The Maalouf family

Review of Nassim Maalouf's Improvisations Orientales Video: La trompette arabe de Nassim Maalouf (non-French speakers are advised to watch up to ~4:00) His son, Ibrahim Maalouf "is noted for playing Arabic music with quarter tones on the trumpet, which is a rare skill, pioneered by his father and Don Ellis in the 1960s." Also review. They play a microtonal four-valve trumpet, with a fourth valve played by a left index finger. There are not a whole lot of close-up pics, this is the best I could find (youtube). I did find an article on trumpet modifications, tho.

ROTFL

Letter by Clarke - even if it's fake, still hilarious.

Notes on style and then some

Listening to a lot of euphonium on youtube in the last few days. I heard a few euph+piano duos and they are uniformly amazing. Here are a few: Piazzolla's Café 1930 and Ibert's La cage de cristal by Anthony Caillet, Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata; Badinerie and Chiapanecas on tuba.
I also listened to several examples of baritone as a part of jazz combo and found it rather underwhelming. The deep rich sound that complements solo piano so well tends to get lost somewhere in the sonic muck and in general sounds rather out of place.

Also, today I learned of anime series about euphonium. I... uh... am struggling to find words... Actually, instead of trying to come up with something meaningful to say, I think I'll just up and move to Japan.

The omnitonic horn

Wagner tuba vs euphonium

A few subcontrabass instruments