I've been looking back over some mixtapes I made years ago. This one features a varied selection of favourite jazz tracks (60s - more recent), all of which make room for a tuba. Enjoy.
1. Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition - Ahmad The Terrible (DeJohnette) (from the album ‘Album Album’) - (Howard Johnson - tuba) 6/84.
Johnson on tuba and baritone sax, DeJohnette on drums and piano.
2. Sahib Shihab & The Danish Radio Jazz Group - Mai Ding (Shihab) (from the album ‘Sahib Shihab & The Danish Radio Jazz Group) - (Poul Kjaeldgård - tuba) 8/65.
Shihab on baritone (and cowbell). Top-notch Danish rhythm team of Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (bass) and Alex Riel (drums).
3. Sons Of Kemet - All Will Surely Burn (Hutchings) (from the album ‘Burn’) - (Oren Marshall - tuba) 2013.
Theon Cross is now in the SOK tuba chair. Double drums (Seb Rochford and Tom Skinner), Shabaka Hutchings on sax.
4. The New Jazz Orchestra - Nardis (Davis arr. Ardley) (from the album ‘Le Déjeuner Sur L’herbe) - (George Smith - tuba) 9/68.
British jazz classic. Other solos: Ian Carr (flugelhorn), Jack Bruce (bass).
5. Arthur Blythe - Odessa (Blythe) (from the album ‘Lenox Avenue Breakdown’) - (Bob Stewart - tuba) 1979.
One of Blythe’s greatest solos. This 2-CD set is very highly recommended. Jack DeJohnette on drums again.
6. Henry Threadgill - Little Pocket Size Demons (Threadgill) (from the album ‘Too Much Sugar For A Dime’) - (Edwin Rodriguez, Marcus Rojas - tubas) 1993.
Threadgill’s Very Very Circus line-up: alto sax, french horn, 2 guitars, 2 tubas, drums. Only recently discovered that there's a nice Vijay Iyer trio version of this tune.
7. The Sonny Criss Orchestra - Daughter Of Cochise (Tapscott) (from the album ‘Sonny’s Dream (Birth Of The New Cool)) - (Ray Draper - tuba) 5/68.
From a disc of compositions and arrangements by the West Coast giant, Horace Tapscott. Sonny Criss backed by a high-class nonet.
8. Steve Lehman Octet - Chimera/Luchini (Lehman / Smith/Randolph/Spencer/Wilds/Willis/Wallace) - (Jose Davila - tuba)
From 2014′s ‘Mise en Abîme’ (Pi Recordings). Original version of Luchini here (90s hip hop favourite). There's also an excellent big band version of Chimera, with the Orchestre National de Jazz.
9. Daniel Herskedal - Kurd, Bayat, Nahawand To Kurd (Herskedal)
From the North African-flavoured ‘The Roc’ (Edition).
10. McCoy Tyner Big Band - Fly With The Wind (Tyner) - (Howard Johnson - tuba)
Scaled-up version of a 70s Tyner tune.
