Tuba in hand, acclaimed physician delights in first passion

[enewberger]

Dear friends,

I celebrated my 75th birthday with 2 sets at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston on December 17. My band and our singer, Rebecca Sullivan, played and sang their hearts out on the Gershwin song book, and the recordings sound great. A CD, "Swingin' Gershwin," is in the works, and in a couple of weeks, some professional video with stellar sound will be up on my YouTube channel.

The Boston Globe sent a photographer and a reporter. Here's what they came up with.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/20 ... story.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

I'm so pleased that the sympathetic writer, Bella English, mentioned William Bell, to whom I am perennially indebted.

Coincidentally, when Bella arrived at our house, an art shipping company was in the final stages of packing his Bellophone (double tuba) in for its journey to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it will have pride of place in the renovated rare instrument collection a year from now.

You can scroll down here to see a color photo of the Bellophone in Carole Nowicke's splendid article on Bell's life and accomplishments.
http://www.iteaonline.org/members/histo ... ?page=bell" target="_blank" target="_blank

Regarding Bell's tuba teaching, during our Scullers gig, on a fast "I Got Rhythm," I played 4/4 all the way through, ever mindful of breathing through my nose between beats, never gasping for breath, and keeping the corners of my mouth in the mouthpiece.

With warm New Year's wishes to all,

Eli

[bort]

Awesome! Also, you look way younger than 75!

[DonShirer]

Good story, and a great career!
Have you ever pointed out to a geriatric physician colleague that tuba playing keeps us fit in our "golden" years?