Stewart, Bob – “Then & Now” – [Postcards]

I am always glad when a new tuba driven recording is released. Bob Stewart has been playing his horn in a variety of jazz, rock, blues, and studio groups for years. One of them, Gravity, was a 4 tuba ensemble that recorded with Taj Mahal back in the early 70′s. On this new CD Taj comes back to redo two blues songs from that session – Big Kneed Gal and Fishin Blues (JOE ED — TAKE NOTE). The impact of 4 bass horns is missing, but rest of the musicians fill in fine. The other compositions show the many qualities of the tuba – rhythmic riffage, slow ballads, bop, even a fast ragtime.
The only exception I take with this CD are the pretentious liner
notes from Stewart – saying that the tuba has done little in jazz since 1923 -
to this I say HA!
Dave Richoux