Who here does most of their work in jazz/commercial?

[BopEuph]

Just curious. I'm a pro jazz bass player, and get a lot of gigs to lay down basslines on tuba; whether it be on standards, funk tunes, or sightreading lead sheets and rhythm charts. In Orlando, these guys used to exist a dime a dozen, but I'm pretty sure I'm one of a handful of guys in town that does that any more.

I'm just wondering; is this a dying art? Seems like if that's so, it's the right time for the young guys to step it up and start transcribing electric and upright bass players.

[Art Hovey]

Most of my paying gigs are in classic jazz tuba and upright bass.
http://galvanizedjazz.com/

[BopEuph]

Of course, I went straight to your tuba page. There are some nice horns there!

Do you feel that it's a dying skill; that there are very few people around you that can play changes?

[Three Valves]

I saw these guys Sunday.

http://www.ccjazzband.com/meet-the-band.html" target="_blank

No tuba

[Paul Scott]

There are plenty of people out there with the skill. What is harder and harder to get is the experience. Not just how to play a tune but how to play it depending upon the other players that might be on a job. Learning the rep of different leaders and bands. You can only do that by playing a lot and there are fewer and fewer of these gigs around. I'm talking about jobs that are a combination of "dixieland", trad-jazz, standards, swing tunes, sing-along etc. I quite literally learned many tunes "on the job" and I don't know if young players coming up will have that opportunity.

[SousaBill]

Among the working pros in Kansas City, I am one of a handful of about 4 or 5 players that have a tuba background. I get zero classical tuba gigs (which I am OK with) and do 25-30 dates a year on Sousaphone (about half of these are doubling) which is a nice additive to my average of about 200 double bass/electric bass jobs annually. There is not much of a trad jazz (I hope we stop using the "D" word) scene here, although overall the scene is very robust for bop/straight-ahead stuff. A really nice emerging scene for creative improvised music and jazz-oriented original composition has been getting a foothold here as well. I'll be doing some Sousaphoning on a couple Charlie Parker tribute hits in August and my usual with Parallax, but that is about it for the summer.

To relate it the thread, it seems to me that the culture of tuba bass line playing seems to be just about gone outside of a few cities that can support it. I realize that there are great players everywhere, but the jazz esthetic doesn't really thrive in isolation. You can learn some of it school, but if you're really going to do it, you gotta be on the scene. Paul Scott nails it. The informal on-the-job aspect of this is HUGE.

Back to the shed, cheers!

[Three Valves]

There also appears to be considerable interest in Eastern Europe.

[roweenie]

There are plenty of people out there with the skill. What is harder and harder to get is the experience. Not just how to play a tune but how to play it depending upon the other players that might be on a job. Learning the rep of different leaders and bands. You can only do that by playing a lot and there are fewer and fewer of these gigs around. I'm talking about jobs that are a combination of "dixieland", trad-jazz, standards, swing tunes, sing-along etc. I quite literally learned many tunes "on the job" and I don't know if young players coming up will have that opportunity.

+1

Most of the old timers I learned from are all gone now. The new crop of players I've fallen in with have enthusiasm, but that's about it.

[BopEuph]

Some great responses here.

Bloke, you HAD to use a bass stand...and perhaps a stand for the tuba, too!

There is a lack of trad playing anywhere, but the best piece of advice I got before I moved to Orlando was to buy a tuba and learn to play it. I get 2-3 trad gigs per month now, but I also find some other places to use the horn. I'll be playing a couple of tunes with a local funk band to make the video for the Cirque audition.

I understand the sentiment that there's a dying out of trad gigs to keep the tunes under our fingers, but I think it's not too far-fetched to use the tuba in the place of bass in more modern jazz settings. I wish it would be done more often.

I remember when I did the Rich Mattesson competitions at ITEC that the tuba players were to be treated like a horn player rather than a bass player. I think encouraging the younger players to lay down the bass part in that competition would help push the instrument in the genre a little more.

I've found that learning all the basslines I do on bass and putting them on tuba keeps me getting a lot of work on either instrument.

[BopEuph]

but I think it's not too far-fetched to use the tuba in the place of bass in more modern jazz settings. I wish it would be done more often.

Until you figure in Amplification (and the lack of which the Tuba has a HELL of a time while playing with ANYTHING electric on stage), and for most Bassists that's just another heavy hunk of crap to lug up 2 flights of stairs to the stage along with their Ampeg 8x10 cabinet, bass(es) and bags. If it's a really good paying gig, then maybe it's worth it. This concept though, if you back date the principle would be like trying to make an electric guitar work in a British Brass Band (and fit properly, and tonally) .String Bass just works better in certain circumstances.

Absolutely. Though, at Disney, they simply take a wireless SM58 and tape it inside the bell. For the year that I was working on getting in the German sub list at Disney, I had no clue that it was even in there until I had a close up view of it.

I'd much prefer my upright. Though the novelty is usually what keeps you getting gigs. In certain settings, like the funk band I occasionally bring my tuba out to, it's essentially just a Rebirth style band; which isn't really a new idea, but it's novel enough that the audience--and bandleader--really dig it. And it keeps me working.

Honestly, I am wanting to get that gig where all the heavy lifting is done by someone else. But until then, whatever keeps the phone ringing. And if I get REALLY lucky, someone else might hold the horn while I play it!

[PaulTkachenko]

That's me..

[roweenie]

As usual Bloke, you've got your finger on the pulse.

(Besides, since when is going off-topic a capital offense?)

In one of the trad jazz band I played in (for 20 years), we almost NEVER used any printed music of any kind - the only times were for "new" (read "truly obscure") tunes that we were adding to the repertoire, and even then it was just a C lead sheet. We had was what was called a "routine" sheet (different for each individual song), that told us when each solo and ensemble was to occur, and for how long, etc. This gave the music a more polished, interesting sound, as opposed to the ubiquitous "ensemble in, clarinet solo, trumpet solo, trombone solo, rhythm section solo, ensemble out" routine. Everything we played was from "head charts", that had been worked out over years of playing together. It actually got to the point where even the subs knew them, even to the point of "quoting" them on other "pick-up" band gigs.

It was a real skill to know which chord tones to play (not just tuba, but everyone), and to know when to avoid "stepping on" someone else's notes. One of the things I would often do is find the original sheet music and memorize the bass lines, occasionally "improving" them. Voice leading and a knowledge of harmony and theory was the order of business. Brother Paul Scott knows of what I speak.

At the risk of sounding maudlin, it was magical and I truly miss it, as I miss the guys who played it with me.

Today's players seem to treat "dixieland" (ptui) jazz as an opportunity to have a "free-for-all".

Rant over.

[Steve Marcus]

In one of the trad jazz band I played in (for 20 years), we almost NEVER used any printed music of any kind

Those are the kind of bands/gigs in which I've been playing (in addition to other genres). While they can be a lot of fun...

I'd like the opportunity to play with a band that uses through-composed charts from the 1920's and 1930's. Some of these have fascinating interjections by one instrument or another. Some of the arrangements have really clever transpositions from key to key when they go to the next chorus, etc.

There is such a 10-piece group in the Chicago area called the Prohibition Orchestra that meets very occasionally when they have a paying gig. Their tuba/sousaphone chair is occupied, however.

[BopEuph]

To FINALLY respond (in SOME way) to the original inquiry in the original post of this thread... I think that ANY tuba player who does NOT involve themselves in SOME sort of playing OUTSIDE of band/orchestra/quintet...playing SOME type of music that requires "wigging it out" is REALLY cheating themselves (not only in FUN, but in $$$$'s)...whether it's jazz, funk, Klezmer, polka/waltz, banjo-band, banda music, NOLA brass band, or something you create.

Very much so agreed. When I first moved to town, I was given the number of the busiest upright player in town. When I called him, the first question he asked me is if I played tuba. I told him no, but I have my degree in euph performance, so he told me that my first step to get in the scene was to buy a tuba and learn to play it, because a lot of the jazz gigs I'd get called for will want tuba.

He was right. About half of my performing income is from playing tuba. There's lots of better tuba players in town, but the only ones that can play changes besides me are all retiring now.