[Dixielandjazz] Bio

[Dan Augustine]

Folks--
    I'm gonna be real sorry i did this, right after i hit the Send button, but here's my short (but not short enough) bio (4th version; the first three made me too depressed to finish them).
   Born 1942 in Washington, Pennsylvania, and moved to Columbus, Ohio, in 1952 (actually, Upper Arlington for a year, then Grandview Heights). In 1952 after taking a putatively musical aptitude-test and telling them i wanted to play violin, they told me i was playing 'bass' (whatever that was).  Discovered they meant a bass horn, on which they gave me lessons.  Sometime in 1953 (thankfully i have no memory of this, but i have a picture) i played with our 5th grade band on a radio station program, and i played a solo on some previously unsullied but defenseless tune.
    In 1956 my father was transferred to Carson City, Nevada, where my mother (and then i) started to buy dixieland records of Firehouse Five Plus Two, Turk Murphy, and the Dukes of Dixieland.  Carson City, although the capital, had only 3,000 people, some streets were still dirt, and there were no dixieland bands i could play in, so i played along with my records.  Still do. Never heard any dixieland bands live till about 2000, never played in any till 2002.
    Majored in math at the University of Nevada in Reno, and played in everything except dixieland (nobody was interested). Played 'screech tuba' solos ("Watermelon Man" was the only one they let me ruin) in the stage band.  Got a master's in music theory in 1966 before joining the Air Force and playing tuba in the band at March AFB, Riverside, California, just after Jim Kashishian left it (commendably prescient of you, Jim).
    Got out in 1968, went back to Reno and starved for a while, but did play tuba on relief night three times in casinos (Peggy Lee, Rouvan with Rowan & Martin, and David Clayton-Thomas).  Had stopped buying dixieland records in 1960 (no money), and still had no contact with anyone else interested in it.
    Came to Austin in 1970 for a Ph.D. in music theory at the University of Texas, and wrote a lot of brass arrangements (23 Scott Joplin rags for brass quintet, tuba-ensemble stuff, arrangements of Hindemith, Janacek, and lots of Renaissance composers). Published "Duets and Trios for Tubas" (from Bach's Anna Magdalena book) with Southern Music in 1973, and "Canzon Trigesimaquinta" (from c. 1600) by Tiburtio Massaino for four antiphonal brass quartets (G. Schirmer).  Got my doctorate in 1979, the dissertation being "Four Theories of Music in the United States, 1900-1950: Cowell, Yasser, Partch, Schillinger" (634 annoying pages analyzing four theories trying unsuccessfully to apply mathematics and acoustics to music).  Also that year started playing tuba in the Wurst Band at Scholz's Bier Garten in Austin (summer only; still playing).
    Couldn't get a job teaching tuba and/or theory, so i became a mainframe computer-programmer at the University (they trained me), writing programs in COBOL and Natural for the Admissions Office, and here i still be (retiring next January, though).  Played tuba on a couple of CDs (Robert Earl Keen's "No Kinda Dancer" and Rory McLeod's "Angry Love"), but still didn't get back to dixieland.
    After a 40-year hiatus, in 1999 for some reason i started trying to complete my collection of Dukes of Dixieland and Firehouse Five recordings (and did), and also got the bug about listening to and collecting other bands. I've added about 600 recordings to my 50 older recordings in the past four years, and have been to a number of dixieland festivals.  Have played tuba in a novice band here in Austin, but dropped out because i don't like playing in public when i'm unable to improvise (go figure).  Still want to learn how to improvise (i hear it in my head, but can't play it) and then play in a dixieland band, but the words 'laughable' and 'impossible' apply to those two aspirations.  But being with you DJML folks has made me realize how starved i am for the company of other musicians in general, and specifically made me realize about DJML and dixieland-bands that "these are my people".  Thanks.  (Now do i draw the knife across my wrists, or down...?)

    Dan
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** Dan Augustine - ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu             **
** Office of Admissions, University of Texas; Austin, Texas **
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