Ghost of a Chance...

[Wyvern]

Well it does play Bloke!

Actually quite charming - thanks.

Your Buescher helicon sounds quite fine - good pseudo string bass sound.

Jonathan "who also has tended to get on with older people"

[Steve Inman]

My hat is off to the entire group.

Nice clean sound, great talent -- even the guy playing whatever those real low notes are ... well done.

Wow!

VERY nice!

Cheers,

[TubaSteve]

Very nice. Just close your eyes and enjoy. Nice treat on a Sunday morning.

Steve

[Tom Mason]

I enjoyed this very much.

Particularly your treatment of the bass line itself. You have a good concept of the attack and presence of the note. Many tuba players tend to play shorter notes and have no decay or sustaining concept when playing quarter notes in a string bass qued pattern. I did enjoy your ability to place some attack without killing the note, and have some decay and length to the notes. Also assuming you read this by chord chart or from memory, and the choice of notes was very good indeed.

What I need to do is listen to it on a good stereo instead of the computer speakers.

Any of the rest of the group from Memfus?

Tom Mason

[The Big Ben]

I liked it! I'm a little partial to that style of music.

[kegmcnabb]

Maybe you'll find it somewhat interesting (a bare-nekid tuba trying to fake a string bass) and poignant (an aged man who conquers much and simply doesn't give up).

A quiet story of everyday inspiration. So much to learn from folks like that. Thanks!

[MikeMason]

Moments like that are part of the(usually)non-financial rewards of being a musician.

[scottw]

For a first-mix, especially, it's quite a nice balance of the players/singer. As we would expect, you know how to shape pizzicato notes on tuba, much like those old guys playing bell-fronts in the '20's in the recording studios. That's something I rarely hear in the various bands--just blat out the note like a march, fercrissakes! Very nice! And please post more?
Thanks!

[Rick F]

Excellent Joe!

There were many times I thought I was listening to string bass not tuba. Excellent T-sax as well (gee, did I really say that!?)

ready to hear more.

[GC]

Really nice. You have an excellent sound, and you played a bass line that ought to be in textbooks. I hope to hear more of your playing someday.

I'd really like to buy that CD whenever it comes out, too.

[Anterux]

Beautiful!!

And what a tuba sound! very well in tune.

I need a teacher. Badly!

My best regards to all in that recording! Superb!

[MikeMason]

Hearing a breath on a recording is one of those little organic things that makes acoustic music so real and enjoyable.

[Rick Denney]

A friend, who didn't want to criticize the recording or my playing on the forum, pointed out in a private message that a few of my notes were clipped.

Yep, unfortunately those were breaths. I really would have liked to have "punched" those breath notes and covered them. I was about to ask the engineer, but (over the sound booth mic) I overheard the guy who was paying for everything say, "Good...That's great...We really need to get on to the next one..."

Synthesizers don't have to breathe.

As I was listenign the second time through, those places where you took a breath were really instructive. When I've played bass lines, I almost slur them with a breath pulse at the beginning of the note, but I've never figured out how to breathe without it being an interruption. The answer is: Interrupt it in the right places.

The first time through, I was simply listening. The word "understated" kept bobbing up in my mind. All of you were making the music as much by what you didn't do as by what you did. It reminded me of the old joke about how to sculpt a bird: "Carve away everything that isn't bird." Most people try to decorate too much and lose the essence of the thing.

I didn't mind the singer's voice at all. And it was an excellent example that music is not about a lot of technical things that we spend eons discussing. He was completely effective in conveying the emotion of the song.

In terms of mix, the instruments were clear and present, with just a hint of roominess, and at a good level to support the vocals. I was never in doubt about what anyone was doing, but I was also never distracted from what was important. It was a nice clean sound.

Rick "thinking it recalls a time when we could be melancholy without being depressed" Denney

[windshieldbug]

Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz (his sound IS breathing...) or others and you will hear their humanity BECAUSE of these human moments.

That's assuming that Joe WANTS to be thought human...

[bearphonium]

Very nice, both the music and the story behind it. Couldn't tell you all weren't together.

[Art Hovey]

That's a beautiful recording, worth cherishing. You will enjoy hearing it again when you are 80 and your friends are gone. I did notice one breath that you might have done differently on a second take, but it's no big deal. I only wish the tuba were a little more audible. Non-tubists will probably like it just where it is, but I want to hear you more. Thank you for sharing it.
Bueschers Rule!

p.s. Next time try box.net. I had to get my son to help me jump through some hoops to hear your recording. Since Chuck on this forum called my attention to Box.Net I have move all of my downloadable files there.

[windshieldbug]

"sheesh. Talk about bending over backwards in exaggeration to make a point, jumping up one's own butt, and disappearing"

That's why there's the smilies, to indicate good natured attempted humor.

bug "double sheesh!!"

[tubatooter1940]

Nice job, bloke. You played with nice tone and a grasp of what a string bass line might sound like. Your professionalism overcame the obstacles and the session was warm and wonderful and, IMO, successful.

[circusboy]

Just lovely -- particularly the bass line.

I love this kind of music and, until now, have thought that I'd need to learn string bass to be able to play it. Now I know that, with practice and patience, I'll be able to play it on my tuba. Thanks, bloke!

[Donn]

That "clipped" comment is weird. Part of the charm of using a tuba as the bass instrument are these "human" factor moments. You are breathing life into the music by breathing. It makes the listening experience more organic and less mechanical. I want to hear the musician is alive during the music making.

Yes, I loved listening to it, on all counts (really with the introductory buildup I was expecting something kind of wobbly), and the tuba was of course very tasteful.

But speaking of the introductory text:

I was both relieved and mortified at the same time: 1/ Thank goodness, that is one of those old tunes that I had learned "way back" at those crusty old country club gigs and 2/ Whoa. I didn't bring ANY sort of string bass, and you want me to play a delicate ballad like that on (basically) a friggin SOUSAPHONE?!?!

I don't hear that as briar-patch modesty, it is very, very hard to substitute for string bass in this style. Louis Armstrong or Lester Young or whoever on the tuba doesn't make a bass player, and a divinely talented tuba player can feel pretty good about managing as well as a decent string bass player could do half asleep. This music practically evolved around the string bass, I guess it breathes life into the music by not being so human, but by laying down a clean, steady, just right rhythmic and tonal structure that the voices can jump off.

That's what I think, anyway, but for me, the string bass is too quiet to keep up without amplification, so forget that. Plus I get blisters, and I'd have to tie it to the top of my car, and the price of a good bass makes tubas look absurdly cheap.