If you have ever wondered "who plays a tuba?" — and who hasn't? — you will be able to find an answer, or hundreds of them, Saturday at the venerable and exquisite Palmer House Hilton, where some 400 tuba-playing people will gather with their instruments to make beautiful noise.

Yes, beautiful noise.

If you have never heard a tuba, let alone hundreds of them, playing such Christmas tunes as "O, Come, All Ye Faithful," "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bells," you will be in for a revelation.

The tuba is an instrument that, like Rodney Dangerfield or the Chicago Bears, "don't get no respect." It's too big — ugly, to some eyes, clumsy to others. It lacks the sex appeal of the saxophone, the piano, guitar or even the cello.

"People think the tuba is a silly instrument that just goes 'oom-pah,'" said one Harvey Phillips, who was to the tuba what Colonel Sanders was to chicken.

This Palmer House Hilton event is called "TubaChristmas" and will take place at 1 p.m. in the understandably spacious Grand and State ballrooms on the fourth floor of the hotel at 17 E. Monroe St. (palmerhousehiltonhotel.com). The event is free to the public, and there are no tickets or reservations, though audience members are asked to bring nonperishable food items to be donated to the Chicago Food Depository. It gets very crowded very fast.

Though yet to reach the stature of such seasonal entertainments as "The Nutcracker" or "A Christmas Carol," "TubaChristmas" has nevertheless been taking place for more than a quarter of a century here and longer in cities across the state, nation and planet. There are more than 150 of these concerts, including close by in Algonquin and Barrington, in Galesburg and Moline. Planning to be in Canada? Not to worry — that country has plenty. And there is one in Singapore too (tubachristmas.com).

Phillips invented "TubaChristmas." He was a tuba believer who devoted his life to improving its image. A professor at Indiana University, he played tuba in touring circuses, in the U.S. Army Field Band, helped start the New York Brass Quintet, performed in jazz clubs and recital halls. He played Carnegie Hall.

But for all of his skill as a musician it was his entrepreneurial bent that has given him a lasting impact. He created in 1973 an "international organization dedicated to performers, teachers and friends of the tuba and euphonium" now known as the International Tuba Euphonium Association, with thousands of members in more than 50 countries. (A euphonium is a brass instrument that very much resembles a small tuba.)

But more to the point, Phillips gathered some tuba-playing pals in 1974 to put on a holiday concert at the ice rink in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center and he called it "TubaChristmas."

There are now hundreds of such tuba concerts every December under the auspices of the Harvey Phillips Foundation. When he died in 2010 at age 80, his obituary in The New York Times rightly hailed him in the headline as the "Titan of the Tuba."

So that is why all of those people will be toting, by trains, planes, automobiles, taxis and on foot, their tubas to the Palmer House. Some will be dressed in colorful costumes — Santa hats being prominent — while others will have decorated their instruments with blinking lights and other seasonal trappings.

It is a sight and sound to behold. Like the people who play them, tubas come in all shapes and sizes. There are small baritone models and those enormous, double B flat types (think high school and college bands). The performers range in age from about 8 to 80 and are a lively bunch.

At last year's event I met a number of them.

One of them said, "You should see me trying to get on a crowded 'L.'"

Another said, "I sometimes feel like I am carrying a small person around with me."

Though most are not professional musicians, some are.

One young man told me that he has been showing up each year since he was 16.

He is now 25, and Amir Gray said earlier this week: "Of course I will be there Saturday. It is so cool to be around so many otherplayers."

Gray was born, raised and now lives in Hammond. His first taste of music came through the radio his mother gave him when he was 2. He was soon singing in choirs and talent shows. Enrolled in piano lessons when he was 9, he became bored and dropped out, but a few years later he persuaded his parents to let him join the school band. He wound up with a tuba.

Almost immediately he was winning contests and awards and was the first tuba player to be accepted into the Chicago Academy of the Arts. He was playing on borrowed or rented tubas until he and his mother started a successful fundraising effort so that he could buy his own.

He later attended the Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts in Gary and the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University at Bloomington. He has played in funk bands, in jazz bands, with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and other classical outfits. He's played in clubs and on street corners. He has formed bands, three of them, the latest of which is Gray Era Brass, which is to be featured in an upcoming episode of the new Fox TV series "Empire." The band also will be performing in concert at Reggie's, the music club at 2105 S. State St., on Dec. 21.

Gray says, "The tuba is my voice," and to look at his business card — Jazz, Funk, Classical, R&B, Blues, Gospel — and explore the videos on his website (artistecard.com/thatgrayguy#!) is to begin to grasp and appreciate the versatility and potential of that voice.

Gray has a theory about the tuba's second-tier stature: "The tuba and the saxophone were invented around the same time (in the mid-1800s), and what I think happened is that the saxophone was taken up by all the best clarinet players and the tuba got all the worst trumpet players."

He laughs at that thought but then turns serious when he then says: "I want to be known as one of the musical greats. I want to show all the things this instrument can do and keep exploring all it might be able to do. I know others share that ambition."

He has paid for his art. In 2007, about to embark on a European tour with the CYSO, he was attacked on a South Shore commuter train after people complained that he and his tuba were taking up too much room. A woman bit his ear and a teenage boy hit him in the head with a glass bottle, slicing his cheek.

He was put on a stretcher after the attack but kept asking for his tuba.

"Even then he was so focused on the music," his mother, Kitten, told The Associated Press after the incident.

Who plays the tuba?

Gray will be all but lost in Saturday's concert crowd, the eye-catching spectacle of it all, and the joyful sounds that will fill the room and shake the rafters. "But we are all, no matter the level at which we play, part of an amazing community," he says. "Just listen."

So, what else might you expect?

Almost two decades ago, Phillips told my Tribune colleague Phil Vettel, "I guarantee that all the children who come will want a tuba for Christmas."

Now, there's a thought, and you'll need some extra wrapping paper.

Some time ago, we wrote about this amazing band, Gray Era Brass.

The tuba-led group started in the Chicago blues scene with a bang, and has been growing quickly. We knew that Amir Tubad Gray (the band’s leader) and his blues/jazz/soul-fused group were pretty awesome. And apparently, we weren’t the only ones.

FOX studios recently called up Amir and asked him if he and his band wanted to be on the upcoming show Empire. Yeah, that FOX studios.

The upcoming 2015 show Empire stars Terrence Howard as Lucious Lyon – a thug-turned-CEO of “Empire Entertainment,” who must beat his illness in order to prepare his sons to take over the literal empire.

So the show-runners gave Amir a ring. And I mean, what are you going to say?

“No, Fox studios. No thank you.”

So in just six months, Amir and Gray Era have gone from a funky little band getting some minor gigs to being on television. But don’t be discouraged – there’s still time to see him in person before you see him on the biggest billboard in Chicago.

This coming Thursday, Amir and Gray Era Brass are performing at Room 43 at 7 PM as a tribute to the famous early 1900’s ragtime pianist and musician, Jelly Roll Morton.

Their “Jazz from the Past” show is something that truly embodies what Gray Era Brass is all about. For a group filled with youth, Gray Era Brass has an old heart and spirit – connecting the sound of the past with young, original appeal.

Amir is aiming to do more of these tribute shows, keeping the traditional sound and style that Gray Era has become known (and recognized) for.

Check out Gray Era Brass at their tribute show to Jelly Roll Morton and many more to come. The show is from 7 to 10 PM this Thursday, November 20th.

The tickets are $20 for pre-order and $25 at the door. But hurry, they’re going fast

To See the full story go to: http://www.majoronions.com/gray-era-brass/

Gray Era Brass: The Next Generation of Blues

When you picture a blues group playing in a smoky bar, you tend to picture the 1960’s, not 2014. And if you do picture the modern day and age of music, you definitely wouldn’t envision that group covering Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse.”

But that’s why you should meet Amir “Tubad” Gray, a Chicagoan that’s bringing back classic style in a new, unexpected way.

It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. And the first night I saw Amir in action, the right place was a boozy Friday night at Kingston Mines.

I met him through some of my Indiana University friends when they came to visit the Windy City. Though we had just met, Amir and I were united by the same goal – to give our IU people a true Chicago nightlife experience. So after deep-dish, Amir took us to Chicago’s oldest blues club.

I knew this dude was cool when, instead of double-fisting beers like the rest of us, Amir toted a tuba around with him to the bars. Where he might have stood out in the fraternal crowds of Wrigleyville, not only did Amir fit right in at Kingston Mines – he joined the action.

We’ve all seen those rare street jam sessions that blow up on YouTube. But you’re never actually the person who gets to see this stuff in real life. In a big city like Chicago, the closest you’ll typically get to viral-worthy videos is a drunk dude singing in cursive on the CTA.

And yet leaning against a car outside Kingston Mines, Amir was playing a steady beat on his tuba for a crowd of iPhone photographers. But when a beatboxer, singer, and rapper joined Amir – it immediately became something you’d want to share on Facebook.

What was initially a group of strangers quickly became a cohesive and entirely improvised street performance.

After that night, I had to know more about Amir. And in doing so, I discovered that this street performance was just the tip of the iceberg.

From growing up singing along to the cassette tape of “Thriller” (a kid after our 80’s/90’s kid hearts), to attending several arts-focused schools, Amir has studied music all his life. But when his teacher at Indiana University’s prestigious Jacobs School of Music had him stuck in the classical world when all he wanted to do was play jazz, he found that he didn’t learn as much in the music school as he did in the music scene.
Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 3.38.53 PMAmir Gray on the tuba.

He focused on gaining experience and building a skill set his own way, becoming the first tuba player in both the IU Soul Revue and the Latin America Popular Music Ensemble. And on top of running and participating in a band for fun, he also formed his own event planning company in what might be the most genius move in millennial musician history.

“The reason I even had the event planning company was because I had a band but no one would hire us ‘cause no one else had hired us before. So I started our event planning company to give us gigs. And after that they were like ‘ok, yeah, we’ll hire you” Amir says with a laugh.

That was just the first lesson Amir learned about the music industry: not only do you have to break the rules…you have to make your own.

Unsurprisingly, Amir’s unorthodox way of doing things is his trademark. And where most musicians plan on breaking into the blues industry, Amir more or less stumbled into it.

After moving back to Chicago, Amir was out, tuba on his back, looking for a jam session at a local bar only to find the bar to be dark and locked up when he arrived.

Then, like something out of Jack Karaouac’s The Road, Amir struck up a conversation with two guys who asked about the giant bag on his back, and eventually suggested he hit up the infamous “Kingston Mines.”

While Amir had never heard of the blues club, he was well versed in the music from growing up with a father who loved the genre. So when the legendary Eddie Shaw was the musician who happened to be playing onstage, Amir was hooked.

“I’m a record collector, and so I know Eddie Shaw. I’m like, freakin’ Eddie Shaw? On stage? Amazing!’”

(Sidenote: Eddie Shaw got his start with Muddy Waters – lead man for the band of the same name that all but defined Chicago Blues. He now plays in a continuation of the great Howlin’ Wolf’s band, The Wolf Pack)

As if his night couldn’t get better, the same two strangers who got him to Kingston Mines got him onstage to play tuba alongside the legendary saxophone player- making Amir the first tuba player Shaw has ever played with.
“Afterwards, he was like, ‘I’ve never played with a tuba player before in my life, but…I totally feel like you’re gonna be doing something.’”

That prediction came full circle when in the months that followed, Amir took his newly formed blues group back to Kingston Mines, where Shaw happened to be in the audience, validating Amir by saying, “I knew you’d be doing something amazing.”

Now, in a world where the walking bass has been replaced with dropping the bass, Amir and his current band Gray Era Brass are bridging the world of classic blues with their modern sound.

Screen Shot 2014-09-23 at 3.39.23 PM“We take a lot from both blues and soul. But we also take a lot from Jazz and popular music. I think Gray Era Brass transcends genre,” he describes.

What started as Amir and a friend getting together for some jam sessions on the street quickly spun into the idea of creating Gray Era Brass. And just three months later, they’re quickly gaining traction.

“I learned to not just be a name on a sheet of paper, but to be a face.”

They made it their staple to perform six days a week in front of Millennium Park. And taking street performing to the next level, Gray Era did CTA performances, quickly putting together their instruments for the guaranteed audience on the train. Pop-up street and train performances have made them a recognizable group, so much so that mid-interview, a woman yells over, “You! Ive seen you guys playing on the train! We took a video of it!”

Amir laughs, saying, “Ok, that was something we started doing ‘cause I realized we needed something to be different than everyone else.”

Just like bending the rules at IU, he’s found loopholes to jump through with Gray Era, allowing them to book gigs just three weeksafter forming. And now, three months after their conception, they’re leaving the street scene behind to record.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t re-visit their musical roots.

“I don’t think you can ever take the street out of [us]…’cause that’s where we started. We get a lot of goofy guys in the band and the thing about it is it’s becoming a family…we get a lot of people coming out and starting to be a part of what Gray Era Brass is. And so I see us maybe doing some things in the future, taking it back to where we started.”

Thanks to his creative vision for an ageless genre in the city it has long called home, Amir’s Gray Era Brass represents the new wave of old style music that is still taking the city by storm.

GARY, Ind. (AP) — A teenage tuba player is preparing for a European summer tour after a mugging that came close to damaging his young career. Amir Gray, a senior at the Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts who has been admitted to the Indiana University School of Music, is scheduled to tour with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra during June 13-24. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance. How many kids get to tour Europe with a symphony?" said Gary School Board President Alex Wheeler Jr., who is holding a fundraiser Friday at Gary West Side High School to raise $4,000 needed for Gray's tour. Gray's family still owes $2,000 on the $11,000 tuba — his second — that he now plays and that triggered the March 18 attack that left him with a fading gash and bite mark on his face. The 18-year-old was riding a South Shore commuter train to a practice with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra when some other riders said he and his tuba were taking up too much room on the train. When he refused to be separated from his instrument, a woman bit his ear and a teenage boy hit him in the head with a glass bottle, cutting his cheek. "It just missed a nerve that could have affected his lips," said his mother, Kitten Gray. When he was placed on a stretcher after being injured, Amir was asking for his tuba, his mother said. "Even then he was so focused on the music," she said. "I'm very excited to tour. I just want to play all music," Amir Gray said. "I'd like to eventually have my own jazz band and work with a national symphony."

GARY | A young musician is going ahead with a planned recital and open house today at Hammond Public Library despite being assaulted on a South Shore train two weeks ago.

Amir Gray, 17, who plays tuba with the Chicago Youth Symphony, needed 22 stitches after the assault that occurred while he was coming home from a rehearsal March 18.

But Amir, a senior at Emerson School for the Visual and Performing Arts, feels well enough to perform at the open house, which also will include guest appearances by some of his teachers.

Meanwhile, his alleged assailant, Yeshia Tillis, 38, of South Bend, has been charged with battery and faces a court date in Cook County on April 5. Tillis' 17-year-old son also was taken into custody at the scene, but because he is a juvenile, NICTD Transit Chief Robert Byrd does not have information on his status.

Amir, who will be touring Europe with the Symphony this summer, has been riding the South Shore for four years.

"It is our belief that Tillis lost control and attacked Amir" during an incident that lasted 11 minutes, Byrd said.

Witnesses told police that Amir never threatened or approached Tillis in a physical manner prior to the attack, Byrd said. Passengers, including two off-duty police officers, helped quell the melee, he added.

Amir was taken to Roseland Community Hospital by a Chicago Fire Department ambulance. A witness called Amir's mother, Kitten Gray, from the train.

"I was hysterical," Kitten Gray said.

Amir required stitches in his ear and cheek, she said.

Amir and his family are anxiously awaiting word from the prestigious Indiana University Jacob School of Music as to whether it will accept him as a student this fall.

Today, he will do a duet with his private tuba instructor as well as perform with two of his teachers from Emerson. Amir, who is proficient in several instruments, also will play piano and sing.

Amir Gray, an 18-year-old musician, shares a moment with his mother, Kitten Gray.

A fading gash and bite mark on Amir Gray's face marks the bizarre incident that brought him close to losing his future as a classical and jazz musician. But it also reminds the graduating senior at the Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts of his unwavering dedication to music.

"I'm very excited to tour. I just want to play all music. I'd like to eventually have my own jazz band and work with a national symphony," Gray said.

The 18-year-old was recently admitted into the Indiana University School of Music.

His wind skills will soon send him on a European summer tour, playing for audiences from Warsaw, Poland, to Leipzig, Germany.

From June 13 to June 24, he will travel and perform with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra -- provided he raises the $4,000.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance. How many kids get to tour Europe with a symphony," said Gary School Board President Alex Wheeler Jr.

Wheeler is holding a Friday fund-raiser to amass the $4,000 needed for Gray's tour and for an Emerson dance student to tour with the Alvin Ailey dance group.

Lea Larson, arts coordinator at Emerson, said students often impress companies that invite them along but lack funds to go.

"Amir is an excellent musician. He can improvise and pick things up very quickly," Larson said.

Called "Amir & Friends," the benefit performance will be 5 p.m. at West Side High School. Tickets are available for a $50 donation.

"We're going to dance, play music and have a fun time. No one should miss the event," Gray said.

Adept on eight instruments, Gray is a maestro on the tuba.

"The tuba is one of the few instruments that can be part of the bass and also an intricate part of the melody," he said. "I want to make the tuba more than a classical instrument, but a popular one, too."

But all those dreams were almost eclipsed.

On March 18, Amir was attacked while riding the South Shore train to a practice with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra -- which he joined after winning the one tuba spot against competitors from across the Midwest.

He was accosted by a family who felt he and his tuba were occupying too much space on the train.

When Gray refused to be separated from the $11,000 instrument that has won him high marks in competitions countrywide, a South Bend woman bit his ear, while her teenage son hit him in the head with a glass bottle that broke on the third hit, gashing his cheek.

"The cut was pretty close to muscles that control my playing," Gray said.

"It just missed a nerve that could have affected his lips," his mother Kitten Gray said.

"A man called me from the train to tell me what happened. I was horrified. As he was taken out on the stretcher, he was reaching for his tuba and asking 'Where's my tuba?' Even then he was so focused on the music," Kitten Gray said.

That's his second tuba. The first was stolen. The family still owes $2,000 on the second one.

Amir's family lives on the truck driving salary of his father, Derrick Gray. Kitten is a "full-time mom" but says the family has pinched pennies to give Amir the best exposure.

Someone You Should Know: Eighteen-year-old will make tuba part of his future