Bradley James Felt (May 6, 1956 – October 6, 2011) was an American tuba and euphonium player, composer, bandleader and educator. His work extended modern jazz traditions, using tuba and euphonium as lead and featured solo instruments.
Biography
Brad Felt was born May 6, 1956, in Royal Oak, Michigan to Charles and Jeanne (nee Vorhes) Felt. He was raised in Bloomfield Township and West Bloomfield Township, Michigan.
Felt became interested in music through hearing his parents play records and sing around the house, and he began playing trumpet in grade school.
Braces were put on Felt's teeth as a teenager, making it difficult to play trumpet. At the behest of his junior high school band director, he switched to tuba at age 14. He later recalled:I was the last-chair trumpet player and they needed a tuba player. So (the band director) asked me to switch, and I said yes. He basically shut me in a room with a beginning tuba book and mostly left me to my own devices until I was ready to rejoin the ensemble. It was a drag at first, but I rapidly came to love it. I really blossomed in high school.Felt attended Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, graduating in 1974. His tenure in the concert band there culminated with a performance of Frank Bencriscutto’s "Concertino for Tuba and Band."
Following high school Felt attended Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan on a performance scholarship. Oakland's music department included a strong jazz faculty staffed largely with active professionals from the Detroit area. In 1991 he said:…it was at Oakland University, thinking that I would play with a symphony someday, that I took the jazz ensemble course with Doc Holladay, Sam Sanders and especially Herbie Williams, who was a great early influence on me.Felt participated in the jazz workshop led by trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and formed a musical partnership with saxophonist Steve Wood (a fellow Oakland student) that would continue for 35 years. Felt began to focus on urban music venues and opportunities to learn from local artists. Soon he encountered and performed with Nasir Hafiz (a.k.a. Abe Woodley), Roy Brooks, Kenny Cox, Wendell Harrison, Frank Isola, Phil Lasley, Bud Spangler, Donald Walden, A. Spencer Barefield, Ed Nuccilli and many others.
From this point forward, Felt was committed to extending the Detroit jazz tradition and developing his own artistry within that continuum. Much of this commitment was born of an appreciation for the support he received from the local jazz community. Felt's suburban background and unusual choice of instrument were not questioned. Instead, he was accepted as an artistic peer and community member.
In addition to frequent work in Detroit-area nightclubs, Felt's performances were regularly featured at the annual Detroit International Jazz Festival. During an appearance there in 2010, he said:I play…from a tradition of Detroit music that I’m trying to extend further…When I was first coming up…The Detroit community welcomed me with open arms…It’s a great debt that I owe to the Detroit jazz community.Felt's skill as a jazz songwriter coincided with and developed alongside his work as a performer. He started writing jazz tunes soon after he began playing the music, eventually generating over 60 compositions – Many of which were featured in live performances as well as on his recordings. As he noted in a 2010 interview:In a lot of ways, being a composer has been the thing that defines my musical experience maybe more than the instruments I play.In 1989, the quintet Felt co-led with Steve Wood travelled to California for a performance at the Hollywood Palace as a finalist in the Hennessy Cognac Jazz Search competition.
Around 1990, the Steve Wood/Brad Felt Quintet was featured as part of the Detroit-area cable TV series Jazz Masters-Keepers of the Flame.
In April 1990, Felt headlined a concert at the Detroit Institute of Arts entitled The Tuba Rules! featuring primarily his own compositions. Supporting Felt were Steve Wood and James Carter (reeds), Rob Pipho (vibes), Kenny Cox (piano), Jaribu Shahid (bass) and Danny Spencer (drums).
In 1990 Felt appeared with Kenny Cox and the Guerilla Jam Band at the Moers Festival in Germany.
Felt was the subject of a "Just Stanecki" news feature on Detroit's WJBK-TV in 1992.
He addressed his unusual choice of instruments for the music he played in a 2010 interview:Q. Was there ever a disconnect between your desire to play jazz and the fact that the tuba wasn’t really considered a jazz instrument ?