So here I am outside of Owen Sound’s Mudtown Station Brewery and Restaurant with Paul Sylvester. He came to me in 1977 after his high school music teacher (who I was playing with on a steady gig at Toronto’s famed Brunswick House) said he should get tuba lessons. He was my first private tuba student. In spite of his youth, Paul was clear about his future: he wanted to become a secondary school music teacher. And that he did, and over the course of years, he, in turn, sent me a few of his tuba kids for lessons. (Hi Indy!)
During his recent visit to The Land of OS , I was reminded that Paul is also a “tuba nut”. He has a wall of over 10 tubas, a tuba vanity licence plate (TUBAPAUL), and most impressively, a tuba fountain in his backyard. Paul, an amateur winemaker, even has a tuba wine label:
And so lately, I have been wondering what I would eventually end up doing with my Cool Wind red plastic tuba.
Well… problem solved! I decided to give it to Paul, (but he paid for lunch at Mudtown!).
And here he is playing his latest acquisition to the stable at a friend’s cottage in (appropriately enough) Red Bay, about 50 km northwest of Owen Sound. Being made of plastic, I’ve always wondered whether or not Cool Wind tubas could float, and I suspect that if Paul insists on continually playing it up there, we may all get the opportunity to find out!