Fluba Flashback
Fayetteville Sojourn
“On many of my flying trips I would find an airport about 400-500 miles ahead to fuel up. If I had a friend or family member nearby, I would call them and say, “If I buy you and your family dinner would you put me up for the night”? One time I did this for Fayetteville, AR. I had a friend there, Gerry Sloan, the trombone professor at the Univ. of Arkansas. Gerry had easrlier interviewed me my about tuba playing in the movie studios and wrote an article about it. Well, he said yes and, by chance, he was playing a summer faculty jazz concert that night. I had my Fluba with me and sat in for a few tunes. He is now retire4d and writes a lot of poetry
The next time I was in Fayetteville was this week (April 25) as a guest artist at the U of Ark, Gerry attended my two concerts there, one by their Wind Symphony which played my Barnstorming and a jazz concert. After the jazz concert he gave me a book of his poetry and a cool poem that had written for me. It tied in Barnstorming, the Fluba and my flying trip there years ago. Gerry is a sensitive man and dear friend!”
—Jim Self’s Flying Memoirs
FLUBA FLASHBACK
During his barnstorming days
as an amateur pilot, Jim Self,
renowned Hollywood tuba player,
had to stop over locally to refuel.
After a chance phone call and good
graces of mutual friends, we were
able to save him room and board
at another anonymous motel.
Not only that, but he strayed into
a summer jazz concert and jammed
with a local band on his bastard
instrument, the fluba,* and was
the hit of the evening, one more
example of how synchronicity
often produces more memorable
experiences than careful planning.
The moral, if there is one, is to trust
your friends and invisible connections.
Never fear venturing into the unknown;
the world is far smaller than we imagine.
*customized cross between a tuba
and a flugelhorn