Gateway Brass Quintet

Guitar Circus: 

This concert was initiated by percussionist Henry Claude. Henry is a talented guy, a superb percussionist. The venue is interesting. It's an old police station and displays a cell in its left-over state on the way into the hall where the music is played. One of the participants told me he spent a short time there when it was really a cell! Outside is a courtyard where there is fireplace and where you can smoke if you want. There are various bits of art here and there and when the audience appeared it was all pretty cozy. Josh Riggs did the sound. He's very good.

Each player (or nearly so) contributed a piece. Most of the pieces were jazz tunes. I'm not especially good at doing that, but exhibit a certain willingness to give it a go. Some of the "charts" were just pencil scribblings with lots of changes. Tom Byrne writes rich and eloquent chords and while I was, at the first rehearsal, enjoying the intricacies of the first one, several bars went on without the benefit of myownself actually playing. Luckily, Tom knew me well enough to give me further clues as to what to play and in the end his was not one of the "problem" pieces.

 

Henry's was the worst: illegible, with an insane roadmap which changed daily (it actually became 2 (3?) pieces the day of the gig) and has probably changed since! I was lost most of the time. He seemed to like it.

 

Todd's piece was impossible (for me) to play as written but I managed to write a part that was almost playable at the indicated tempo. Unfortunately, in the performance I got lost going back and forth between parts and blew the ending. I'd like a chance to do that one again. It was an interesting, well-thought-out piece.

 

My favorite was Dan Rubright's "Ode to Joe", a quirky, precious little piece with banjos and colorful percussion.

 

My own addition was the first tune I wrote for the Great Flood Band (originally Victoria Gough, Tom Byrne, Blake Travis & me) in 1993, retooled for the Circus with Tom Bryne playing lead. Tom is a great player. He did a great job.

 

Hear the Great Flood Band play Break Down The Levee (© 1993)

(Victoria Gough, vocal; Tom Byrne, guitar; Jeff Hoard, electric tuba; Gari Perez, drums; Jim McClaren, harmonica)

 

Actually, I suppose, each of the players had something to add from their own perspective that would have been very interesting, especially to other guitar players. Dave Black played on exceptionally fine solo (I can't remember which piece, maybe Walker's?) and Todd Mosby's Imratgitar was interesting to hear. Lliam added thumb piano to my tune which fused a Lynchian electronic buzz onto the overall sound, with tremolo even. Very psychedelic.

 

At the end of the day I hope that I added something to the mix, especially for the composers (they know who they are) who actually considered that they were writing for the tuba and tried to add something to my experience. I even tried to add something of the tuba's uniqueness to each of the works of those composers who did not consider that they were writing for the tuba at all, but for an electric or midi bass or even percussion. I used both my F and CC tubas, electrically and acoustically.

 

Finally, in the program, my bio was truncated in order to make room for some made-up prattle about cheese. The bio I actually submitted appears below:

  

Jeff Hoard is the old geezer we got to play tuba 'cause he works cheap and has a bunch of tubas. Mr. Hoard has performed the world over with a stunning variety of musical organizations and until last Wednesday was one of the most recorded tubists in history. His favorite color is blue, he enjoys vibrant sunsets, long walks on the beach and is deathly afraid of Peeps. He believes life is a metaphor for baseball. When asked recently if he had heard Jeff's last concert, Yo-Yo Ma responded, "I certainly hope so!"

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