In the music world, you'll often find genius in odd places. Such is the case with "A Tuba Jazz". Pioneering jazz tubist Ray Draper had the foresight to include epoch-making saxophonist John Coltrane on what otherwise would have been a rather lackluster recording date. Coltrane's amazing ability is a musical oasis that exists outside of time, regardless where you find it.

Draper's short, violent and drug-hazed career came to a sudden and tragic end in 1982 when he was shot during a holdup attempt. Besides Rich Matteson, Singleton Palmer and Don Butterfield, there was little else going on tuba-wise in the jazz idiom during the '50's and early '60's, and we have to hand it to Ray Draper for pushing ahead and recording several albums in that time frame.

"A Tuba Jazz" is included here for historical and documentary purposes. While period jazz critics hail Ray Draper as "hard bop" and "far reaching" and credit him with forming the first jazz-rock-fusion band three years before Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew", other critics consider his playing to be sloppy, inarticulate and barely adequate for the task at hand.

Genius or schlubb, you'll have to be the judge on this one - I'm staying out of it! Whatever the case, Trane's playing is fresh, exciting, fluid and incredibly articulate and, as mentioned above, ALWAYS worth a listen.