[Dixielandjazz] R: Great Tuba Players

[David Gannett]

My thanks to Bob Ringwald for his kind words.  My site, http://www.tubagear.com, features reasonably priced recordings by a host of tuba players, both traditional and otherwise.  We are also the official producer of Rich Matteson Foundation recordings by, in my opinion, the greatest tuba player who ever graced a band, Rich Matteson.

While it's true that there were some solid and musical tubists in bands of the '20's and '30's, in my opinion I've fought my entire career against the "It's old and rotten so it's BETTER!" mentality.  (Yes, I know there is plenty of good music recorded by these old bands.) When I first appeared with Bill Allred and the Rosie O'Grady's band at Sacramento in '75, "purists" scorned us because we were "too polished" and played that "four beat", while we meanwhile outsold every other band and packed every venue.  Then when I was with the Black Dogs, we were scorned by the purists once again because we were "too polished" and played "that New Orleans street music" and worst of all, our audiences BARKED at us!  The nerve.  We outsold every band, broke every attendance record and toured all over the world.  

There's nothing wrong with trying to recreate the bands of the past - more power to you.  But music evolves, instruments get better, musicians have more to say musically and more importantly, the audience's desires evolve as well.  OKOM isn't relegated to the '20's and '30's recordings which, once those decades past, waved a sad goodby to traditional jazz.  And while comments are welcome from all over, I find it interesting that our European counterparts declare the '20's and '30's recordings to be the ultimate in traditional jazz when, BY NED, WE INVENTED THE GENRE and play it BETTER than any other musicians from anywhere else, because it's our own, home-grown music!  

That's like me saying from my Ivory Tower American perch that Kabuki Theater of the Hung Dynasty is the only authentic Kabuki (because I read a book about it and besides, I own LOTS of books about Kabuki) and the only type worth emulating, regardless of what's happening in traditional Japan today!  Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but sheesh.

Listen to whatever you want, buy whatever you want, say whatever you want. 100 years from now, players will be saying the same about today's players as we do about those of the past.  And it'll probably be just as meaningless and irrelevant.

The Always Politically Incorrect and Opinionated,

Dave "Mr. Bison" Gannett

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "flicorno at tiscali.it" <flicorno at tiscali.it>
> To: "David Gannett" <evidence at otelco.net>
> Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] R:  Great Tuba Players
> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2009 15:23:41 +0200 (CEST)
> 
> hi all,
> the guitar player is frank vignolA.
> my .02 about tuba playing.
> 
> you can hear the tuba basics listening the tuba teachers in:
> mckinney's, hot seven, clarence williams, king oliver, jelly roll, red
> nichols, bennie moten.
> those IMHO are the real bass lines of OKOM. all
> the rest came later.
> paolo "boycott double bass" d'amore
> rome
> italy
> 
> 
> > ----Messaggio originale----
> > Da: bhaesler at bigpond.net.au
> > Data:
> 09/07/2009 12.08
> > A: "paolo d'amore"<flicorno at tiscali.it>
> > Cc:
> "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List"<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> > Ogg:
> [Dixielandjazz] Great Tuba Players
> >
> >  Keith Garner wrote:
> >> The CD
> is called "Makin' Whoopee" and with Pilafian has Frank
> >> Vignolo on
> guitar and, on a couple of tracks Ken Peplowski on
> >> clarinet.  The
> CD is on Telarc Records.
> >
> > Dear Keith,
> > The band is called 'Travelin'
> Light'. Telarc CD-83324.
> > A great CD and well worth looking for, as you
> say.
> > Now track down its companion and predecessor:
> > 'Travelin' Light
> with Friends'. Telarc CD-80281
> > with Sam Pilafian (tuba) Frank Vignolo
> (guitar) Jimmy George (rhythm
> > guitar) and Mark Shane (piano).
> > Kind
> regards,
> > Bill.
> >
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> 
> 
> 
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