Doug Burrell's Jazz Tuba Blog

Buckhorn Morning Tracks on Youtube

Doug — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:02:40 +0000

At the suggestion of a good friend of mine, I recently posted the last track of my jazz tuba CD (Blues for Brian) on Youtube with some still images taken during the photo shoot for the album cover. I was able to do the whole thing using iMovie including titles and graphics. You can see the results here. A couple of days later I got an email from MrYouTuba asking if he could use another track from Buckhorn Morning (Going for a Run) as the soundtrack for a time lapse video he made at Allen Lake in Ontario. I think the video looks great and you can see the results here. Both videos are also embedded on the media page of my website at www.dougburrell.ca. Lots of Fun!

Patrick Sheridan with the Hannaford Street Silver Band

Doug — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:41:25 +0000

Patrick Sheridan was in Toronto last weekend to perform with the Hannaford Street Silver Band. He played in two school concerts on Friday, adjudicated a solo competition for young musicians on Friday night, gave a masterclass on Saturday morning and performed once more with the Hannaford Band on Sunday afternoon. I was fortunate enough to be at the Friday evening concert, the Saturday morning master class and the Sunday afternoon concert.

At the master class Patrick spoke at length about “The Breathing Gym”, his approach to proper breathing technique for brass players and, despite the early hour, had us all up out of our seats and enthusiastically learning to relax and breathe properly.

At the Sunday afternoon concert I was totally in awe of Patrick’s astounding technique and musicianship but the thing that really impressed me was his ability to engage the audience with some very funny stories and his willingness to hang out in the lobby and chat with folks during the intermission before heading back on stage to wow once once again.

Thanks to Hannaford for once again bringing a brass musician of the highest calibre to Toronto and for supporting brass music so well.

Buckhorn Morning on ARA Luxembourg

Doug — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 01:41:07 +0000

Thanks to Pascal and jazz.com on radio ARA Luxembourg for playing “Afternoon Tune” from my jazz tuba cd, “Buckhorn Morning”. I had a chance to listen to parts of the show online and heard some great music from a number of artists. Terrific program!

Don’t Forget the Stamps

Doug — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:57:08 +0000

Well I finally got the email that I was waiting for from CDBaby. “Send more CD’s! Buckhorn Morning is out of stock!”

By the time I bought a box and some packing tape and paid the postage from Ontario to Oregon I had spent 17 bucks, and that was sending the CD’s via regular parcel delivery! Kinda cuts in to revenues in a big way. I’m going to have to find a cheaper shipping solution.

Searching for “Buckhorn Morning” in iTunes

Doug — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 01:22:28 +0000

I have had an interesting time working through the process of making my jazz tuba cd, Buckhorn Morning available on line. One of the challenges has been trying to have the cd show up in iTunes search results if someone searches using the keywords tuba or jazz tuba. While my cd has a lovely picture of a tuba on the front cover, the actual word “tuba” is nowhere to be seen. I may be out of luck, but I’ll know better next time.

Links to my cd can be found at http://www.dougburrell.ca

Buckhorn Morning Jazz Tuba CD Released

Doug — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:11:13 +0000

After well over a year of composing, arranging, recording, mixing and mastering it feels great to have my jazz tuba cd Buckhorn Morning released and available for sale. The cd is available through the Silverbirch Online Store in Canada as well as through CDBaby and iTunes. You can find the links on my website by clicking here. Buckhorn Morning is a jazz cd with the tuba playing a lot of lead and playing a lot of improvised choruses as part of an eight piece ensemble. I like to think that we’ve come up with something that’s fairly unique and fun to listen to. I’ve included a small clip here and there are more samples on my site and on the online sites. I hope you’ll check it out . AfternoonTune excerpt

Ray Draper

Doug — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:50:38 +0000

I’ve had a lot of fun lately trolling around Youtube and iTunes looking to see who is or was out there playing jazz tuba. Lately I stumbled across a video of Ray Draper.

I first heard about Ray Draper a number of years ago but it wasn’t until I saw the video of him on YouTube that I started to get an idea of what he was all about. Draper was a pioneer in that he saw the potential for the tuba as a front line instrument in jazz. Sometimes improvising on the tuba feels like trying to knit with boxing gloves on but Ray Draper pushed hard against the limitations of the instrument with some very nice musical ideas.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jwu7XA1tHo

An Introduction….

Doug — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:39:48 +0000

Thanks for checking out my first foray into the world of blogging!

I am a music educator and tuba player working in the Toronto area. I am very fortunate to have had the chance to play various flavours of jazz tuba with a number of phenomenally talented musicians. Bands that I am currently playing with include the Dixie Demons, who play what I would call trad jazz with attitude,(Ross Wooldridge on clarinet, Steve Crowe on trumpet, Dan Douglas on trombone, Chris Lamont on drums) and the Brian Barlow Brass and Drums (2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba and percussion). Brian writes phenomenal charts and the musicians in the band (Russ Little on trombone, Chase Sanborn, Brian O’Kane on trumpet and Brian Barlow on percussion) are marvelous players.

I miss working with NOJO. The Neufeld Occipinti Jazz Orchestra is now a 9 piece band sans tuba, but the band occasionally reforms as a 16 piece ensemble that really cooks thanks to great players and the innovative charts provided by co-leaders Paul Neufeld and Michael Occipinti.

I round out my playing with various corporate events, private functions and by performing with several brass quintets which are active in the Toronto area.

Doug B.