I believe I talked about this little tuba band that was formed a year ago or more.
John Mueller (retired from principal euphonium in Pershing's Own as well as being retired from teaching trombone at University of Memphis) is still interested in playing, so he formed this little quartet thing.
He and another really fine player (plays lead trombone in all the traveling Broadway show things in Memphis as well as the few good paying gigs there are for dance bands with books - I think he's probably about 76 years old) originally played euphonium in junior high and realized that someone might actually work (without having to be issued a weapon) if they played trombone.
I think he has a euphonium that might be a three valve compensating Besson, but all I've ever seen him bring has been a three valve non-compensating Yamaha baritone and - more recently - he bought a three valve compensating Yamaha baritone.
Mueller - I'm thinking - bought his non-comp baritone, and of course he has his euphonium(s). I've been delegated to third part (where - in a tuba quartets - the player sort of plays below the dynamics but has a whole bunch of notes to play), and this other sort of full-time jazz / funk / dixie tuba player took the fourth book (because he got to the first rehearsal we ever had before I did).
Anyway this was in this trendy part of Memphis called Cooper Young, where a bunch of hipsters live in these little bungalows on these little lots on narrow streets (in the square neighborhood which is basically 10 or 12 streets which go each direction) sandwiched in between two really dangerous neighborhoods (their business, not mine - I ain't judging). The main cross street in the middle of the square neighborhood - is the name of the neighborhood, and is loaded with houses converted to restaurants and bars as well as newly built, and some old commercial buildings that have been repurposed mostly for the same types of things.
The bar where we played is called The Cooper Project, and it's one of those old shotgun houses converted to a bar with its own brewery added on to the back, and what used to be the driveway is the "standing around and chilling in the shade" outdoors area.
We did about 2 hours of polkas and waltzes. I haven't played tuba in quite a while except for a dixie job a week ago and some church gigs. I was sort of tickled that I could still play the F tuba, play it in tune (at least with these guys), read all those parts, and even follow all those repeats, DC's DS's, and codas.
rehearsal?? pfft
You know, driving an hour to a venue, arriving about 25 minutes early, playing pretty much solid for two hours with a 10 minute break, driving back - including a stop to the grocery store... That sort of tires me out, these days.
There's stuff that I could be doing now that I'm home, but ate dinner and I'm laying down.
I have a more traditional Oktoberfest gig (accordion, only one tuba, some horns drummer, etc....) coming up pretty soon (late October...maybe with a non-traditional thing being that half of us don't read any music, and the other half of us are just looking at lead sheets and making up stuff), and that Reelfoot Lake Arts and Crafts Festival thing (up in the severe northwest corner of Tennessee - totally different people yet again) - that I've mention quite a few times - is next weekend. We do a 2-hour dixieland trio in the middle of the area where all the food vendors are set up (really good tips, but a lot of hard work with only three guys), and - after the lunch break - we play (re-formed on their main stage with more folks as that oldies band I've been talking about endlessly - and in regards to playing the bass guitar). Even if it's 90° in Memphis (probably won't be) it could be about 8° cooler up there.
It's an hour and 45 minutes from where I live to way up there, and I have to take the ridiculous detour - hugging the edge of the Mississippi River levee on farm delta land back roads - because the traffic on the main highway up there from a town called Dyersburg up to the town (Tiptonville) next to the Lake (everyone along living along the main highway taking advantage of the festival) is 15 miles of yard sales and - thus - traffic no faster than 25 miles per hour (with everyone heading to the festival rubbernecking at the yard sales)... so it's probably more like a 2-hour trip on those farm roads next to the Mississippi River levee, but it would be 2 hours and a half if I took the main highway.
Even with all that, it's still a hoot, and I like going up there and playing that job. It's a very isolated area, and all the requests that the late morning to lunchtime dixieland trio gets are Christian Bible-thumpin' gospel hymns (which we play for them with a dixieland beat). I'm pretty sure that's why they tip so generously... As we play their church hymns, I guess they're tithing us.
picture-or-it-didn't-happen pic:
