Word: tubas
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...Orleans Jazz Party (Gene Mayl's Dixieland Rhythm Kings; Riverside LP). A bunch of youngsters in Dayton carrying on the tradition of "righteous" (i.e., primitive) jazz. They sound for all the world like bands of three decades ago, including twanging banjo and two-beat tuba, but with none of the surface noise of old records, and some fresh ideas...
...Romp. The tuba yawned selfconsciously through a mass of quavers like a gigantic empty stomach, rumbling from note to note, fluffing some quick passages, squawking agonizingly slowly through deep bass notes. Then came the cadenza, which was really too intricate for a tuba. The instrument cleared its throat and got going. But soon the movement ended in a romp, with orchestra and tuba neck and neck. The second movement came off beautifully. In a slower, sustained tempo. Catelinet poured out a rich sound, often booming up from the bass into a fruity contralto. Warmed up now, he launched into...
Unhappily, there was a mix-up at the concert: Catelinet's place on the program was changed without his knowledge, and he had to wait in the wings, hugging his tuba, for 20 minutes. By the time they got onstage, both Catelinet and his instrument (which, like all cussed brasses, needs a lot of last-minute tootling to warm it up) had a case of chills. The orchestra broke into the concerto, and the tuba came in disconcertingly off cue. The whole first movement, in fact, sounded as if there were pigeons in the brass, alas...
...were hearty rounds of applause for Tubaman Catelinet, Conductor Barbirolli and Composer Vaughan Williams, who was sitting in the front row. Next day the London Times summed up: "The tone . . . was sufficiently rich and warm to fire any composer's imagination, but [Catelinet] did not suggest that the tuba can do much in the way of varied phrasing or dynamic nuance to repay promotion to a solo status...
...Times may have been right, but none could deny that Phil Catelinet had struck a blow for the tuba...