Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Floyd Cooley Revisited

In my aimless wanderings through the pictures on Flickr, I happened upon the fascinating album cover above, which I have displayed in an earlier post on this blog. Thinking that anyone whose career was based on playing romantic tuba music while wearing garish Sans-a-Belt pants was doomed to failure, I assumed that Floyd Cooley had disappeared from the world stage sometime in the seventies.

Wrong, commando!

To his credit, when "The Romantic Tuba" was issued on CD in 1993, Floyd had the good sense to trade the turtleneck and windowpane plaid pants for a timeless tuxedo.

He is a big deal in the world of tubists, I have learned, and has his own website, where you can learn more about him, and even purchase a Floyd O. Cooley signature mouthpiece for your tuba, or, for practice purposes, a mouthpiece rim affixed to metal handle, which the website cites as "an invaluable tool for improving response, working on attacks, and intensifying your buzz." Aren't these things we are all interested in--particularly intensifying our buzzes?

No comments: