Jim Huber Alone Again Naturally Trombone

Jim Self of Locals 47 (Los Angeles) and seven (Orange Canton) has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral tubist, and studio musician for 43 years. He's recorded on more than 1,500 soundtracks and has performed tuba solos for major films and hundreds of TV shows. His skills as a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, doubling on string and electric bass and bass trombone earned him a reputation as an exceptionally versatile player. At 75, he is principal tuba in four orchestras—the Los Angeles Opera, the Pacific Symphony, the Pasadena Symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. This month, he will release his 15th CD of original classical scores, titled Flying Circus: Music for Contumely Quintet.

He's recorded on more than 1,500 soundtracks and has performed tuba solos for major films and hundreds of Tv shows. His skills equally a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, doubling on string and electrical bass and bass trombone earned him a reputation as an exceptionally versatile player. At 75, he is principal tuba in iv orchestras—the Los Angeles Opera, the Pacific Symphony, the Pasadena Symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. This month, he volition release his 15th CD of original classical scores, titled Flying Circus: Music for Brass Quintet.

Jim, who routinely works with union players in Los Angeles, says all his albums take been produced on Limited Pressing Agreements, adding, "Information technology'south the off-white and right way to do it; I've been a stiff union person my whole career."

A protégé of the keen tubists Harvey Phillips and Tommy Johnson, Jim has been office of the movement to drag the status of the oft-caricatured tuba from its ballast at the back of the ring to one of distinction equally a solo musical instrument, front end and center. Every bit a young tubist Jim entered a pocket-size, exclusive world of enthusiasts, who would proceed to make big changes for the tuba in the contumely world. He says he owes his career to Johnson, his University of Southern California (USC) professor and the beginning tubist to play solos on film scores. He was inspired by William Becker, trumpeter at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, his first brass professor, and Phillips, who was his instructor in the mid-1960s. Phillips was behind the now worldwide TubaChristmas tradition, in which hundreds of tuba players descend on cities effectually the globe to play gratuitous concerts.

Jim grew up in Oil Urban center, Pennsylvania, where he started playing tuba in junior loftier. He entered Indiana University of Pennsylvania initially to get a band director. In 1965, he joined The US Ground forces Band, where he met Dan Perantoni of Local 301 (Pekin, IL), Chester Schmitz, and Bob Pallansch, all tuba players who would not simply go on to have distinguished careers merely whose mastery of the tuba would educate listeners and elevate the status of the musical instrument.

During that time, Jim received a main's degree from Catholic Academy, and for five years he taught at the Academy of Tennessee, Knoxville. In the summers, he began doing coursework with Johnson at USC, working toward his doctorate in musical arts. Eventually, in 1974, Jim moved to LA to terminate his residency. In the concurrently, he was doing gigs, dances, and casuals. "I was making more than I was every bit a professor," he says. Only 2 weeks after relocating, he got a telephone call to sub for Johnson on a TV show. From then on, and throughout the '70s, he was decorated doubling on bass and bass trombone. He says, "Information technology was a period of growth for me."

In 1976, Jim was over again called to sub for Johnson on a new moving picture John Williams of Locals 47 and ix-535 (Boston, MA) was scoring for Steven Spielberg, Shut Encounters of the Third Kind. Equally it turned out, his tuba would famously voice the mother send in the communication sequence with the oboes and contrabassoon. "That 1 24-hour interval'due south work turned into a huge boost to my career. It helped me work with all kinds of other composers and do more than moving-picture show work." It as well launched a 40-year working relationship with Williams (25 years equally principal tuba). He says, "Jerry Goldsmith'south Dennis the Menace was a large score for me tuba solo-wise, every bit were several other Williams' films, like Dwelling Alone, Abode Lonely 2, Jurassic Park, and Claw."

Across Oompah
Jim says, "Back in the '50s, [the tuba] was just oompah, a ring instrument and well-nigh no 1 would play information technology solo. Now, considering all these players are coming upwardly and all these groovy solos are beingness written, there are composers writing interesting tuba parts in symphonies. The great composers of the 19th century, they might've had tuba parts, but they were not solos, ever. Apart from Stravinsky, those kinds of pieces were not written when I was immature." He says, "Later, there were simply a couple famous works. Vaughan Williams' Tuba Concerto in 1954, and then in 1955, Paul Hindemith wrote the Tuba Sonata."

The renaissance really began, he says, in New York with Beak Bong of the New York Philharmonic and the much-historic Harvey Phillips. "There's the old guard, similar Roger Bobo—the famous LA Tuba actor who was part of information technology. In the '50s and '60s, they were soloists who got the whole movement going for tuba." The International Tuba and Euphonium Association (ITEA) originated at McSorley'due south in the East Village, where all the tuba players would hang out after concerts. Today's players in New York City include Marcus Rojas of Local 802 and Ibanda Ruhumbika of the house band Stay Human being for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

"Roger and Harvey were the leaders of solo literature for a long time. They took things to new levels. And and so, of course, every generation afterward that has just improved upon it. Now, colleges have tuba departments and faculty members," says Jim.

In his position at USC, Jim has been active in the crusade to advance tuba in the brass world. He says, "The tuba is as of import as the trumpet, the trombone, or the French horn, as far equally I'grand concerned—especially in the hands of these players that we have all over the world now."

In brusk, the tuba is regaining momentum. According to Jim, "There are bully tuba players in Japan, Prc, Australia, and all over Europe. Sergio Carolino, from Portugal, is astounding and Roland Szentpali, of Budapest."

Since the '70s, Jim has been candidature for tuba players to "reclaim their heritage." He explains, "There were a lot of tuba players working before the war. Then, the electric bass came forth, and amplification, and the tuba but kind of got buried in the pop music world."

As professor of tuba and bedchamber music at USC, Jim has taught some of the best tubists playing today, including USC professor and Local 47 fellow member Norm Pearson, principal tuba for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and top studio tubist Doug Tornquist of Locals 47 and 7.

"In jazz, the tuba is all the same coming into its own," Jim says. Great proponents of the tuba in jazz, similar Ruby Callender, Howard Johnson of Local 802, Bob Stewart, and a number of "trad" and street players have fabricated pioneering efforts in showcasing information technology as a lead instrument. Jim has added much to the idiom. "I'thousand pretty decorated every bit a classical thespian. As an artist, I'm making jazz records. I'm passionate about improvising and playing tuba so I started making records and all kinds of cool things with jazz and this is how the majority of people outside of Los Angeles know me—as a jazz musician."

A few years ago, he invented the fluba, a tuba-sized flugelhorn. Jim explains that he designed the instrument then the sound would go directly out toward the audience, instead of upwards. "I only thought information technology would be a really fun solo instrument, similar a flugelhorn would be for a trumpet player." Laughing, he says "Somehow when I pick it up, I just sort of pretend I'thousand Art Farmer or Clark Terry, one of these neat players."

On Composition
With the TV strike of 1980, work dried up for studio players. Jim says, "I went from doing 39 movies in 1979 to six movies in 1980. Information technology didn't option upwards again until 1986." During that fourth dimension, he began dabbling in solo work. He had always wanted to be a jazz role player, proverb, "I had learned to be a good improviser on tuba."

"I've always felt that the real fine art in music is composing and improvising. It'due south very interesting, I didn't offset composing until I was nigh fifty years old. I had this mistaken idea that I had to be Mozart or a genius to write music," he says. "Merely I started doing petty things and pretty presently I was writing for all my albums and then I started writing chamber music for friends and groups."

Jim says he wants to write music that reaches listeners. "If I write music that'south fun to play, not boring, and not too far out harmonically, audiences like it. A lot of my music has a sort of dance quality to it. It drives my music. The number 1 thing in my writing is rhythm—circuitous rhythms, often shifting meters and odd meters."

He'due south composed 65 different pieces of music—for brass, tuba duos, and woodwind and string quintets. His nearly important work is a xiii-minute piece written for the Pacific Symphony, Tour de Force: Episodes for Orchestra, which has been transcribed for wind ensemble and co-premiered by the USC Thornton Current of air Ensemble and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Wind Ensemble.

When describing his work, Jim uses terms like eclectic and versatile, which extends to his use of instruments. He and Johnson were the first players to innovate the cimbasso in recording sessions. "Now, it seems similar one-half the movies that you play on, y'all play tuba and cimbasso. It's a double; it pays more coin and a lot of these people similar to have this loud, edgy kind of a audio," he says.

"I love classical music and virtually studio work for me was classical, but with a commercial bent." For his last CD, Floating in Winter, he partnered with guitarist John Chiodini of Local 47. Before that, with trombonist Francisco Torres of Local 47, he produced a Latin album titled ¡Yo! "He's a wonderful trombonist who knows the Afro-Cuban fashion intimately—and the trombone role player and composer for Poncho Sanchez, who as far as I'one thousand concerned, has the greatest American Latin jazz ring."

Jim was greatly inspired past the playing of trumpeter and band leader Don Ellis, whose complex stylings he draws on to compose. After decades of studio playing, the odd and shifting meters—unusual time changes that Ellis used—had become second nature to Jim and are now a major role of his writing technique. "Information technology made me a better reader. Jazz and jazz harmonies often show up in my music, as practice many dance forms." Jim, who has played well-nigh everything—symphonic, opera, ballet, jazz, and rock n' coil—likes to create interesting challenges for performers. Naturally, the tuba parts are never simple bass lines or whole notes. In a Jim Cocky quintet, all parts are equal.

Down to Brass Tacks
"When I teach I emphasize learning to employ your ears, to play what you hear in your head, to larn melodies, to improvise—and to compose." He insists that his students larn to compose every bit well. He says, "I waited 30 years and I don't want them to autumn into that same trap."

"I'm trying to brand [students] more only tuba players. I'll let the other teachers teach them the basics: all the literature and orchestral excerpts. When I teach, I focus on training their ears, considering tuba players are notoriously bad at that. They've come up playing in high school bands. They never become whatsoever cool things to play. I endeavor to make them practice what it took me 50 years to learn. I do think that improvisation in itself, whether jazz or any kind of improvisation, is a new level for tuba players to reach—and to play well. It's always been a part of my Dna and I desire it to be part of every tuba histrion's DNA."

For the would-be studio musicians in LA, Jim says they must be classically trained, simply obviously able to play wide-ranging cloth, including commercially viable music. He says, "Be able to read anything. Be able to sometimes play changes, improvise, and transpose on sight. Ninety-9 per centum of the time you lot never run across solos before you get there. When you're starting out, at an early age, larn melodies and learn piano."

Jim imparts some practical marketing advice: "Like Harvey Phillips taught me, you've got to get out in that location and 'politely' promote yourself. You've got to put yourself in situations where you're heard; y'all may get the break."

A Legacy of Work
Jim is happy to let the young guys exercise the studio work these days. "When I was in the studios, I was working 3 jobs a day. It was really just crazy for many years. I have a piffling more than time to commit to composing. I take a overnice pension, thanks to the marriage, and because of that I tin can afford to make records," he says.

Admittedly, he says, "I'm a music-holic. I don't know whatever other way to alive." Years ago, he bought a Piper Arrow pocket-sized plane­—and had a tuba painted on the tail. "I used to fly Nib Berth, my buddy who'southward a bully trombone player [of Local 47], to the Pacific Symphony from time to fourth dimension, which is 50 miles away."

Jim has cut back on his educational activity. "I desire the connection with the kids—that's important to me," he says. "I sort of planned my career this way a little flake. I wanted to keep my tenured orchestras. I play almost every week in one of those ensembles playing great music in great halls."

Jim and his married woman Jamie take endowed multiple scholarships for young players. He says, "I've had a successful career and have all I need." They plan to continue to sponsor scholarships and musical projects. He's endowed a creative award at the ITEA, as well as a tuba and a brass quintet at his alma mater Indiana University of Pennsylvania and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he was on the kinesthesia. He's endowed scholarships at Tennessee Tech University, the University of Due south Carolina, and Indiana University. "This twelvemonth, we are setting upwards one at the Academy of Kansas and the University of North Texas." And he adds, "At that place will be more. I think it'due south a way to button things forward."

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Source: https://www.afm.org/2019/03/jim-self-the-tuba-takes-center-stage/

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