The joy of forgotten recordings

[bort]

This afternoon I have been listening to some recordings of community band concerts I forgot I had, and haven't listened to in a few years (concerts themselves are 5 or 6 years old).

It's been a lot of fun because:
-- They are good quality recordings
-- Fun selections of music
-- Some REAL talent in the group, in all sections

Though oddly enough, my overall impression is "wow it's nice to hear a band with a good trombone section." All around, it just seems to fill out the sound and a lot of times makes the tuba part fit in better.

Anyway, just random thoughts to share on a Wednesday afternoon!

[Ken Herrick]

I know just what you mean here. Funny thing about the bones, they can make a tuba sound really good or really bad. As Jake used to say, "with Klienhammer there, who needs a tuba? Put that early Chicago trombone section and Jake together it was fantastic. EVEN with Jay, there were times when, as in a couple performances of Brahms 2, that final, simple, D major chord was like the orchestra of heaven playing.

When I was a freshman at Northwestern we had a very good bass trombonist, named Hal Janks, along with solid 1st & 2nd. I really loved playing in the section with them as our sounds blended well and by working together in informal sectionals we got to be a "section". We listened and adapted our sound and tuning - learning how to play out of tune in tune together - and getting the balance right. After one particular concert Frank Crisafulli remarked "you guys sounded like I was at work". Couldn't ask for a better compliment.

Back to your first point. Sometimes listening to something from the past can be surprising - possibly even to the point of bringing on some of the "intense emotional" experiences which were the topic of a recent thread.

Can't help myself......... Another recent one was about slide pulling and playing point and shoot instruments. Quality of sound is paramount. Top quality sound comes only with bloody good tuning and getting the best possible resonance from each instrument. A big part of good ensemble playing - especially for tuba - is learning how to play in tune - out of tune. The "tuning" of any "chord" only works to the best possible when all involved are willing to adjust. It's no good saying "my tuba plays perfectly in tune, thus I am always in tune and everybody else should adapt to me because I'm too damned lazy to pull a slide to fit in with what is going on around me. If you are playing a concerto accomp, for instance, the soloist might play something WAY out of tune. Your job is to make the soloist sound good (might have a good musical reason for being "out of tune") listen and adapt and make some good music. You might enjoy hearing a recording of that performance in years to come.

Anyway, enough ranting. I'm heading off to do some "brass banding" over the next few days. Might just down a few beers in the process. Ain't that what tuba players do?

[Ben]

+1 Ken!!