I was working on a picture over at Sony tonight and we finished early. So I decided to drop in at the Jazz Bakery and see who was playing. Well it was Billy Childs, a string quartet and a great group of players. WOW it was one of the most incredible evenings I have ever had. It was new and fresh and beautiful stuff.  And I just stumbled into it.

It was all Billy Childs’ music and was interesting harmonically. And the rhythmic fluidity of the group was very intense—listening and creative. I come away feeling like I heard a new level of music a real synthesis of jazz, rock, R and B, and especially classical. I have watched this talented man Billy Childs since he was a student at USC. He has developed into one of the leading innovators in all of music   an amazing life altering artist...

Last  week  I  played  a  week  of  Stravinsky’s  Petrushka  with  the  Pacific  Symphony.  Ever  since  I  got  my  FLUBA  in  2000  I  knew  it  could  be  a  great  classical  instrument.  My main use of it  since then has been as a jazz instrument. But playing certain  high tuba solos was a piece of cake on it so I always wanted to  try it on the Bear Solo or other orchestral parts. Convincing a  conductor might be a problem however. My chance came last  week. We had a last minute substitute conductor, Christian  Knapp, who is young and adventuresome. It’s been a few years  since I played Petrushka but after many performances and  teaching it forever I thought I knew it cold. During the first two  rehearsals I had my Yamaha 822 F and stumbled through the solo...

The following is a sampling (about 300) of the nearly 1500 motion pictures scores that I have recorded from 1974 through 2008. I remember that these films had particularly good scores and/or tuba parts, or were pictures where I had important tuba solos.

(In Alphabetical Order)

• 102 Dalmatians
•  48 Hours
• Agent Cody Banks
• Airplane I
• Airplane II
• American President
• Anastasia Angela’s
• Ashes Anxiety
• Management Apollo
• 13 Armageddon
• Atlantis

• Back to School Batteries Not Included Beetle Juice
• Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Bewitched
• Bicentennial Man Big Fat Liar
• Big Top Pee Wee
• Black Cauldron
• Black Stallion
• Blade II
• Blue Thunder
• Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius
• Bruce Almighty
• Cars
• Casper
• Cat in the Hat
• Catch me If You Can
• Cats and Dogs
• Cheaper by the Dozen 2
• Chicago
• Chicken Little
• Christmas With ...

From the writer’s notes for an upcoming episode of the hit TV Show “House”.

Before:

INT. MUSIC PRACTICE ROOM — DAY

TIBALT OYYLANT, 30s, joyous, bubbly, plays “Carnival of Venice” on TUBA for one of his college tuba students. This is an almost impossible piece to play on the trumpet; on tuba, it’s almost stupid. But Tibalt is one of the world’s best tuba players and he delights in the technical difficulty. The student has a huge smile on his face watching Tibalt play.

Tibalt takes a deep breath, but suddenly coughs violently, blood squirting out of the corners of his mouth. As he attempts to hold it in, the blood forcefully goes into the tuba and sprays out the bell end. And Tibalt tumbles awkwardly onto the tuba…Dead.

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What an interesting coincidence...

To Read More Click Here…

In April 2008 the Pacific Symphony will premier a new orchestra piece that they commissioned from me. The following was wrtten for the PSO Musicians web site and parts of it will be included in the Program Notes and publicity for the concerts. http://www.pacificsymphonymusicians.com

Tour de Force

Episodes for Orchestra

Jim Self

2007

(Process — Program Notes – Synopsis)

Process

Tour de Force is dedicated to Sandy and John Daniels who generously donated a very large amount to the Pacific Symphony to sponsor the orchestra’s first European Tour in Spring 2006—hence the title. It was a very special milestone for the orchestra and had a profound musical effect on me. It was truly fun to play great music in great halls and to feel we were really “making music”...

Yamaha’s Signature Sounds Impact

I wrote this and it was published in the AOPA Pilot magazine monthly column: “Never Again”. They gave me $100 for the article!

I Learned About Flying From That

In the fall of 1987 I had been a pilot for nearly three years, had an instrument rating, 550 total hours and owned a l970 Cessna l72. I am a professional musician and planned a flight to Fallbrook, Ca. to perform a symphony concert on a Sunday evening with an earlier stop at Oceanside for a matinee concert. My passenger, a prominent Southern California musician, loved to fly with me but was not a pilot.

I had flown into Fallbrook many times and understood its shortcomings. It is a short field (2165 ft.), sits on top of a mesa with drops at both ends of the runway...

Read it HERE

from a Tube-Net Post September 2004

I heard that there is a discussion about who is the MOST RECORDED TUBA PLAYER and want to weigh in on it. The lack of information and the mis-information on this topic is really amazing.

TOMMY JOHNSON IS ABSOLUTELY THE CHAMPION.

NO ONE ELSE EVEN COMES CLOSE!!

Tommy started recording in the Hollywood Studios right out of college and has had a long and busy career. He has recorded many THOUSANDS of movie scores, television shows, records, jingles, cartoons, theme park music, video games–you name it. And he has recorded music almost every day for over 40 years. There were many times when he would work double and triple sessions 7 days a week...

Tourists are forever writing of their experiences so I will give my take on part of a recent cruise to the Baltic Sea. This was nearly a year ago. Sleep was my bugaboo!. The hassles brought on by jet lag, engine noise, lost bags frustrated my whole experience on this trip. I tried everything to fall asleep–booze, drugs, gambling, reading, sheep.

About 4 AM one morning after another sleepless night I went out on the balcony (by this time we had moved to a much better room). I watched the sun come up while cruising through the long waterway/canal that leads from the Baltic to St. Petersburg. I was really spaced out and was watching this incredible sunrise half way on the other side of the world. We were going into that amazing city that Peter the Great built in the early 18^th Century to give...

The following was first published in 1988 in the Instrumentalist magazine. It is followed by an update to February 2004– outlining the many changes in the “business” and how it affects the contemporary tubist. Jim Self

1988

This report on the contemporary recording scene for tuba players is a reflection of my fourteen years as a free-lance musician in Los Angeles. The points expressed are specific for my city but will generally be true for New York, the only other city where large amounts of recording work are done. All kinds of recording sessions are done in both cities but Los Angeles is the center for motion pictures and television and New York the center for jingles (ads for radio and T.V.) and jazz records. Pop records are done in both cities...

A Memoir

Wow, what a day!

Today was that “rare” day when I felt the essence of what being a real studio musician is–and should be. I was proud to be a part of this group and proud to be able to keep up with them. The business is very slow. Things just happen to be slow for everyone but, like a typical paranoid studio musician, I was wondering if my career was over! The last minute call reminded me of the date I did (as a sub for Tommy Johnson) for John Williams for the Conversation in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That was 28 years ago.

The contractor, Leslie Morris, called me just last night to do a session with Tom Newman today at Paramont. It turned out to be one of my most memorable recording sessions...