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In all my years involved in the tuba/euph world, I've never seen this guy mentioned outside my immediate circle. If he's never been invited to ITEC as a performing artist, he really should. It's outside the "academic" music scene, but it's a real-world application of the baritone.

I'm actually seriously planning on transcribing this and playing it in future Oktoberfest gigs on tuba. But Lechner himself has near-flawless technique, and makes the instrument sound easy.

Lechner Buam is the name of the group -- the baritone player's name is Willi Grafeneder.

Looking at YouTube, he seems to be alive, well, and still performing at the same level. The haircut, however, has been modernized.

Thank you for that. It just popped back up with my friends a few days ago and I had a hard time googling info on him without understanding German.

Not only did he get rid of the mullet, he looks like he hasn't aged a day in 30 years!

BopEuph wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 11:31 am he looks like he hasn't aged a day in 30 years!

I've always called that an "old soul" -- meaning that when he's in his 50s he looks like he did when he was in his 20s... because when he was in his 20s, he looked older than he actually was.

And yeah, Baum / Buam is confusing, especially since "Baum" (tree) is such a common German word.

As mentioned, the player is Willi Grafeneder. He's on FB. The group seems to be done, but Herr Grafeneder seems to continue playing.

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 11:37 am I've always called that an "old soul" -- meaning that when he's in his 50s he looks like he did when he was in his 20s... because when he was in his 20s, he looked older than he actually was.

Ha! That's exactly what it was!

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 11:37 am And yeah, Baum / Buam is confusing, especially since "Baum" (tree) is such a common German word.

Oops, I kept going back and forth when thinking about the Buam/Baum thing.

hrender wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 11:38 am As mentioned, the player is Willi Grafeneder. He's on FB. The group seems to be done, but Herr Grafeneder seems to continue playing.

Yep, just dropped him a line. Seems just as interested in music in general as he was when younger. Let's see his thoughts on an American player who only gets these kinds of gigs one month out of the year!

two issues:
- That music makes people smile.
- Inviting him to a conference would not promote any academic studio, and - thus - no reciprocal invitation to some conference that he would (otherwise) host.

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 12:19 pm two issues:
- That music makes people smile.
- Inviting him to a conference would not promote any academic studio, and - thus - no reciprocal invitation to some conference that he would (otherwise) host.

Both are very good points. But what about Pat Sheridan or Bob Stewart? As far as I know, they don't have studios...then again, they're already "in."

Baum = Tree
Buam = Austrian dialect for Boys

Lechner Buam = Lechner Boys

There were a few great narural players in the oberkrainer scene. Check out wolfgang sorger too he is amazing talented bariton player

In extension of the correct translations above, and in an attempt to add some off-topic trivia:

"Buam" is plural of "Bua", an expression native to Bavarian and Austrian dialects.
In Suevian dialects You might hear variations of "Buaba" (pl) and "Bub" (sg)
In familial context, the word may be used for boy in general as well as (young) son in particular.

In the context of (humorous) banter among grown-ups applied to this group, the meaning will rather lean towards "likeable rogue" or "scoundrel".

In standard German that would be Buben (pl) and Bube (sg), expressions commonly used in card games (Pik Bube = Jack of Spades).
Apart from its use in card games, the expression seems to be vanishing from standard German, but remains very much alive in dialects.

This is very cool.

I've worked a TON on German and Swiss music, know a lot of the "standard" volksmusik and schlager music, and have been slowly decoding what's needed to know for alphorn, which is really difficult without understanding German or French, making learning all of that difficult, since like 99% of the literature is in either of those languages. Even above that, an alphorn book I got is not only in Swiss German, but it's printed in this old German script font that confuses translator apps. So I have to use a program that converts the script to a standard modern font before I can even translate it.

I had to back out of nearly 20 Oktoberfest gigs in the next six weeks because I took a tour with Chicago the Musical.

But yeah, these baritone players are on a level we don't even talk about, and many "serious" brass players would even scoff at the idea of something not written by a classical composer. But those chops!

I went on a youtube kick several years ago listening to this kind of music. There's some impressive baritone players (baritonists?) over there and some equally crazy horns. I saw a few front valve horns with 5 and 6 inline valves, even though none of the players seemed use anymore than 1-4.

I still want to get a King in that configuration, swap the leadpipe for a large shank leadpipe and use a shallow bass trombone mp. My Eb bass has a King .562 valve set and a large shank leadpipe so it can be done. IIRC JC Sherman built a 5 valve baritone for one of the members here.

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 12:19 pm two issues:
- That music makes people smile.
- Inviting him to a conference would not promote any academic studio, and - thus - no reciprocal invitation to some conference that he would (otherwise) host.

As to your second point, the Army tuba conference about a decade ago had Wycliffe Gordon on sousaphone as the big soloist with the jazz band, but they also had a musician from the Israeli military bands. He played a screw bell baritone, tilted it sideways so he could do mute effects, and I had never heard of him before. That's probably the best venue to bring someone like this on.

As an aside, Wycliffe is an extraordinary sousaphonist (and just about everything else). Most of his solos were just elephant rips but then he would step back and play along with the band. Wonderful sound, crisp and clean. I bought the CD he did with Marty Erickson from Marty at Midwest one year. Marty can play a 2nd-4th partial scale without using valves.

This piece is available commercially-I bought it a couple years ago.When I'm home, I'll list the publisher.
Jim

Jim Williams wrote: ↑Wed Sep 07, 2022 6:01 pm This piece is available commercially-I bought it a couple years ago.When I'm home, I'll list the publisher.
Jim

Tormod Flaten's site has a couple of versions, but one is with brass band and the other is with piano reduction. If I want to play it with local polka bands, I'll have to arrange it myself.