It's the Blue Band time of year again!

A new home for The Harvard Tuba

The 130-year-old giant tuba, known as The Harvard Tuba, has lived in a corner of the Harvard Band room since late 1948. Needless to say, it got banged around!

And when the restoration of this amazing instrument was completed in July, it was temporarily returned to its old corner:

But finally - whew! - a custom-crafted display case has been installed, where this historic horn will live for the next 130 years.

If you're thinking of paying it a visit, know that it is still in the Harvard Band room (after all - they "stole" it fair and square!), but at least now it is protected and presented as the prized possession that it is. Long live this prodigious beauty!

Oh, and just to be clear on how big this horn really is, here's the earliest known photograph of the beast at Harvard - taken sometime between 1948 and 1950. And, I should add, these are the likely suspects of the aforementioned "theft." That story will have to wait until my article on the history of this tuba comes out in a week or two. Stay tuned!

The restoration of the Harvard Tuba

Here are some of the best photos of the restoration of the Harvard Tuba that was completed by Dillon Music last month. To begin with, we see Matt Walters, back in February, contemplating the difficult work to be done:

Among the most obvious things that needed to be fixed were the bell, the second valve slide, and the valves:

Matt worked from the inside out, in order to always have a reference point. Here is how the work began, using bean bag chairs to cushion the instrument:

So far, so good! Matt seemed encouraged!

The bottom bow, it turns out, weighs almost 18 pounds - and makes a nice fashion accessory, as Steve Dillon discovered:

But alas, the stylish belt buckle was returned to the bottom of the horn:

Now, about that very messed up bell - it started with a mild annealing process, to soften the brass as it was burnished and rolled out:

It continued with a modified rig to roll the bell:

Finally, Matt added a little hand burnishing:

Thank God, the bell survived all of that manipulation - and Steve didn't miss the opportunity to preach it with style!

After polishing it up, the bell went back on:

And then Matt added a few final touches:

Oh, and one last thing - a new, proportionally correct mouthpiece was created!

And there you have it! Here is Matt and Steve with the newly restored Harvard Tuba!

And finally, here is the entire team that did the work - from left to right, Fred Harvey, Evan Judson, Matt Walters (hiding behind the horn), Vladimir Friedman (who created the mouthpiece), Steve Dillon, and Perry Sutton:

This amazing instrument was then carefully hauled back up to Harvard (those bean bag chairs came in handy again!), where it was put back in its corner of the band room (the following photos are courtesy of Mark Olson, director of the Harvard Band):

It now awaits its new display case, and the opportunity to be played in concert for the first time in October, in celebration of the Band's 100th anniversary.

The full story of this horn's glorious restoration will appear in an upcoming edition of The Brass Herald, written by yours truly.

Dizzy Dean on Sousaphone in 1934

I stumbled upon this photograph today, showing Dizzy Dean, of the St. Louis Cardinals, appearing to play the Sousaphone before a 1934 game. Play ball (and tuba)!

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:

Sousaphone-related stuff this week

While continuing to research giant tubas this past week, I received, or stumbled upon the following items that are Sousaphone-related. The first is from around 1899, and is almost certainly a bit of promotional silliness - Elephants with helicon basses!

The second is a 1928 cereal ad that features, of all things, an upright bell Sousaphone - something that, by that time, had long-since fallen out of favor. The forward-facing bell Sousaphone, introduced by Conn in 1908, had been ruling the day for almost two decades (but, to be fair, it's easier to stuff people into an upright bell!):

Finally, the cover of The Saturday Evening Post from October 19, 1946 features a bell-front Sousaphone at a football game (check out the reflection in the bell):

Sousaphone sighting at Amazon.com!

My son hollered over to me last night, saying, "Dad, the Amazon home page is featuring a Sousaphone!" It turns out it's actually pieces of a marching band, but the Sousaphone does stand out.

Here's a close of up their interpretation of this type of bass horn. Is it just me, or are the valves missing? And what about the octagonal bell? Interesting idea!

Mr. Wm. J. Bell, Sousaphone Soloist

The legendary tubist Bill Bell joined Sousa's Band in 1921, when he was a mere 18 years old. But man, could that guy play a mean Sousaphone! For the four years that Bell was in the band, Sousa occasionally featured the youngster as a soloist. Here he is in 1921, and below that are the pages from a couple of Willow Grove programs that list Bell as soloist, playing "The Mighty Deep" by William Herbert Jude:

While I couldn't locate a recording of "The Mighty Deep" featuring the tuba, here is the vocal version, to give you a feel for how the piece would have sounded when Bell played it on his Sousaphone. Enjoy!

Conn's bogus boast from back in 1926

A friend of mine recently sent me images of a small brochure that Conn produced in 1926 that is devoted to the big horns. Here's the cover:

Not surprisingly, when it talks about Sousaphones, Conn once again boasts - wrongly - of having created the very first one:

While that page gets it wrong, another page provides a fascinating list of tuba players - past and present - that played Conn basses at one time in their career.

While he had passed away six years earlier, Herman Conrad, the very first Sousaphonist, made the list (which is alphabetized, if you didn't catch that). But he is listed as playing in the "Victor Talking Machine Band, New York City."

Conrad was with Victor from 1903, when he left the Sousa Band, until he died in 1920. But to my knowledge, he always worked with Victor in Camden, NJ, and lived in Philadelphia.

The fully-restored Harvard tuba!

My son and I had the rare privilege of seeing - and playing - the Harvard tuba this morning out at Dillon Music. Matt Walters and his team did a fantastic job on this historic beast! Here are a few shots from our time, starting with a before and after comparison:

That's Steve Dillon on the left and me on the right. Hmmm, we haven't changed a bit!

The team that did the work at Dillon Music (and that's Matt hiding behind the horn)

Me and Matt with the monster - and notice that the mouthpiece now points 90 degrees inward toward the horn, thanks to a special lead pipe extension that Matt created. That really fixed the ergonomics!

My son, Jonathan Detwiler, giving it a test run!

Matt and me again, but check out that new mouthpiece (without the lead pipe extension)!

Yeah, just for fun, Vladimir made a proportionally-correct mouthpiece, although, as you can imagine, it's pretty much impossible to play!

Man, that ancient horn is shiny now! And after measuring it, at 6 feet 11 inches tall, I believe that makes it the world's largest fully-functional tuba that can be played by just one person! How cool is that?!

And, okay, as I said up front, I did toot around on this 130-year-old monster while we were there - I'm just woefully out of playing shape at present. And keep in mind that playing a tuba this size with a regular tuba mouthpiece, which I did, is like trying to play a regular tuba with a trumpet mouthpiece! But here's what I could get out of this restored giant:

For my posts talking about some of the history behind this giant tuba, click here, and here, and here.