TubeNet

I was recently in Denver on business and stopped by a Borders to find a recording of the Denver Brass called "Bagpipes and Brass." Aside from the interesting sounds of a brass ensemble with bagpipes, the tuba sounds are amazing, especially in the arrangement of "Hector the Hero," cathedral organ-like sound. The best part was that Borders had the CD for $3.50. Fans of Percy Grainger should pick it up. Some absolutely beautiful arrangements and a great CD from top to bottom.


Anyone interested go to:
http://www.denverbrass.org/recordings/bags&brass.htm

Liberty Mo wrote:the tuba sounds are amazing, especially in the arrangement of "Hector the Hero," cathedral organ-like sound. The best part was that Borders had the CD for $3.50. Fans of Percy Grainger should pick it up. Some absolutely beautiful arrangements and a great CD from top to bottom.

One of the reasons they sound great is that Kathy Brantigan and her husband Charles are both great tuba players -- another reason is that the group is conducted by Ken "Doc" Singleton who is a former tuba player himself. Ken also does many of the arrangements too... so that group is extremely "tuba friendly".

The Denver Brass is a pretty cool enigma -- they are one of the only completely professional large brass groups in the country who present an entire season of well attended concerts, just like an orchestra would. The players in that group are a great group of folks. I can't say enough good stuff about them.

Just as an aside, take notice of the names of the tuba players: apparently husband and wife, which seems quite an oddity. The short clips they provide does very little to show us how good they may be, so I'll take Liberty mo's word for it and look for the CD; I, too, play in a 13-pc brass ensemble and am always looking for good arrangements for that configuration.

Edit: Looks like I got in 2 minutes after the 2nd poster, who mentioned the husband-wife angle! Sorry, just a slow typist!

In case anyone wanted to know more on the Rocky Mountain ITEA conference here is a link to the webpage

http://usonia.unco.edu/music/brassperc/RMSITEA.html

Hope to see a lot of you there.