[Dixielandjazz] Tuba v String Bass

[Stephen G Barbone]

As Beth Schweitzer said, Vince Giordano plays Tuba and String Bass (as  
well as Bass Sax). Pops Foster was one of the original jazz men who  
first played Tuba and then switched to string bass.

I saw/heard him play tuba on a dare at a loft session  in NYC circa  
1949. He was wonderful.

Riverwalk jazz did a program about him and had this to say:

Pops Foster often said, "I'm just another bass player trying to make a  
living." Yet over a seven-decade career, New Orleans jazzman George  
‘Pops’ Foster's solid bass fiddle playing provided the beat for jazz  
legends from 'King' Oliver to Charlie Parker.

A pioneer of the string bass at a time when tuba was more commonly  
used in rhythm sections outside New Orleans, Pops remarked, "The  
string bass is best for swinging the band. On tuba, you hit a note,  
man, and it's gone. A tuba never did fit in no orchestra, but they  
tried to make 'em."

"It was Pops Fosters' 1929 Okeh record backing Louis Armstrong on  
"Mahogony Hall Stomp" that put string bass on the map in jazz. String  
bass had been commonly used in New Orleans but in New York it was a  
different story.  Pops said, 'Man, I was ashamed to carry my bass in  
New York 'cause I couldn’t go more than a block without people  
laughing at me.  Every bass player in town was playing tuba in the  
20s.' "


Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonesstreetjazzband