How was the Army Tuba Conference? Impressions?

[Wes Krygsman]

I have been going to this event since 2004, only missing one year for a pretty extreme illness (106.7 fever from a terrible throat infection), I can say that this is one of my favorite parts of the year. I have learned so much from all the recitals, masterclasses, lectures, and this year from the mock band audition. It's like cramming in 10 lessons all at once, and it's FREE!

The fact that the exhibits have so many instruments to try in one place helped me decide which brands and models of tuba I like playing. Also, finding all those accessories and pieces of music is difficult except for online. The army base tax-less sales is great as well, especially for buying an instrument.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes playing tuba or euph, or listening to great music.

[bort]

Hey Bort, I wasn't at the USABTEC, but (as you know) I own one... and IMHO it's the real deal. Is it totally without any issues? No... but what horn is? Sound, intonation and playability are all excellent. Overall construction appears to be very good as well.

That's great to hear! Glad it's working out!

Wonder if they'll make a rotary version?

[Ken Crawford]

Did anyone get a chance to play with the BMB BATs or F? Any fresh thoughts on those? Thanks!

[Three Valves]

I just realized...

No Yamaha.

No plastic tubas.

[bigbob]

Hi everybody I was there on sat.I brought my Ganagyphone in so Lee could work on it! and to visit bloke! BUT the most enjoyable thing was JOE's wife ...She was quite lovly and down to earth...I really liked her....(nothing like bloke haha)....The show it self was a lot smaller ...no music for sale and fewer players, no food inside There were a lot of Chinese horns there.....Wilson was there nice horn so was MW BB bmb It just wasn't as livly Well Joe was great and a very nice guy SHHHHHH don't let that get out...Lee had some great old horns there and joe had a great looking 188...I left my camera there I hope they send it back haha there's a great pic of Joe holding one of my artworks....I went home after that my back started hurting.......BB

[chhite]

Bob, Aaron Lovely from the Army Band has your camera. Give them a call and they will arrange getting it back to you. I found it at Lee's booth while cleaning.

[bigbob]

Bob, Aaron Lovely from the Army Band has your camera. Give them a call and they will arrange getting it back to you. I found it at Lee's booth while cleaning. Thank You so much ..does anyone have there number?

[chhite]

Their phone number is (703) 696-3643.

[Michael Bush]

I left my camera there I hope they send it back haha there's a great pic of Joe holding one of my artworks....I went home after that my back started hurting.......BB

So Bob, was your camera on a tripod by the doors in the Minor Studio at one point in a recital on Thursday or Friday? I remember going to a spot by the doors behind such a camera, and noticing off to my right that my position bothered somebody-who-was-not-Army. So I shifted off to the left side to be less worrisome. Was that you? If so, I wish we had shaken hands.

[Billy M.]

Anybody have pics of that Eastman CC tuba or of Lee's custom horn?

[tclements]

No question, I GOTTA go next year .....

[Rick Denney]

I enjoyed it as always. After an eventful holiday season (not in a good way), I needed and enjoyed the break. And I enjoyed more than anything catching up with friends old and new, but all treasured.

Absolutely contrary to expectation, I played a tuba that forced me to put it on hold. Gonna have to sell some stuff to pay this one off--stay tuned. No, I didn't need it, but what does that have to do with it.

The Miraphone 481 is an astoundingly easy instrument to play--even easier than my Yamaha and with a better sound. But I played duets using my B&S PT9 with Ray Grim on Sunday, and realized that in return for slightly more effort, I get a product I like a bit more. Still, the 481 is a wonderful F tuba.

There's a time and a place for academic music, and apparently this was it. But Pat Sheridan went another way, and he was the highlight for me. His mind works on a whole different level. I wish I'd brought my sunglasses, though.

Jazz Night was the most fun of any of the evenng programs. The Blues sounded great as did both Marty and Carlos Mendoza. Mr Mendoza is good enough to be able to walk out on the stage with authority, though. He doesn't need to be timid.

The smaller crowd and reduced exhibit footprint actually made it cosier with less of the usual elephantiasis. I didn't even get a headache, though my love-at-first-play reaction to a particular tuba kept me from getting around as much as I had planned to. And I only heard Wagner and RVW once each from young'uns--a record.

Rick "always a little sad when it's over" Denney

[Three Valves]

There's a time and a place for academic music....

Like bagpipe music, there is only so much Unlistenable Dissonance for Tuba in Five Sharps and Incomprehensible Time I can take!!

[Rick Denney]

Like bagpipe music, there is only so much Unlistenable Dissonance for Tube in Five Sharps and Incomprehensible Time I can take!!

There are opposing arguments here, both of which I agree with. One argument goes that music is untested until it is musically performed, and some works might need several performance attempts to find the most effective musical story. There are few places where music can be tested by the greatest musicians, especially when discussing tuba and euphonium music. There are works that started as academic pieces that found their way into the repertoire, and works intended for the repertoire that have, after performance testing, been pushed back into academia. Conferences such as these are where those tests and experiments can be conducted with a qualified audience.

The opposing argument goes that part of making a living playing music is learning how to fill the audience with joy. Academic musicians often think that the music itself can do this, but working musicians know that is not the case, even with musician audiences. (Of course, there are many academics who also perform regularly and therefore understand both perspectives.) Even a lot of working musicians think that the path to success on stage is in perfecting their musical skills, and forget that they have to present a more complete package to keep the audience experiencing joy. I'm purposely avoiding the term "entertainment" because many serious musicians think of being entertaining as selling out. But it seems to me that avoiding "selling out" often means "selling nothing" and therefore needing a day job.

For an afternoon recital at a tuba conference, experimental music seems to me appropriate. For the evening performances, one would hope for a more consistent attention to the whole package of audience enjoyment. But too often the experimental music is as much an experiment by the performer as it is to the audience--the performer's motive is demonstration (of whatever) rather than telling a musical story. This is also true for a lot of music written in the past that is not formally experimental, but that still exists only as a demonstration of skill rather than as an expression of musical joy. My hope is that those who are performing such music learn that imparting the joy requires more than demonstrating skill. A conference like this, however, is where young professionals are given the opportunity to learn these lessons with a more enthusiastic and less cynical audience than, say, a music college recital audience. Even when playing the experimental or academic music, the performer has responsibilities. Mr. Thurman provided one of several examples of carrying out those responsibilities even when playing music that is a little less accessible.

All that said, I don't need to hear multiphonics ever again. Plea to composers: Resist the temptation to ask the player to hum through the instrument while playing. Every time I hear it, I ask myself, "what did that add to the music?"

Rick "not even addressing the point that one person's unlistenable dissonance is another person's trite pop tune and still another person's grand emotional experience" Denney

[Three Valves]

Written-out sound execution instructions that are so foreign to performers that there is little chance for emotionally-communicated performances have little hope.

Written-out sound execution instructions that are written in such a way that performers cannot possibly communicate emotion in performances of those instructions have no hope.

I once performed an ensemble version of Okie From Muskogee.

For the longest time I thought "mezzo-forte" was Italian for "without irony"

[mbell]

Marty Erickson was simply fantastic, and Freddie Mendoza was great as well.

I'm glad some of you caught my old friend Freddie Mendoza. We went to school together at the University of Texas. Even as an undergrad he was an incredible player. He was playing Rich Matteson's horn at the conference. He stayed here in central Texas for quite a while playing and teaching jazz, mostly playing trombone. He's the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Indianapolis now.

Video of Freddie and Marty Erickson playing with the US Army Blues is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=014k2AC7jTE" target="_blank" target="_blank

mike

[TubaRay]

CONCERTS:
*Many of the pieces I heard left me rather cold, though the performances were remarkable, but I am a self-confessed musical cretin. Many of those pieces would have little life outside the recital hall and little audience outside of other performers.

Worth reading again for those who may program concerts and/or write/arrange music for tuba and euphonium. One performance in particular has been raved about by many was my personal breaking point. I just couldn't listen to any more of it after a short time.

I share this viewpoint. I very much enjoy this conference every year, but this would be one of my complaints, plus, in recent years it seems there has been a shift to what could be described as 2/3 euph and 1/3 tuba. As a tuba player, I like a more balanced approach.

[Z-Tuba Dude]

...and I'm leaning towards the Packer euphoniums (including their economy compensating model), because the sound is more like "euphoniums other than Yamaha"...

Hi Bloke,

I am not sure what you mean by this comment.....is Yamaha GOOD or bad ?

[ghmerrill]

*Many of the pieces I heard left me rather cold, though the performances were remarkable, but I am a self-confessed musical cretin. Many of those pieces would have little life outside the recital hall and little audience outside of other performers.

Ummm .... I thought it was just me. Couldn't agree more with this. The goal often seems to be display of technical virtuosity with a given instrument, rather than what most people would think of as "good music". There were, of course, exceptions to this. But there were too many times when I found myself fidgetting in my seat and wondering when all the scales, arpeggios, runs, and bopping around might end.

*I had not heard Mr. Saito before and really liked the cleanliness of his playing and the clarity of his sound and articulation.

My reaction as well. And I thought the solo piece he played was much more "listenable" than a lot of the others.

*Had a couple of near-death experiences driving in Arlington...what a crappy town to drive in...Don't get me wrong, but I took some delight in reading and hearing others' stories of vehicular disasters...glad to know I wasn't the only one dazed and confused in Arlington.

Ha! Even with a driver AND a navigator, it is very challenging until you embed the routes into your neural system. Even with explicit directions from natives, it is challenging because it's almost impossible to describe accurately the various turns, twists, direction changes, and alternatives.

I believe that when designers were hired for creating the interchanges in the area, they were engaged primarily from pasta producers where their prior projects had been in testing the flexibility and possible patterns for heaps of cooked spaghetti.

*Sure wish there were more dining choices on base so people didn't have to leave the base and take their life into their hands driving in Arlington. But I guess it's an Army base and not a strip mall.

My wife somehow quickly found (online) RT's restaurant in Arlington which is pretty much a straight back and forth run to the Ft. Myer gate and takes only ten minutes or less (once you don't end up spending some of that time driving in circles). It is possibly the best cajun/creole restaurant I have eaten in (at least I can't think of a better one offhand), including in New Orleans. They've been there for about 30 years and are now in what has become quite a run-down strip of mostly vacated stores and businesses. But absolutely fantastic. We ended up eating an early dinner around 5:00 every day and then heading over to the evening workshop. For us, just this experience was probably worth the trip.

For future reference: http://www.rtsrestaurant.net/

[bighonkintuba]

I planned to attend, but decided to stay home and watch performances online. Good choice. The video feed worked well enough and the audio quality was decent.

Highlights:
Military Band Tuba and Euphonium Section Playing (informative/useful)
Composition Contest Winners Recital
Euphonium Recital/Grand Concert performance by Mitsuru Saito (The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.)
Ophicleide Recital (Neat!)

Eh:
Leonard Falcone tribute (Couldn't sit through it; I would have given the presenter the hook)
Gentle Practice (Couldn't sit through it; Please: play brilliantly, but leave the philosophical nonsense at home)
U.S. Army Blues guest soloists (Straight ahead jazz-like; Impressive from a technical perspective to some degree, but dull when the audience knows where solos are going before they get there)

Why aren't cutting edge improvisational musicians like Dan Peck, Kristoffer Lo, Robin Hayward etc. included at these events? They may not be everyone's cup of tea (that's fine; give them a listen and decide), but at least it's something different. These events have changed little from those which I attended in the late 1990s/early 2000s (and then took an extended break until last year). Same thing; different decade.