THE TOM KUBIS STORY
My article was first published in Jazz Journal Internation and is reproduced with permission
Tom Kubis is now one of the most sought-after and prolific writers and arrangers for big bands in North America. He has his own big band in Orange County in Southern California employing cream-of-the-crop sidemen from the area. He co-runs a big band with celebrated trumpeter/comedian and actor Jack Sheldon and takes movie commissions. He is also responsible for a major part of the library for Bill Watrous's excellent Refuge West Big Band.
The interview.... 'I was born in 1951 in the City of Los Angeles. This was a time when this part of LA was sort of OK, but my dad got fed up of the heat and so forth and moved out to Orange County. We lived in Long Beach for a while, but I sort of grew up in Huntington Beach.
As far as my music education is concerned I went to Orange Coast College. There's a guy who's still there named Doc Rutherford He has been an inspiration for so many of us. If I write a chart, and he finds out he says "I gotta have it" and just sends me a cheque! After Orange County College I went to Long Beach State. I was there for the better part of eight years, working on a degree. Then I went on the road for a few years. I had been on the road three times when I decided to go back and finish the stupid degree off. They didn't even have a jazz programme at Long Beach when I got there.
A guy named Gerry Long started it. He did his best, but there was too much for him to do and he really did not understand the idiom. A year or so later I got there they hired John Prince. Things went very well. Some excellent musicians were there who went on to big things, like John Patitucci, Jay Anderson and Chad Wackerman. The bands then were phenomenal. I think it was a quirk of fate at the time that so many great players came together.
When we left, everything disintegrated. I play alto, tenor and soprano. I used to try and pretend I was an alto player but it's just too hard for me to do. I finally admitted it and it became a door stop. Three or four years ago I decided that I had had enough of playing. I did not have the time, interest or the place to go and play. I did not feel that I was a performer or a player until I met Carol [now Tom's wife) who used to play piano with Bobby Vinton and was his singer for 12 years. I started working with Bobby in the middle eighties. I was just writing his shows. Then Bobby economised, cutting his band back to two keyboards. He decided to keep Carol and include me on the other keyboard. I was playing background ; if he wanted a French horn or a string section, that was me. We were doing that for a couple of years. It finished when Bob's dog bit me and took a chunk out of my leg. We were getting fed up with Bob anyway, so we decided that was enough. All that time I was not writing a thing except little dinky things on 'Roses Are Red My Love', adding a trumpet here, a trombone there, taking out a violin there and so on. So I started practising and writing again.
The clinicians say go back and listen to the Basie Band. I loved that band. I loved Lockjaw Davis who I only ever saw once. When he passed on I was desolate. He was a great influence. Writing-wise, Frank Foster had a great deal to do with my thinking. My other heroes were Thad Jones and Quincy Jones - the golden (jazz) era of Quincy Jones. I was pissed off at Thad Jones for dying because I felt there was a rare voice that needed to go on forever. I was also upset when Quincy basically stopped the jazz. I can understand the guy, and what he has decided to do is done beautifully.
I had the luxury of working for him in about '78 on a bus tour for four months. It was pretty interesting. He had the best musicians, the best creative people with him and he liked to talk about jazz and he really knows how to take care of business.
You cannot help but learn! I suppose my biggest influence was Manny Albam. If there was something that really lit a fire under me it was a chart he wrote on 'Sweet Georgia Brown' for Terry Gibbs in 1963 (Contemporary CCD 7656 2, Main Stem, Terry Gibbs Dream Band). This is a fun tune anyhow. I do not have any fun when I'm writing if they are not fun tunes.
`My arrangement on 'Well You Needn't' is a different chart, although there are some things in that that go back to my early days of writing. I think it has one of the best saxophone solos that I have ever written. I have always had trouble writing good saxophone solos, now I feel that I am starting to write some good ones. I know people do enjoy what I write. I just hope that they don't hear some of the things I hear when it doesn't flow so well, if it sounds contrived. The whole thing is to try and not sound contrived. I want it to sound inspired or spontaneous, like a good improvised solo.I like to write things with the sections barking at each other, responding as if they are listening to each other.
What has helped me is that I did play a lot of Dixieland music in a band with my dad on drums. That kind of music leaks into the other stuff I write. I write a lot of arrangements that refer back to classic tunes. As you cannot always get permission to publish commercial arrangements on these great melodies. I have tried never to go too far. I did a chart called Which Craft (sic), but the guy who wrote a tune of a similar title heard it and was a little upset.
The industry has changed. There are less and less of us big band music writers about. I had to cancel a class in writing at Golden West College because nobody cares anymore. Dave Metzger who moved to Oregon is an outstanding writer. Ken Kaplan, who I ran into at Long Beach State, is an absolutely magnificent writer but he doesn't want to do it anymore he's heard too many bad bands play his stuff. I still live to get up in the morning and write. I'd love to stay up all night and write. I feel that I was put on this earth to be a writing machine. I write very fast if I have the inspiration. I get my ideas from different places. For example a guy called me, I think it was Ray Anthony. He wanted to pick up a chart for a new album he was planning, he wanted a public domain tune. The only one he could find was Bill Bailey. I thought what a fun tune to play on, let's do that. Bill Bailey always was a barn burner, closes just about every Dixieland set. The chart worked OK, it went indifferently at the first rehearsal, now it's like a big hit! (At Last, Cexton CD by Tom Kubis Big Band). Jack Sheldon opens with it with his band, I use it as a closer. I am an ensemble writer. Basically I have lead lines which I really work on to flow and cook and then I just voice them down from there.
Bill Holman, who is really an everything writer, he's a linear guy. He has one line going this way, one going that way, he is a master. I learned a lot from him. I heard him and thought, well there's something new. There I am writing all this straight up and down stuff and he's doing the other thing. He was an inspiration to me when I was at Long Beach State.
I still owe a lot to Thad. He had those big chords, great soloists, more big chords and then it moved on, more great soloists. . . wonderful! I rely on my soloists a lot.
Talking about the fact I use the standard sequences in most of my work and the way it can introduce students to standard changes. I'd always taken changes from popular tunes and written a new melody or whatever, and Dan Beher, my publisher, said just keep on doing that! I still write and arrange my own tunes, but I get so busy that I find that with my own tunes sometimes I get involved with one bar, spend a lot of time on it and in a concert it's gone before you can say "Hey, listen to this". With standard material I spend a little less time with that and worry more about the impact.
Bill Watrous has been one of the nicest guys about my music, he promotes it all the time. When he does his concerts with the Refuge West Big Band he always gives me credit. As wonderful and as intricate as Bill is, he does not want arrangement on, let's say, 'Giant Step's' or 'Moment's Notice'. He calls those exercises. Just give him some changes he can have fun with. So those things he has off me, the old Dixieland tunes he just loves. He can blast away and enjoy himself instead of changing every two beats. Bill came out to the Coast with the idea of putting something together, but it didn't work too well with the LA guys. Then he got some of the younger guys around him including a marvellous arranger named Gordon Goodwin.
He was going to Cal' State Northridge at the time. I was at Long Beach, a rival school. We were rival tenor players and all that! He (Gordon) mentioned my music, I took it along and basically Bill freaked. I was lucky enough to get the rights to 'Early Autumn' recently, also 'When You're Smiling', 'Bye Bye Blackhird', 'Some Of these Days', 'Who Can I Turn To' (or as I call it 'Who Can I Turn On'). I also have a new chart on 'Twelfth Street Rag'. I'm always looking for public domain classics like that. One of the fun charts I did recently was 'Chinese Samba', based on 'China Boy'. It was not meant to be a samba but I accidentally played it back on my computer in straight samba time. Sounded good so I left it as a samba!
When I write I don't worry about difficulty any more. I think I would probably sell a lot more arrangements if I toned it down. But it falls into that category of being contrived, putting a limitation. I've had the good fortune to work with all these great trumpet players who can stay up there for a good amount of time, but I did find I was killing people so I have pulled back just a little.
My first formal recordings, apart from the college band records, were with Dimitri Pagalidis. These were two extremely good recordings. They were my charts and everybody thought it was my band and Dimitri just played bass trombone. There were a lot of people who loved the band. Dimitri put a lot of money into it, but because of unfortunate financial associations he lost it. The masters are still in existence, a CD would be nice and would sell out right away.
Unfortunately not everything I have written has been recorded and not everything I have recorded can be published. It is such a pain to go through the monetary problems of getting something out. I just about broke even on the 'At Last' CD. I formed my band in the first place because I was pressured by a lot of guys who were tired of playing my music at the wrong tempos and so forth. "Let's do it right," they shouted.
The first gig I had was at Alphonses in LA. That would have been in '88 I think. The first big band album with my band came out just before that (Slightly Off The Ground, Seabreeze Records). We had no regular venue. We played once or twice a month, we could have played more often if I had really pushed it but it was tough to keep all these excellent musicians together, getting the music, the stands, the sound system to the gigs and so forth.
My wife used to work on the Merv Griffin Show. I've watched Jack Sheldon on the show for such a long time and I've always thought that he was such a great player. When I was into my album, I was being insecure, worried about who am I, who's going to pay to listen to me and so forth. I thought why not put some good people in the recording, I got Watrous to come down and Gordon Goodwin and Mat Catingub. Then Jack said he'd be excited to do it. Couldn't miss could it! He listened to my charts when we were doing the session and started freaking, saying when I started getting gigs he would do them. I told him he would have to get some new charts, he couldn't carry on playing the old stuff forever. So I started writing for him. I sort of dedicated my life to him. I never asked him for any money but he paid me anyhow. Now we are inseparable, my band is his band.
Right now the guys in the bands are the best around. A lot of them came up with me through Long Beach State. I remember when I first thought seriously about putting a band together. I just could not decide on a lead trumpet player. Then a friend of mine told me that he had seen Bob Florence's band and he used to sit there and listen to George Graham who was on lead at that time. I have grown up with the music of Bill Holman and Bob Florence. These guys are gods to me and here I am about to ask Florence's lead trumpet to play in my band! He (George) was so gracious, he accepted and now he won't go away. He's a big fan of the writing and it's done him good too. He does clinics with the tunes I do, like 'Superman', 'Beauty And The Beast' and so forth. I feel I'm blessed with these great guys who just want to play the music.
If you asked me now how long it would take me to write some music and I had time right now, it would depend on the chart but. . . sometimes a day. I remember I did a score for a movie called The Money Men. I They needed a four-minute chart on 'Jersey Bounce' for a big band. It took two hours! I did it on the computer. Even a fairly complex piece I will do in a couple of days. I did a piece featuring Mike Fahn (trombone) on Caravan, and Caravan is no short tune. Three basic sections, the head, the solo section and the shout chorus. It was an extravaganza. It took me two days! I didn't know, but I understand that the BBC Radio Big Band is playing my music.
I am glad that the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra is too. I am so grateful that people like and play my music.
Ann Patterson, who runs an excellent all-ladies big band called Maiden Voyage was short of music so I had my son run off copies, sent her a few boxes full and that was great, she was so excited.
To hear about the music being played, especially in places like England, is a thrill. I always felt that the guys who wrote music in the fifties, sixties and before really protected their music. That's a shame because I am sure that there can be a second life for all those wonderful charts. There must be hundreds of those charts somewhere. They need to be played before they are forgotten. I make no bones about telling people everything I know. I know there is no-one who can write a chart exactly like me. I tried to write like Thad Jones, I thought I was very good at it, but you can't do it. There are too many variables.
I used to write my music on paper, which took about a week and cost me about 300 bucks to copy. Now I do my stuff on a computer. I just write a score and I can extract the individual parts, no problem. I started 14 or so years ago with a Macintosh, I think it was the 512. I used Composer, but there are a lot of good programmes out there. I haven't put pen to paper for four years. I can do my thinking on the computer, no use for scratch pads now!'
Discography: Silverware: Dimitri Pagalidis (Mark 56 Records, deleted)
Another Place Setting: Dimitri Pagalidis (Mark 56 Records, deleted)
Slightly Off The Ground: Tom Kubis Big Band (Seabreeze CDSB 109-2)
At Last: Tom Kubis Big Band (Cexton CR21251)
Reunion: Charles Rutherford Big Band (CD5B2044)
Space Available: Bill Watrous Big Band (Double-Time Records DTRCD 124)
Fast Cars,Fascinating Women: Tom Kubis Big Band (Seabreeze SB2079)
Keep Swinging:Tom Kubis Big Band (Seabreeze SB 2090)
With A Lot Of Help From My Friends: George Graham Big Band (Seabreeze 2089)
A Perfect Match: Bohuslan Big Band (Norway) Real Records RT 103-2
(see the Bohuslan website link on my 'links' page)
Many collegiate and territorial big bands use Kubis material and it is worth taking a second look at the programmes.
He also has one Christmas album released and another to be released. Details not to hand at the moment. Band Directors must check out his published arrangements. I distribute in the UK and elsewhere and a list can beforwarded by snail mail. E-mail for details.
In the USA visit my website and follow links to Marina, for local access to material.
Most recent revision 27th February 2000