I took my recently overhauled 12M to a local jam session Sunday night. This was to brush up my bari chops with tunes called by others. (I practice at home with my own backing tracks, which doesn't offer much in the way of surprises.)
This particular jam session has a good rhythm section. Its participants are mostly amateur singers, but sometimes they get horn players, too. I was one of three wind instrument players on Sunday. A trumpet player who is also a Space Shuttle astronaut (other way around, actually) and a retired Navy officer who plays clarinet. As you might guess, we played mostly ensemble Dixieland tunes with me playing trombone lines and solos on the bari.
The point of all this is to address an odd comment made by the piano player after the session. He nicely complimented my playing (that's part of his job, to encourage attendance and participation) and added that he was surprised that I played with good intonation. He said most bari players cannot play in tune, because, according to him, the bari itself has intonation problems. He's a Berkley graduate with a lot of playing experience.
I'd never heard that comment about the bari. Is that a common (mis)conception about the instrument?
This particular jam session has a good rhythm section. Its participants are mostly amateur singers, but sometimes they get horn players, too. I was one of three wind instrument players on Sunday. A trumpet player who is also a Space Shuttle astronaut (other way around, actually) and a retired Navy officer who plays clarinet. As you might guess, we played mostly ensemble Dixieland tunes with me playing trombone lines and solos on the bari.
The point of all this is to address an odd comment made by the piano player after the session. He nicely complimented my playing (that's part of his job, to encourage attendance and participation) and added that he was surprised that I played with good intonation. He said most bari players cannot play in tune, because, according to him, the bari itself has intonation problems. He's a Berkley graduate with a lot of playing experience.
I'd never heard that comment about the bari. Is that a common (mis)conception about the instrument?