Tuba virtuoso, Jim Self died November 2, 2025 making me even more grateful that I was able to have him on the show and then see him in Beverly Hills shortly after that when he came to cheer me on at one of my recitals. This was a friendship I was looking forward to continuing as we both bemoaned the fact that we hadn’t met earlier.

Acknowledged as one of the greatest on his instrument, Jim still felt his beloved tuba didn’t get the respect it deserved. “I want someone to write something romantic for the tuba,” Jim lamented to me. I’m called when a there’s someone fat on screen or an elephant. Fat people make love too.”

Yes, it was a fun conversation with this man who DID get respect from every corner of the music business. Jim worked with everyone from Placido Domingo and Mel Torme to Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand, not to mention, his playing on over 1500 movie soundtracks and hundreds of TV shows and records. Among tuba-enthusiasts, Jim Self is especially celebrated as the voice from the Mother Ship in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spoiler alert: that was Jim Self playing those tuba tones, not an alien.