Guy Lombardo?

[Bill Troiano]

Did he look like me 30 years ago?

[TubaTodd]

I noticed this weekend that our local public television network rebroadcasts old "Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians" television shows.

I watched a little bit (until my wife was 'ready to go'....) and noticed Lombardo's use of a tuba rather than a string bass. Does anyone know who played for Lombardo?

I was fascinated that the player - who seemed like a smaller person than the 'typical' tuba player also seemed like nothing more than a pair of legs sticking out of a big old Conn recording bell tuba....

Is THIS your man....



??

Doesn't look like Bill to me.

[Steven Noel]

Hi I believe it was a big Martin that was used in Guy`s band the original band that is not later years .

[Bill Troiano]

It ain't me babe! I'm not that old yet and, that's not Guy Lombardo either. I was in the band when Guy died after complications from open heart surgery. I continued playing in the band with various band leaders temporarily fronting the band. I left in April of 1978, along with many other band members, as we saw the writing on the wall and the end of an era, and less work. Guy's nephew led the next group of Royal Canadians, with not much success. Then, Al Pearson bought the rights to the band and moved it the west coast. That could be Al in the picture, which would place the photo in the 1980's - 90's. In any event, Guy insisted on a bell front tuba. I used a 4v King CC with the band, although a BBb sound would have been more appropriate. I once brought my 186CC to a recording session, figuring it sounded better and I played it better. Guy flipped and I only used the King after that.

[Bill Troiano]

It was definitely a case of being used to seeing a bell-front tuba. When I brought my 186 to the recording session, he snapped before he heard it. It didn't look like a tuba to him. Afterwards, he told me that he did like the sound of my Miraphone, but he wanted me to use the other tuba (King bell-front) from then on. Just another Guy quote- I was late for the Jones Beach summer gig one night, where we played musical productions and Guy's band played dance music afterwards in the Schaefer beer tent. I was late because I went to Six Flags in NJ with my girlfriend and others that day. I planned poorly, hit traffic and was late for the show and had to enter the pit in front of a thousand or so people right in the middle of the 1st act of "Showboat." Anyway, I found Guy during the intermission and aplogized for my lateness. I was lucky he liked me. He put his hand on my shoulder and calmly said: " That's OK, Bill. Those, things happen ----- once!"

[Bill Troiano]

Jack was with the band for many years. He left in Apr. 1976 and that's when I got the gig.

[Paul Scott]

If you're referring to the Guy Lombardo show from the '50s the player is Fred Exner. He alternated between a Conn and and a Martin, (I am the current owner of the Martin, which was built in 1936). Mr. Exner was also a fine bass player and was with Lombardo from about 1951 until 1963 or so. I believe he also played in the New Orleans Symphony at some point.

[LoyalTubist]

If you look at pictures of tuba players in pop music groups during the 1920s, they all used bell-front tubas. At the time they used them so the sound could be picked up on the acoustical sound pickups they used back then. Most tubists used a sousaphone. Some players didn't put it on their shoulders--it was put in a stand. I think the reason why Guy Lombardo got upset about an upright tuba used instead of a recording bass was because of the appearance--not so much the sound. I could be wrong.

[Paul Scott]

Lombardo considered the tuba to be very important to the band's sound.
In a 1965 Life magazine article, Lombardo said, "Ordinarily the tuba has an oom-pah sound, but we use it like cello obbligato to play long passages under the saxes or the open brass tri. It's very important to us-we'd rather do without the piano or drums."

Lombardo's recordings actually do show a fair amount of "oom-pha", but his arrangements did use the tuba in other ways too. His very first "tubist" played sousaphone and his next tubist (Bern Davies) played a Martin recording bell tuba from about 1929 until 1951. At that point Fred Exner took over, (sometimes with the same model Martin, sometimes a similar Conn). In 1964 Johnny Evans took over, playing (I think) a bell front Conn. So Guy was definitely used to looking at recording bells over the years!