Strictly Oompah: Tubby the Tuba from my childhood

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Tubby the Tuba from my childhood

A friend of mine is currently writing an article on "Tubby the Tuba" for the ITEA Journal, and I'm eager to read it! Personally, I've always enjoyed the 1994 version recorded by the Manhattan Transfer (I really got into that group back in college - 1979-1984):

But there was a short version, on an old 78 record, that I listened to when I was a child back in the 1960s. Someone posted that version on YouTube (from a later LP), and I was thrilled to find it online. It features Jerry Bruno as Tubby. Man, does that bring me back!

Here's the artwork from the original Cricket 78 record that we had:

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Sousa on the Sousaphone

"The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band of Washington, D. C., of which I was conductor, used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form know as a 'Helicon.' It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one, and grateful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Ind." (John Philip Sousa, Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 1922, p. 8)