Get Your HoJo Working

Good news for folks in proximity to downtown New York. This Thursday, the great Howard Johnson and his greatest band, the tuba ensemble Gravity, is playing at Sweet Rhythym (used to be Sweet Basil) on Seventh Ave South.

Yes, tuba ensemble. The band is made up of rhythym section plus 4 or 5 or 6 tubas, which act a lot like any other jazz front line: mixing ensemble playing with solo-trading, pairing off, and playing unison riffs, while also holding down the bottom (to say the least.) You have never heard anything like them, though. In the hands and lips of these masters (Gravity's members are the cream of the crop of jazz tubaists: Bob Stewart, Dave Bargeron, Joseph Daley, Carl Kleinstuber, and others are sometime members, as well as Howard himself and Howard's daughter Nedra, who also sings) the instrument sounds like anything but an unwieldy behemoth suitable for oompah bass lines and high-school marching bands only.

The range of emotion these guys get from these horns is nothing short of astounding. I've taken many people (jazz fans and others) to see Gravity over the years, and every single person has reacted the same: THAT's all tubas? These guys can play way high in the instrument's register, which gives a unique tone that is both fuzzy and bright at the same time (and is hard to accurately describe.) The high playing informs the solos, but it also mixes with the instrument's usual range to produce ensemble sections that are like musical slieght-of-hand (trompe l'orielle?) and sound like nothing else.

Howard himself is a true master of music (bass, tuba, bari sax, trumpet, penny whistle, bass clarinet and euphonium are just a few of his horns) whose contributiuons to the culture should be fully explored by someone smarter than me.

Article Author: ClubhouseCancer

Visit ClubhouseCancer's author page — ClubhouseCancer's Blog