Greatest musical influences...

Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
Forum rules
This section is for posts that are directly related to performance, performers, or equipment. Social issues are allowed, as long as they are directly related to those categories. If you see a post that you cannot respond to with respect and courtesy, we ask that you do not respond at all.
User avatar
DandyZ629
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:06 am
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Greatest musical influences...

Post by DandyZ629 »

I'm curious...who are some of your greatest musical influences. That ARE NOT brass players...i'll go first

Vocalists:
My dad...his trombone playing was quite good, but his vocal ability...that's influenced me even more.
George Younce
Tim Riley
Darrel Morlan
Richard Sterban
Birgit Nilsson
Vestal Goodman.
Glen Payne
David Phelps

Instrumentalists:
Stan Kenton
Gervase de Peyer
James Galway
Roland Hanna
Phil Woods
Mel Lewis

Play along if you want, i'm just curious. :cheers:


Kalison DS CC
User avatar
GC
Posts: 494
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 2:53 pm
Location: Rome, GA [Rosedale/Armuchee suburbs]
Has thanked: 74 times
Been thanked: 94 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by GC »

I had teachers at a summer music camp and my last senior year in college from whom I learned a tremendous amount, but the person from whom I learned the most about music was a local guy who didn't go to college, a fellow named Wayne Walker. He was an excellent player on trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone, clarinet, and saxes, and was an absolutely monstrous soloist and improvisor. I played bass for him in a little big band for nearly 40 years, and his excellent arrangements and advice made every gig a learning experience. His command of jazz styles and idioms was encyclopedic. He became a legend in the local musical community, and he was revered for his personality, knowledge, and his ability to inspire and teach. His position as a wide ranging music store salesman kept him in contact with programs at all levels all over northwest Georgia, and his advice was usually gold.

Everything I learned about playing bass musically, about style, and how to handle tempo and the beat, I learned from him. He was the best musical guide I ever had. If the usual expression is "big fish in a small pond", Wayne was a whale. He passed from cancer several years back, and he's sorely missed.

Often it's not the big names that matter the most. It's the local guys who play great and who teach, support, and inspire everyone around them.
Last edited by GC on Fri Dec 25, 2020 3:37 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Packer/Sterling JP377 compensating Eb; Mercer & Barker MBUZ5 (Tim Buzbee "Lone ☆ Star" F-tuba mouthpiece), Mercer & Barker MB3; for sale: Conn Monster Eb 1914, Fillmore Bros 1/4 Eb ca. 1905 antique (still plays), Bach 42B trombone
P@rick
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2020 5:20 pm
Location: The Netherlands
Has thanked: 23 times
Been thanked: 12 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by P@rick »

Vocalists:
Sabrina Salerno (Boys) ;-)
donn
Posts: 1274
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:31 pm
Location: Portugal
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 158 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by donn »

Jack Casady. Not only great, but also encouraging evidence that a really good player doesn't have to be all that good looking.
tubanh84
Posts: 318
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:12 am
Has thanked: 46 times
Been thanked: 121 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by tubanh84 »

The list grows and changes every day.

To limit it to people who are inspiring me to be a better musical communicator and interpreter today, Maestro Benjamin Zander and Shunsuke Sato (violin, Netherlands Bach Society).
User avatar
bloke
Mid South Music
Posts: 17907
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:55 am
Location: western Tennessee - near Memphis
Has thanked: 3485 times
Been thanked: 3798 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by bloke »

' no "greatest", but (and they were banned from this list, anyway) none who were tuba people...

...some for phrasing/interpretation, some for creativity, some for virtuosity, some for delivery/likeability...

Though many might scoff...even Doris Day was a very fine singer who phrased very well, who delivered very well, and who was extraordinarily likeable.

I suspect that I've been the most impressed by those who've created extraordinarily great musical things that went far beyond anything previously created, and which seemed to be more than extensions of previous creations.
User avatar
Stryk
Posts: 448
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:51 am
Has thanked: 97 times
Been thanked: 80 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by Stryk »

This is tough without brass players...

Early:
My dad playing his accordion and mandolin
Roy Clark
Larry Commander, my HS band director who was a fabulous organist

College:
Manley Whitcomb
Charles Delaney
Peter Spencer
Carl Bjerregaard
Barbara Streisand
Marvin Lee Aday (Meatloaf)
James Taylor
Carole King
Roy Delp
Mary Jane Grimm
Edward Kilenyi
Luciano Pavarotti
Marian McPartland
Terry Stryker
Mirafone 186C, 186BBb, 184C, 186C clone
Gebr. Alexander New 163C, Vintage 163C, Vintage 163BBb
Amati 481C
Lyon & Healy 6/4
Kane Stealth tuba
A plethora of others....
User avatar
Snake Charmer
Posts: 148
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2020 8:49 am
Location: Schifferstadt, Germany
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 67 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by Snake Charmer »

One outstanding of the many who influenced my was my brother:
as a young boy I really liked to start playing cello. But...my (older) brother started playing our great-uncle's violin and I decided not to play anything bowed...
So I switched to trombone (because bassoon is not that common in jazz and thanks to Chris Barber), while my brother is playing viola for his daily brezel
:tuba: ...with a song in my heart!
User avatar
Three Valves
Posts: 4466
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 4:07 pm
Location: The Land of Pleasant Living
Has thanked: 778 times
Been thanked: 479 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by Three Valves »

bloke wrote: Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:44 am
Though many might scoff...even Doris Day was a very fine singer who phrased very well, who delivered very well, and who was extraordinarily likeable.
Her performance in The Man Who Knew Too Much was stirring.

When she thought her kid was stolen, wow. :smilie6:

I'd have to turn to performers I saw live in the 70s. My mother took me to see plays and performances at The Grand and duPont theaters in Wilmington.

Including Count Basie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Carol Channing in a Hello Dolly revival.
Thought Criminal
Mack Brass Artiste
TU422L with TU25
1964 Conn 36k with CB Arnold Jacobs
Accent (By B&S) 952R with Bach12
The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column
User avatar
bloke
Mid South Music
Posts: 17907
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:55 am
Location: western Tennessee - near Memphis
Has thanked: 3485 times
Been thanked: 3798 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by bloke »

Three Valves wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:13 am Including Count Basie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Carol Channing in a Hello Dolly revival.
At the end of trying a university teaching gig on for size for a year (deciding - all along - whether to stay, or to go back that that which I had previously done), I informed the person - who had hired me to teach the tuba students at a major university - that I would be leaving.
Throughout the year, I had made lists of reasons to stay, and reasons to leave.

Just a few of the reasons for leaving were:
- misrepresenting defacto net pay (fees vs. income)
- there having been (in forty-years-ago dollars) about $30K of freelance gigs waiting for me, back home.
- being told that I would NOT be allowed go hear Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Count Basie, because I was expected to play the SSB with the faculty brass quintet - on a windy 45-degrees November Saturday morning - for a new computer center ribbon-cutting ceremony, when I had a student (who actually played just about as well as I did) who would have been happy to play that freebie gig for me.

The worst loud retorts (to my low-voice informing of departure) were:
- They didn't appreciate my wife's old all-we-could-afford car dripping oil in the street out in front if his house, seven months earlier.
- They were outraged that I laughed at their former-teacher's loud-colors plaid sport coat, after their former teacher performed at a statewide music educator shindig.

bloke "Leaving there was one of my life decisions about which I'm particularly proud."
User avatar
DandyZ629
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:06 am
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by DandyZ629 »

bloke wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:32 am
Three Valves wrote: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:13 am Including Count Basie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Carol Channing in a Hello Dolly revival.
- being told that I would NOT be allowed go hear Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Count Basie,
That would have sealed it for me.
Last edited by DandyZ629 on Mon Dec 14, 2020 10:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Kalison DS CC
User avatar
DandyZ629
Posts: 149
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:06 am
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Double post...

Post by DandyZ629 »

Sorry.
Kalison DS CC
User avatar
hbcrandy
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:11 pm
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 21 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by hbcrandy »

Mine were three of my tuba teachers, Paul Krzywicki, Warren Deck and Abe Torchinsky. I also owe a great deal to my private sight singing, theory and conducting teacher Dr. Asher Zlotnik.
Randy Harrison
Retired Proprietor, Harrison Brass
Retired Instructor of Applied Brass Performance,
Maryland Conservatory of Music
User avatar
ronr
Posts: 205
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:13 am
Location: North of Bort2.0, south of MN_Tim
Has thanked: 42 times
Been thanked: 72 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by ronr »

Nat King Cole, Doris Day (if you’ve never listened to her “Day by Night” album, do it), Elton and Bernie.
2013 J Packer 379 Bbb
1905 York Helicon
1960 Reynolds Contempora Sousaphone
2022 Wessex fiberglass sousaphone
User avatar
bort2.0
Posts: 5223
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:13 am
Location: Minneapolis
Has thanked: 333 times
Been thanked: 982 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by bort2.0 »

Probably Chuck Dallenbach. Because when I was about 8 years old, I bought a Canadian Brass cassette (largely against my parents recommendations of "I don't think you'd like that"). Once I heard the tuba sound, I was hooked. Damn near wore out that cassette.

I did meet Chuck once, when I was about 17, and took the train downtown to see their holiday concert (yikes, talk about being the age outlier...!). I told Chuck that he was the reason I started playing tuba, and that Ive been listening to him since I was 8 years old. He actually seemed surprised by both parts of that.

The great irony in this ... I've rarely played any BQ music, and don't listen to it very much either. :red:
User avatar
bort2.0
Posts: 5223
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:13 am
Location: Minneapolis
Has thanked: 333 times
Been thanked: 982 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by bort2.0 »

Oh, and also Harvey Phillips. Not for anything tuba related...

...but because he singled me out at a TubaChristmas rehearsal, in front of hundreds of people, and told me to shut up and "pay attention, dammit!"

I was being a goofball 17-year old, so I'm sure I deserved it, but still... "influential"... :eyes: From other accounts, I've heard that he was not always so delicate with his words. So, this was my tiny portion of that.

I will say though, after that I treated just about all rehearsals more seriously. Show up, shut up, and clean up. I saw a lot of success by knowing my Shirt and doing my job well. So for that... Thanks, Harvey.
User avatar
bloke
Mid South Music
Posts: 17907
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:55 am
Location: western Tennessee - near Memphis
Has thanked: 3485 times
Been thanked: 3798 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by bloke »

Forget everything I previously typed in this thread.

My greatest influence has been bort2.0, who has encouraged me to buy and sell a whole bunch of tubas.
User avatar
Jim Williams
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:31 am
Location: Indy Area
Has thanked: 22 times
Been thanked: 32 times
Contact:

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by Jim Williams »

Image
The artist formerly known as Snorlax.
Shires Q41 and Yamaha 321 Euphoniums.
Yamaha 621 Baritone, Conn 50H trombone.
Ace
Posts: 312
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2020 6:40 pm
Has thanked: 259 times
Been thanked: 67 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by Ace »

Spike Jones
Victor Borge
PDQ Bach
Tom Lehrer
Anton Bruckner
Alma Mahler
Mozart fooling around with Costanza

Ace
User avatar
bort2.0
Posts: 5223
Joined: Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:13 am
Location: Minneapolis
Has thanked: 333 times
Been thanked: 982 times

Re: Greatest musical influences...

Post by bort2.0 »

bloke wrote: Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:51 am Forget everything I previously typed in this thread.

My greatest influence has been bort2.0, who has encouraged me to buy and sell a whole bunch of tubas.
:laugh:

And sometimes... You can even play them before you sell them. :tuba:
Post Reply