Posted by Wade on October 07, 2003 at 17:45:53:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Wham of Sam: tubist? posted by MA on October 07, 2003 at 16:02:00:
You know, we had Rick Todd solo with us a few years back. As part of his encore, he did a very fine solo version of "Summertime" that was nice, loose, and relaxed. It had a great feel to it. What a great hornist.
And yes, I have heard of the Russian. My soon-to-be erstwhile spouse had a disk of his that was really nice. He is quite good at the style; fun to listen to, you know.
All four of our horns swing rather well, but our Woodwind Quintet plays a custom-arranged Ellington suite that comes off pretty darn stiff. (As I said before: Doo-py doo-py doo, baby.) But it seems to stem not only from a willingness to learn to play "that way" but from individual personalities as well.
We have one violinist that can improv and swing like Grappelli, and a bunch that most likely have never even bothered to listened to him.
Instrument choice seems to have nothing to do with learning to swing; you either take an interest in learning to play "that way" or you do not. At the more communal level of large sections, peer pressure ("ridicule" and "scorn" more accurately in a lot of cases) seems to play a bit of a part as well.
I learned because I thought that is was fun. A lot of musicians don't get it because they do not want to do so.
Wade "swing, swang, swung" Rackley