For those not in the know, Jim Self, a Yamaha Performing Artist, is a top studio and performing musician in Los Angeles whose primary instrument is tuba; but he also plays a large number of low-brass and other bass instruments.

Indeed, Jim and Jamie run Basset Hound Music, which publishes and sells all of Jim’s recorded and printed music.

The newest album from Jim Self, My America 2: Destinations, is an homage to the many places across America where the well-traveled jazz tuba maestro has lived and worked.

A prolific musician, Self has produced 20 albums as a leader and has also worked for all the major Hollywood studios since 1974; performing for well over 1500 motion pictures and hundreds of television shows and records.

This new album is the sequel to My America, which Self released 20 years ago and much like the first album, My America 2: Destinations is a collaboration between Self and arranger Kim Scharnberg, and features some of the top jazz and studio musicians in Southern California; including Ron Stout, Bill Booth, Scott Whitfield, Phil Feather, Tom Peterson, John Chiodini, Steve Fister, Bill Cunliffe, Ken Wild, Kendall Kay and Brian Kilgore.

1. Chicago
2. By the Time I Get to Phoenix
3. Kansas City
4. New York State of Mind
5. King of Route 66
6. Blue Bayou Bossa
7. I Love LA
8. Back Home Again in Indiana
9. Chattanooga Choo Choo
10. I Left My Heart in San Francisco
11. Washington Post Modern
12. Georgia on My Mind
13. S.L.O. Blues

Choosing songs with city, state and area titles that were hit tunes in their day, this beautifully crafted and genuinely heartfelt new album opens on a sparking Dixieland arrangement within Chicago and then some warmly-imbued tuba then leads us into Jimmy Webb’s By the Time I Get to Phoenix, and they are backed up seamlessly by a dutiful medley of two songs with the same name, Kansas City (Mike Stoller, Richard Rogers), a newly-crafted modern pop classic vibe then becomes New York State of Mind (complete with melodica and Self’s self-created fluba) and then come the totally swinging King of Route 66 and the lovely, invigorating warmth of the mashup within Blue Bayou Bossa.

Having worked with Randy Newman on many film scores, up next is Self’s take on his iconic I Love LA and the theme song of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where Self attended, Back Home Again in Indiana (which, for this version, Scharnberg created an orchestrated version of Dave Brubeck’s recorded arrangement) and they are in turn followed by the boogie-woogie of Chattanooga Choo Choo, their beautiful rendition of the American Songbook’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco, the album rounding out on a hip, post-modern version of Washington Post Modern (included due to Self having been a member of the U.S. Army Band in Washington, DC.), the softly sensitive Georgia on My Mind, coming to a delightful close on the Self-composed S.L.O. Blues (a piece he wrote about the town of San Luis Obispo, where he had a vacation home for 13 years).

The Band:
Jim Self, F tuba, CC tuba, fluba, F “Jimbasso” and BBb cimbasso Kim Scharnberg, baton Ron Stout trumpet, flugelhorn Bill Booth trombone, euphoniums Scott Whitfield, trombone Phil Feather alto saxophone, English horn Tom Peterson soprano & tenor saxophones John Chiodini, guitars Steve Fister, guitars Bill Cunliffe, piano, melodica Ken Wild, string bass, electric bass, fretless electric bass Kendall Kay, drums Brian Kilgore, percussion.

Official Purchase Link

Jim Self @ Facebook