Re: Re: Tuba trends of the past


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Posted by Mark Heter on June 20, 2003 at 09:05:44:

In Reply to: Re: Tuba trends of the past posted by Rick Denney on June 08, 2003 at 18:19:55:

On the subject of bell-front tubas. They had their place. For those who care, it was in my contract with Paul Lavalle (Band of America) that I have a bell-front tuba. He wanted the audience to SEE the tuba s well as hear it. We were in "show-biz". My Martin bell-front tuba landed me the Ringling job, because the leader could HEAR it, and the band could FEEL it. Johnny Evans played one for years, and since I "followed" him on that job (large shoes to fill, by the way), I used one too. The traveling musicians HATED the guys they picked up along the way with CC tubas they never heard - most of the players couldn't even play the whole show all the way through! Wimps!
Fred Pfaff, who dominated the radio business in NYC, along with Joe Tarto in the 1920s, 30s and 40s played everything - I mean everything - one a BBb Conn. Pfaff played with Sousa, Pryor, Lavalle, original Voice of Firestone, and dozens and dozens of radio shows, back when this was a BUSINESS. I knew him later in life, and he was still playing well in his 80s! He practiced an hour a day as an old man.
I'm not claiming that these horns the old timers played on were the greatest instruments; to the contrary, I picked up Joe Tarto's horn in NYC for him after an overhaul, and before delivering it to him couldn't resist playing a few notes on it. I was appalled. It was unbalanced, and horribly out of tune to itself - BUT NOT IN JOE'S HANDS. The player's musicianship has to win out in the end. To quote Joe Novotny, who held the NY Phil chair down as well as anyone who ever sat there - "Buy a tuba, learn to play it".
I rise to defend bell front tubas in places like low-ceilinged night clubs; it beats blowing into the tin ceiling two feet over your head and listening to THAT distortion all night. Unfortunately, those gigs are pretty much gone.
That said, I'm doing just about everything these days on my new 2341 King - with an upright bell. I dig the horn so much I've turned into a practice junkie; wish I had this horn 30 years ago! My work is mostly legit these days, what with Dixieland bands on the wane. I keep the Martin around just to scare the hell out of everybody once in a while.
Remember the iron rules of the music business - you learn what you need to know, and you bring what the employer wants to pay you for. At Disney I played sousaphone - along with the sousaphone came a steady check and medical insurance for my family - MH


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