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Am I allowed to ask tubenetters' reaction to Dr Newberger's entirely unique way of playing jazz tuba.

I am transfixed by the quiet subtlety, nuancing and flexibility. It does not sound, to me, like 'the tuba' but an unembodied voice of ultimate musicality and refinement.

I just cannot play even remotely like this. He just touches the notes and they sing.

He is obviously a stunning musician but there is something truly unique here.

Perhaps he is not referred to herein because he is so different. This is definitely not the tuba as we know it. Yet, of course, he was a superb orchestral player and standard soloist also.

Maybe a link to a performance would help to understand your concept.

Dr. Newberger was my inspiration to return to playing music after around a 40-year hiatus. In 2015, saw an article in the Boston Globe about Eli, and went to the next regular gig of the Hot Six at a local restaurant. For me, it was a transformational experience. Never had I heard such seemingly effortless performance of traditional jazz. The performers had obviously been playing together for a long time and knew how to blend their sound seamlessly and achieved an unmatched - in my experience - level of ensemble playing, with Eli providing a solid foundation and some truly exceptional solo work. My only disappointment was that there were so few young people in the room to share this experience, and benefit from hearing the exceptional product of the groups' many years of making music together. I spoke to Eli after the session, and he was both gracious and encouraging. I have been playing continuously since that time and while I am far from achieving a level of mastery of the instrument, the inspiration provided by Eli and the Hot Six continues to me keep moving forward. I'm sure a search of the web would provide a number of links to their recorded performances, but, as is usually the case, a live performance would be far more impressive. What is particularly notable in these live performances is the informal interaction among the players as they collectively select what numbers they will play, which seems to be accomplished without a great deal of pre-planning, yet is always tight and drawn from some deep layer of experience and musicianship each player contributes. We are indeed fortunate to have Eli and his friends here in the Boston area to show us the way...

I listened to a couple randomly selected videos. He can sure play the tuba. I don't know if it's the tuba as we know it or not, I guess I'm not up enough on what we know as the tuba to know.

What I do notice though, is that I like to listen to the people he plays with. Mazzy on banjo, Casher on clarinet. The tuba for solos ... I'm not so sure I get it. In this style anyway - you can find for example some excellent playing in a very different style by someone who goes by cimbassonista on youtube (and who also shows up here occasionally), but it's a different thing there, whole different concept of music as well as tuba playing.