Contrabass Digest

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2001-05-23

 
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 21:29:40 -0400
From: Bob Thomas
Subject: Re: [CB] county as country

I wrote:
> >          Always looking for low winds in odd places...

David Richoux wrote:

>I was part of a short-lived group, a spin off from Polkacide in San
>Francisco about 10 years ago. The instrumentation was  guitar, accordion,
>pedal steel guitar, bari sax, drums and tuba. We did rather faithful
>covers of old country trash classics and were well received in our two
>public performances. We never really settled on a name, and then the
>drummer blew up (Spinal Tap disease, I guess ;-) and the group
>dissolved.  If we had included a contrabassoon maybe we would have been famous!

         Sorry about your drummer.  You must have found his fundamental
         frequency.  I had a Polkacide near-miss several years ago.
         Couldn't get the in-laws organized & moving in the right
         direction to make the show.  Always wondered about that band.
                                                 b.
 
 

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Jay and Adrienne Easton"
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 19:25:58 -0700
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
 

>I was part of a short-lived group, a spin off from Polkacide in San Francisco about
>10 years ago. The instrumentation was  guitar, accordion, pedal steel guitar, bari
>sax, drums and tuba. We did rather faithful covers of old country trash classics and
>were well received in our two public performances. We never really settled on a
>name, and then the drummer blew up (Spinal Tap disease, I guess ;-) and the group
>dissolved.  If we had included a contrabassoon maybe we would have been famous!
>Dave Richoux
 

Wow- sounds like a good time.   I gigged a few time several years back with
a Macedonian-Ska-Klezmer-Funk band in San Diego called Fiasco-  we NEVER did
an tune in 4/4 time-  it was always in 7/8 or 13/16 or whatever.  The group
was comprised of a vocalist, and accordionist, electric bass, drums, and a
clarinetist who doubled on a leblanc Bb contrabass clarinet.  I was added on
soprano and bass saxophone for a few months-  it was really a fun group, but
a few key personnel moved elsewhere, and it fizzled...

Jay C. Easton
www.jayeaston.com
www.spectrumquartet.com
 

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Billy O'Hara"
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 03:04:57 -0000
Subject: [CB] My band situation

Hello everybody.  This is my first post to this forum.  I am just finishing
up my sophomore year at a small catholic high school in southwestern Ohio.
For the past two years I have played tenor saxophone in the marching band,
concert band, jazz band, etc.  I started in eighth grade and have taken
private lessons for almost three years.  I originally started the sax for
myself, because of the influence of the band Morphine.  Near the end of
eighth grade, the high school band director recruited me by showing me the
shiny new baritone sax that she had bought a few months before.  She told me
i could play it once it's current user graduates.  He is graduating next
week.

Here's the problem.  Our band program is very small.  Enrollment this year
was about 30.  The band director grates on a lot of people's nerves, which
is the main reason for the small group.  She talks incessantly, repeats
herself, runs through 10 minutes of announcements, when our class period is
45 minutes long.  Occasionally she spends almost an entire class period
talking about things such as band officer elections and the band sponsored
fundraiser dances.  I can tolerate this, but lots of other people won't.
Our instrumentation is very thin.  This year we have a large senior class
graduating.  We're losing two of our five drummers this year, our snare and
our best bass.  We're losing the field commander, our last mellophone (the
other moved to Iowa midyear), our lead trumpet, and an alto and a bari sax.

Despite her promise that i would be able to play bari, she approached me
about playing tenor again.  I didnt give her a definitive answer either way.
  The school's tenor that I'm using is a piece of junk.  It's an 70s Yamaha,
in terrible condition.  Needs a repad very badly (which the band director
says i have to pay for myself if i want it done, because using a school
instrument is saving me monthly rental money), the laquer looks as if it has
all been picked off, the tuning is messed up to the point where no amount of
pulling out will get it flat enough.  The bari is brand new, near perfect
condition (except for a golfball dent because of the golf course right next
to the practice field).  The problem is the lack of tenor range instruments.
  One euphonium is quitting marching band in favor of volleyball, and the
other, who was originally a trumpet player, is going back to trumpet because
our trumpets are being decimated by, among other things, graduation, and one
of them was expelled for selling Vicodin.  Our tuba player, also originally
a trumpet, elected to stay on tuba because we recently got a brand new
silver Sousaphone.  Our alto/mellophone line will be fine, and flutes are
always no problem for high school bands.  I have been looking forward to
being saxophone section leader and playing bari for 2 years.  I could stay
on the old beat-up tenor and be sax leader, or, as the director also
suggested, switch to euphonium or trombone and serve under my best friend
the tuba player.  Or i can try to convince her to let me transpose tenor
parts for use on bari.

I have a few questions.  First of all, what would all of you do?  How would
the bari's tone quality affect playing tenor parts?  How hard would it be to
switch to a brass instrument (ie embochoure concerns, etc.)?  Any other
advice you can offer will be greatly appreciated.  I apologize for the
length of this message, but there are even things i went back and edited
out, the whole situation is so complicated.  Thanks for reading!

-Billy
_________________________________________________________________

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 20:54:59 -0700
From: David Richoux
Subject: Re: [CB] county as country
 

Bob Thomas wrote:
> I wrote:
> > >          Always looking for low winds in odd places...
>
> David Richoux wrote:
>
> >I was part of a short-lived group, a spin off from Polkacide in San
> >Francisco about 10 years ago. The instrumentation was  guitar, accordion,
> >pedal steel guitar, bari sax, drums and tuba. We did rather faithful
> >covers of old country trash classics and were well received in our two
> >public performances. We never really settled on a name, and then the
> >drummer blew up (Spinal Tap disease, I guess ;-) and the group
> >dissolved.  If we had included a contrabassoon maybe we would have been famous!
>
>          Sorry about your drummer.  You must have found his fundamental
>          frequency.

It was more related to the personality of the drummer vs. the guitarist, but it was
a doomed band to start with - way too far ahead (or behind) it's time

>          I had a Polkacide near-miss several years ago.
>          Couldn't get the in-laws organized & moving in the right
>          direction to make the show.  Always wondered about that band.

I have had a lot of fun, both in the audience and as occasional tuba - the energy
and craziness is very fine, the musicianship (for what it is) is very high. The
combination of tuba and electric bass gives freedom for the tubist to explore
harmonies and variations on the bass line that would not otherwise be available -
much like the jazz group Gravity. Polkacide still perform a few times a year and put
out a CD last year - more info at
http://www.mediarare.com/PHome.html

Dave R
---------------------------------------------------------

From: CrazyBassoonist
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 01:15:46 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] My band situation

  I actually had a somewhat similar experience in marching band in high
school.  I played tenor sax in 8th and 9th grade, bari in 10th and 11th, and
field commander 12th.  For the band trip my sophomore year, my band director
asked me to switch to euphonium (he was a brass player).  I did it but I
never played it again after that, I don't really recommend doing that, brass
embouchere is difficult to learn coming from a woodwind instrument.  If I
were you, and if this is what your band director would like, I would play the
tenor part on bari, playing up a fifth.  It shouldn't be much of a problem
range-wise, especially if you have a strong upper register, the bari's high F
corresponding to the tenor's high Bb; I don't think much marching band music
goes higher than that.  Good luck!
 

--Mark
 

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Sarah Cordish"
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 09:13:33 +0200
Subject: Re: [CB] My band situation

Hi, Billy,
It's tough to be kid, sometimes, eh?  These sorts of situations will
be with you all through life; learning to deal with them is real
"education".  It sounds like your band director is one of those from
whom to "get it in writing" before she changes her mind, again.  Since
it is high school, it would be a big help to you if your folks could
back you up, saying THEY want you on baritone sax (and they don't have
to know anything about music, either).  Also, being a religious high
school, your clergyman might be able to help you, too, if you explain
your situation to him.  You, your minister, and Mom and Dad are four
for your side.  Sometimes, too, the teachers think no one cares and it
depresses them; so it is good policy that she know you and your family
do care.
Good luck,
Sarah
 
 

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "William Bennett"
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 08:06:07 -0700
Subject: Re: [CB]

Dave,

Yes, Patrick White does work in Leicester and I think he conducts the LAE
Training band.  He conducted the training orchestra last year when I was in
it.

Laura Bennett

> >I play for Leicester and Leicestershire Arts in Education Symphonic Wind
> >Band.
>
> Doesn't Patrick White work in Leicestershire now? He conducted the
> Oxfordshire one when I was in it a few years ago.
>
> Dave
---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 07:55:35 -0500
From: Robert Groover
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]

Hey all, I see a contrabass clarinet on ebay at http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1433016927 - apologies if somebody else has already reported this.

and BTW I'm still waffling about selling my CB sarrusophone - I don't really want to, but anyone
with a bulging pocket and frantic interest is welcome to email me....
 

Robert Groover, 972-380-6333x230
Groover & Assoc.,
17000 Preston Rd. no.230, Dallas 75248
Reg.Pat.Atty., SM IEEE, ECS, Assoc. SPE

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 11:20:50 -0400
From: Bob Thomas
Subject: Re: [CB] county as country

Jay Easton (gamely throwing down on this accidental topic) wrote:
>                         ...I gigged a few time several years back with
>a Macedonian-Ska-Klezmer-Funk band in San Diego called Fiasco-  we NEVER did
>an tune in 4/4 time-  it was always in 7/8 or 13/16 or whatever.  The group
>was comprised of a vocalist, and accordionist, electric bass, drums, and a
>clarinetist who doubled on a leblanc Bb contrabass clarinet.  I was added on
>soprano and bass saxophone for a few months-  it was really a fun group, but
>a few key personnel moved elsewhere, and it fizzled...

         Well, I can't match that, but I occasionally play bass sax
         with a group of ukulele playing tap dancers.  Its almost,
         but not quite, as dorky as it sounds.
         Still, I think my favorite country music is Macedonian...
                                                         b.
         & thanks to David Richoux for Polkacide info.

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:36:15 +0100
From: David Taylor
Subject: Re: [CB]

In message <001801c0e2e3$9a107fc0$3a7186d9@fujitsu>, James Waterhouse writes
>in reply to Dave Taylor, i play for B&NES

Now I'm confused! What's that? Bristol? Berkshire?

Dave
---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:33:34 +0100
From: David Taylor
Subject: Re: [CB]

 William Bennett writes

>Dave,
>
>Yes, Patrick White does work in Leicester and I think he conducts the LAE
>Training band.  He conducted the training orchestra last year when I was in
>it.

If you see him, say hi from me. Oh, and never let him touch your
instrument - shortly after I got my Bass Trombone, he picked it up by
the tuning slide, which promptly pulled out, landing the bell section
forcibly on it's end, all but writing it off. Only a Clarinettist...!

Dave
---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Corwin D. Moore"
Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 14:11:51 EDT
Subject: Re: [CB] county as country

>         Well, I can't match that, but I occasionally play bass sax
>         with a group of ukulele playing tap dancers.  Its almost,
>         but not quite, as dorky as it sounds.

There's nothing "dorky" about adding a solid bass line to ANY collection
of higher-voiced instruments.

I play bass guitar in several recorder groups. (I also play the cello
[bass viol] part on bass guitar in an early-string-instruments group.)
(Actually, I prefer to think of the bass guitar as an electric bass lute,
or maybe as an amplified thorobo.)

- Corwin Moore

________________________________________________________________

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "david.rowley"
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 20:29:12 +0100
Subject: Re: [CB] county as country

Hmmm.  I think you mean "theorbo".  Like the one we had on Saturday at
Manchester Cathedral for the Monteverdi Vespers.  I was singing, not
playing - we had a professional early music orchestra - Orchestra of the
Golden Age.  Very splendid indeed.

David

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "david.rowley"
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 20:44:01 +0100
Subject: Re: [CB] county as country

And as have just been reminded by my son to tell you, the orchestra
included a Bass Sackbut with a handle on the slide, but I didn't get a
chance to talk to the player.

David
 

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