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I'm curious...who are some of your greatest musical influences. That ARE NOT brass players...i'll go first

Vocalists:
My dad...his trombone playing was quite good, but his vocal ability...that's influenced me even more.
George Younce
Tim Riley
Darrel Morlan
Richard Sterban
Birgit Nilsson
Vestal Goodman.
Glen Payne
David Phelps

Instrumentalists:
Stan Kenton
Gervase de Peyer
James Galway
Roland Hanna
Phil Woods
Mel Lewis

Play along if you want, i'm just curious.

I had teachers at a summer music camp and my last senior year in college from whom I learned a tremendous amount, but the person from whom I learned the most about music was a local guy who didn't go to college, a fellow named Wayne Walker. He was an excellent player on trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone, clarinet, and saxes, and was an absolutely monstrous soloist and improvisor. I played bass for him in a little big band for nearly 40 years, and his excellent arrangements and advice made every gig a learning experience. His command of jazz styles and idioms was encyclopedic. He became a legend in the local musical community, and he was revered for his personality, knowledge, and his ability to inspire and teach. His position as a wide ranging music store salesman kept him in contact with programs at all levels all over northwest Georgia, and his advice was usually gold.

Everything I learned about playing bass musically, about style, and how to handle tempo and the beat, I learned from him. He was the best musical guide I ever had. If the usual expression is "big fish in a small pond", Wayne was a whale. He passed from cancer several years back, and he's sorely missed.

Often it's not the big names that matter the most. It's the local guys who play great and who teach, support, and inspire everyone around them.

Vocalists:
Sabrina Salerno (Boys) ;-)

Jack Casady. Not only great, but also encouraging evidence that a really good player doesn't have to be all that good looking.

The list grows and changes every day.

To limit it to people who are inspiring me to be a better musical communicator and interpreter today, Maestro Benjamin Zander and Shunsuke Sato (violin, Netherlands Bach Society).

' no "greatest", but (and they were banned from this list, anyway) none who were tuba people...

...some for phrasing/interpretation, some for creativity, some for virtuosity, some for delivery/likeability...

Though many might scoff...even Doris Day was a very fine singer who phrased very well, who delivered very well, and who was extraordinarily likeable.

I suspect that I've been the most impressed by those who've created extraordinarily great musical things that went far beyond anything previously created, and which seemed to be more than extensions of previous creations.

This is tough without brass players...

Early:
My dad playing his accordion and mandolin
Roy Clark
Larry Commander, my HS band director who was a fabulous organist

College:
Manley Whitcomb
Charles Delaney
Peter Spencer
Carl Bjerregaard
Barbara Streisand
Marvin Lee Aday (Meatloaf)
James Taylor
Carole King
Roy Delp
Mary Jane Grimm
Edward Kilenyi
Luciano Pavarotti
Marian McPartland

One outstanding of the many who influenced my was my brother:
as a young boy I really liked to start playing cello. But...my (older) brother started playing our great-uncle's violin and I decided not to play anything bowed...
So I switched to trombone (because bassoon is not that common in jazz and thanks to Chris Barber), while my brother is playing viola for his daily brezel

bloke wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:44 am
Though many might scoff...even Doris Day was a very fine singer who phrased very well, who delivered very well, and who was extraordinarily likeable.

Her performance in The Man Who Knew Too Much was stirring.

When she thought her kid was stolen, wow.

I'd have to turn to performers I saw live in the 70s. My mother took me to see plays and performances at The Grand and duPont theaters in Wilmington.

Including Count Basie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Carol Channing in a Hello Dolly revival.

Three Valves wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:13 am Including Count Basie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Carol Channing in a Hello Dolly revival.

At the end of trying a university teaching gig on for size for a year (deciding - all along - whether to stay, or to go back that that which I had previously done), I informed the person - who had hired me to teach the tuba students at a major university - that I would be leaving.
Throughout the year, I had made lists of reasons to stay, and reasons to leave.

Just a few of the reasons for leaving were:
- misrepresenting defacto net pay (fees vs. income)
- there having been (in forty-years-ago dollars) about $30K of freelance gigs waiting for me, back home.
- being told that I would NOT be allowed go hear Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Count Basie, because I was expected to play the SSB with the faculty brass quintet - on a windy 45-degrees November Saturday morning - for a new computer center ribbon-cutting ceremony, when I had a student (who actually played just about as well as I did) who would have been happy to play that freebie gig for me.

The worst loud retorts (to my low-voice informing of departure) were:
- They didn't appreciate my wife's old all-we-could-afford car dripping oil in the street out in front if his house, seven months earlier.
- They were outraged that I laughed at their former-teacher's loud-colors plaid sport coat, after their former teacher performed at a statewide music educator shindig.

bloke "Leaving there was one of my life decisions about which I'm particularly proud."

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:32 am

Three Valves wrote: ↑Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:13 am Including Count Basie, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Carol Channing in a Hello Dolly revival.

- being told that I would NOT be allowed go hear Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, and Count Basie,

That would have sealed it for me.

Sorry.

Mine were three of my tuba teachers, Paul Krzywicki, Warren Deck and Abe Torchinsky. I also owe a great deal to my private sight singing, theory and conducting teacher Dr. Asher Zlotnik.

Nat King Cole, Doris Day (if you’ve never listened to her “Day by Night” album, do it), Elton and Bernie.

Probably Chuck Dallenbach. Because when I was about 8 years old, I bought a Canadian Brass cassette (largely against my parents recommendations of "I don't think you'd like that"). Once I heard the tuba sound, I was hooked. Damn near wore out that cassette.

I did meet Chuck once, when I was about 17, and took the train downtown to see their holiday concert (yikes, talk about being the age outlier...!). I told Chuck that he was the reason I started playing tuba, and that Ive been listening to him since I was 8 years old. He actually seemed surprised by both parts of that.

The great irony in this ... I've rarely played any BQ music, and don't listen to it very much either.

Oh, and also Harvey Phillips. Not for anything tuba related...

...but because he singled me out at a TubaChristmas rehearsal, in front of hundreds of people, and told me to shut up and "pay attention, dammit!"

I was being a goofball 17-year old, so I'm sure I deserved it, but still... "influential"... From other accounts, I've heard that he was not always so delicate with his words. So, this was my tiny portion of that.

I will say though, after that I treated just about all rehearsals more seriously. Show up, shut up, and clean up. I saw a lot of success by knowing my Shirt and doing my job well. So for that... Thanks, Harvey.

Forget everything I previously typed in this thread.

My greatest influence has been bort2.0, who has encouraged me to buy and sell a whole bunch of tubas.

Spike Jones
Victor Borge
PDQ Bach
Tom Lehrer
Anton Bruckner
Alma Mahler
Mozart fooling around with Costanza

Ace

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:51 am Forget everything I previously typed in this thread.

My greatest influence has been bort2.0, who has encouraged me to buy and sell a whole bunch of tubas.

And sometimes... You can even play them before you sell them.