MARCH 2020 MACWORLD 125under Frederick Fennell on the album
Screamers, as well as an arrangement of
Frank Zappa’s “The Dog Breath Variations”
performed by the Cincinnati Wind
Symphony under Eugene Migliaro
Corporon on their album Songs and
Dances. In both cases, the tubas were
tubby (not in a cute way!) and slightly
overbearing, while the higher parts
sounded slightly veiled.
For a real torture test, I listened to
“The Happy Soul” as arranged for tuba
quartet by my father, Robert Wilkinson,
and played by the Dutch Tuba Quartet on
their album Escape From Oom-Pah Land.
As expected by now, the tubas sounded
a bit loose and tubby.
Moving to small ensembles, I played
“Lester Leaps In” from an unreleased
recording by trombonist Steve Wilson and
featuring guitar legend Mundell Lowe. The
guitar, piano, and cymbals were good,
though the acoustic bass was muddy, and
the trombone was a bit veiled. I also listened
to “The Fairie Round” from A Festival of
Renaissance Dances by the Southern
California Early Music Consort. I played bass
sackbut (renaissance trombone) on that
album, and it sounded a bit bloated and
loose, though the cornett, shawms, and
tambourine sounded much better.
Just for grins, I created a completelyThe Audeara-01 felt a bit tight on the author’s head (note: this is not the author).