Posted by Gus Pratt on January 29, 2001 at 05:55:22:
In Reply to: hearing/seeing a great player posted by Mark F. on January 29, 2001 at 01:33:59:
The first such incident I had was when I was in high school and was just messing around with the tuba. I didn't play with any groups on tuba. I was a french horn player in the concert band/marching band and played trombone in the jazz band. Our tuba players sucked so I would often grab a sousaphone and play just for the fun of it to show them up. The band director had just bought a group of solo books with cassette (similar to music minus one) and I listened to it and heard the last song, Piece for Tuba and Piano. I believe the professional recording was of Danieal Perantoni, but I'm not sure. The piece had irregular time sigatures then went into a slow lyrical part then back to the irregular stuff. My band director told me I was dreaming if I thought I'd be able to play it. I starting working it up because it was a fun piece. After a few weeks the band director had me go in the practice room during the class where I assisted him and practice this piece. Every year he liked to feature a solo of some sort for the spring concert. About 6 weeks later he had me play the piece for that years concert, even though I wasn't officially a tuba player.