sousaphone) they had handy, exclusively! Big bell front "Recording Bass" horns were popular, but I see about the same number of Sousaphones in the early pictures. Very few upright tubas, however.

Ah, but I think you (and probably most everyone else ) are looking at this from the wrong angle. The poll was not about what everyone conglomerized plays in a big band, but what people playing a written tuba part play when they encounter said part in a big band (Mingus, Kenton,....).

Bob Kolada wrote:

David Richoux wrote:After looking through such books as "Black Beauty, White Heat" and from what I have learned from 25 years of playing Big Band and "Dixie" recordings on my radio show, I think the brass bassists played whatever tuba (or helicon. or Sousaphone) they had handy, exclusively! Big bell front "Recording Bass" horns were popular, but I see about the same number of Sousaphones in the early pictures. Very few upright tubas, however.

Ah, but I think you (and probably most everyone else ) are looking at this from the wrong angle. The poll was not about what everyone conglomerized plays in a big band, but what people playing a written tuba part play when they encounter said part in a big band (Mingus, Kenton,....).

Well, my reply was a standard TubeNet wandering down totally different paths to reach the same goal kind of thing - Goodgigs started it Since the first post and poll was not all that specific - (just "Big Band" and that covers a lot of history, music and style from the mid 1920s to today ) I think a little history is appropriate to the discussion. Mingus and Kenton were only a tiny part of the whole thing. Tubas in Big Bands had sort of a reverse bell curve - they were common in the early days, faded a bit as the double-bass violin could be amplified, and then had a minor come-back in the 1950s with Kenton and Gil Evans, etc., and then lost ground to the electric bass when jazz/rock fusion got going. Now they are usually either a "double" for 4th or 5th Bone or (better) another voice in the total sound, but rare that they would be the leading rhythmic bass instrument.

Thats why I like to play small band "Dixie" where I can take that rhythmic lead
(and the horn I choose to play depends on the room and stage size, stationary or mobile band, and a few other factors.)

You really need to revamp the poll to include souzy.

LJV wrote:Bloke, you're going to make Bob's head explode...

Didn’t that happen long, long ago?

K

If the chart calls for blending with the trombones (i.e. a real bass trombone part) then a small tuba or the Bloke-o-bone above is appropriate. But if it's a real tuba part then the sound wants to contrast with the trombones, so a bigger tuba is called for.
(For example, listen to the Birth of the Cool recordings with Bill Barber, or the "third-stream" things that Harvey did with John Lewis and/or Sauter-Finnegan.)

Art Hovey wrote:If the chart calls for blending with the trombones (i.e. a real bass trombone part) then a small tuba or the Bloke-o-bone above is appropriate. But if it's a real tuba part then the sound wants to contrast with the trombones, so a bigger tuba is called for.
(For example, listen to the Birth of the Cool recordings with Bill Barber, or the "third-stream" things that Harvey did with John Lewis and/or Sauter-Finnegan.)

What he said. I don't think you can do it all--and do it well--with just one horn. For my taste, I'd have a small upright-bell bass and a huge contra sousaphone on hand.

I also play electric bass and the traditional double bass. Sure, they both can play off the same chart, but neither instrument is a complete substitute for the other. Same goes with the wonderfully diverse voicings of the tuba.