Posted by Chewie on September 22, 2003 at 10:33:33:
Caught Red Lehr on the sousaphone yesterday (along with band) and it was a truely amazing performance. Red owns a butcher shop near St. Louis and they had to hurry back downstate after dinner so he could open the shop today.
For all those posters who want to know how to take the lacquer off their horns, Red does it by playing "Tiger Rag" a bit uptempo. Almost stripped the liquor out of my drink.
During a break between sessions Red told me the story of how his sousaphone had gotten stolen in Amsterdam and while they were calling the cops, some woman called the station on the other line to report a "big brass thing" lying in the shallows of a canal. Sure enough, it was Red's student-model horn.
The sound he got out of that simple 3-valve horn makes it apparent that yet again it's not really the axe but the woodsman. Red slayed all in attendance, but the soundman needed to know that the sound needs to go UP on the soloist.
Thanks to Gene/Dave for letting me know that Red was comin' to town! Chewie