BB-flat tuba Archive

Howard Johnson & Gravity – Testimony – Tuscarora

by Audiophile Audition | Jan 20, 2017 | Jazz CD Reviews

Howard JOHNSON and Gravity – Testimony – Tuscarora 17-001,  53:39, (3/3/17) ****: (Howard Johnson: BB-flat tuba, baritone sax, pennywhistle/ Velvet Brown; Ens. leader, F-tuba/ Dave Bergeron; E-flat tuba/ Earl McIntyre; E-flat tuba/ Joseph Daley; BB-flat tuba/ Bob Stewart; CC tuba/ Carlton Holmes; piano/ Melissa Slocum; bass/ Buddy Williams; drums) Low rumbles, virtuosic soloing and great charts feature in newest Howard Johnson tuba ensemble session. At an impressionable moment in my youth, I encountered a stupendous work of art, Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, by Charles Mingus. In place of the leader’s bass, there was a massed rank of low brass, including tuba, that thrummed and growled with dark menace against the caterwauling soloist. I recall a hip elder remarking that this ensemble represented an absolute standard for “bottom” in a big band. That indelible, bone-rattling sound came back to me as I surveyed Howard Johnson’s 2017 Gravity, which features an ensemble of six tubas, and not at the expense of the doublebass. It looks like the bottom has only now been reached. With all due respect to that incomparable musician Mr. Howard Johnson, I was initially skeptical. Having reached an age of ripeness, if not deliquescence, I have an […]