Tuba Or Not Tuba? That's Dan Peck's Question

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on May 6, 2010 6:40PM

Dan Peck, who mans the tuba for the new-music group International Contemporary Ensemble, feels that tuba players have been living a lie. Solo tuba music has only been around for a little over a half-century, and like other instrumentalists new to the solo world, there's a pervasive insecurity that comes from comparing the worth of your chosen voice to instruments like the violin or piano that have centuries' worth of repertoire written by history's greatest composers. Try as tuba players might by playing technically-demanding music, often music written for other, more virtuosic instruments, their efforts to be taken seriously only bring the ridiculousness of their endeavor into greater focus. Peck wants tuba players to come to terms with the gigantic maze of metal tubes they bear hug in their laps: the tuba is a bass instrument. In his solo performances, like the one he'll give this Friday night at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Peck digs in his heels and explores the tuba's neglected, extreme-low end range in all its muddled and often silly-sounding glory.

Peck's new sort of tuba recital will also contain a large amount of improvisation. Peck is classically-trained, having done his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University in his native New Jersey and receiving a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he now resides. But he's also active in the improvisation scene, playing with a number of groups, including Grandpa Musselman and His Syncopators and his own trio, which includes bassist Tom Blancarte and drummer Brian Osborne. Peck speaks glowingly of ICE, and that makes sense: an open-minded contemporary music group that sees improvisation as having equal footing as classical music, ICE hits on all of Peck's interests. This Friday night, Peck's live playing will be improvisation based on a tape of pre-recorded through-composed material. The resulting music will be a wonderfully ambiguous mix of contemporary classical, experimental music, and free jazz, and, yes, it may sometimes sounds silly. But that's OK; after all, it's a tuba.

Friday at 7:30 p.m., Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan, for tickets e-mail reservations@iceorg.org, $10, $5 students