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In looking at some materials on Sousa that I had not seen for a few years, I ran across an interesting photo of the Sousa Band said to be from 1921. This is the only image I have ever seen of the Sousa Band in which the section includes a bell front sousaphone.

The player with the bell front must be Jack Richardson, since Jack is creditied as having been with the band from 1912 to 1924, although, to me, this player looks very different from the photos of Jack in the pictures in the other recent series of posts. It's also possible that the years of service could be in error, as Jack also shows up in a 1927 photo (below). But then, who would be the other tall sousaphone player?

The instruments in 1927 appear to be the same as those in the previously posted 1923 and 1924 images.





Mike Lynch

5 large raincatchers and a bass sax..... What a powerful bottom end that band must have had!

-Eric

Hi Mike --

I met Jake Freeman while on a West Coast tour with The U.S. Armed Forces Bicentennial Band in the mid '70s and he gave our section copies of the bottom picture.

Left to right, the players were Frank Tritton, Jake Freeman, Loren Kent, Gabe Russ, and Jack Richardson - 1st tuba.

Jake added this about Jack Richardson's horn:
"This tuba was the original one made by Conn as suggested by Mr. Sousa. The Metal was thin and the bore large. The tone had a resonance the others did not have."

Jake also mentioned that this was the section for the band's last full coast-to-coast tour.
__________________________________________

There were giants in those days !!

Best wishes,
Tim Loehr

From the Dallas Wind Symphony's excellent site devoted to Sousa:
http://www.dws.org/sousa/roster.htm
There are also several good pictures on the site, different from those in this post.

The comment on the weight of these horns is right on (with the possible exception of Jack Richardson's horn, as relayed by Tim). The jumbo raincatchers I am familiar with have very heavy metal.

A raincatcher identical to the one second from the right in the 1927 photo weighs 47 pounds. The three valve version saves a few pounds, but is still a pretty manly horn (and due to that was not quite as good a choice for TubaChristmas one year as it might have seemed at the outset...). It would be hard to imagine pulling dents out of these.

Mike Lynch

Shockwave wrote:5 large raincatchers and a bass sax..... What a powerful bottom end that band must have had!

I am curious as to whether that might be a contrabass sax...

Mike,
I'm thinking that maybe the photo is earlier, and that the player with the bell-front sousaphone looks more like Herman Conrad, an earlier tall member of Sousa's tuba section. Who knows, if the photo is later (as the bell-front would suggest), maybe Herman came back as a sub for a Sousa gig at some point. If he indeed did do so and brought his personally-owned sousaphone, that would account for the oddball instrument in the section.

As for the weight of these mastodons, they are extremely heavy. I have a 1929 jumbo bell-front Conn sousaphone (46K) that I used for a 5-hour-long 2nd line parade gig about 10 days ago. My shoulder is just starting to feel normal again! I would not want to have a 4-valve model because of the added weight. The 3-valve model almost feels like wearing two 20K's at once. But, the way she looks and plays makes the effort worth it.

Lee,
I had the same thought about it being Herman Conrad. He was listed as only being with Sousa from 1892-1900, so I was thinking the time difference seemed too large for the date on the image to be that far off, judging for example by Sousa's age. My understanding is that he went back to Germany after playing with Sousa (but did he take with him the large raincatcher with "SOUSA" in big letters on the front of the bell that he has been pictured with?!?).

But your thought that he came back as a sub may be the most likely explanation. Conrad certainly appears to have been quite tall from some of the other pictures. And how many really tall tuba players who were good enough to play with Sousa could there have been in the early 20's?

[A 5 hour parade gig with a 46K?!--what were you thinking! Give my regards to your chiropractor... <grin>]

Mike Lynch

I just posted an article about my uncle Gabe Russ,Sousaphone player 1925-1927.
Please advise me if you have any photos of the band that era.i only have a few photos of Gabe himself with his Sousaphone.
Cheers and thanks
Ray Van Sickler
Vanezz6@yahoo.com" target="_blank

Sadly the photos in the OP don't come up on my monitor. A US only server?

Klaus

I didn't get either.

Hi-
The latest ITEA journal has the great reprinted article by John Taylor of Sousa's Sousaphonists with terrific pics....
Mark

OK, didn't notice that, as I just saw it as a new thread.

Somebody has these photos available for an upload?

Klaus

Hi-
Here's one of the images from John Taylor's/ITEA article-FYI-mark

Thanks, that photo was the one I had not seen yet.

Klaus