According to "Spike Jones and His City Slickers (The Untold Story)" by Jordan R Young, Disharmony Books, Moonstone Press 1982, the tuba player in the picture is Eddie Robertson.
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Who actually played on the recording?
Could have been Roger B Donley (with SJ from 1947-1955)
Roger-B-Donley.jpg
Born 1922, Quincy, Il. Son of a piano teacher, Donley started on piano and accordion at age 5, he later switched to trumpet and finally bass. During WW2 he served in an Air Force band, which took him to China, India and Burma. After 8 years on tuba and bass with Spike, he joined the editing department at UPA; he later worked for Bill Melendez Productions, and freelanced at other studios.
or Hank (Henry) Stern (with SJ 1941-1942,) but also could be:
Country Washburn(e*) was often the tuba player with Spike, in both his small group and "Spike Jones' Other Orchestra" but that picture does not look too much like him (but a bit hard to tell.) I will dig further though my record collection and biographical stuff I have. Jones also later formed a sort of "Country & Western" band that was not very funny, however, those uniforms look possibly more like that sort of thing.
(* The "e" at the end of his name seems to come and go, depending - according to Dan Augustine, Washburne's nephew Jim is a Washburn. )
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Here is some info collected a few years ago by Bill Haesler over on DJML:
Joseph (Joe) H 'Country' Washburne, the musician, vocalist and arranger.
Born on 28 Dec 1904 in Houston, Texas, he won local fame in the 1920s playing bass horn with the legendary pianist 'Peck' Kelley band in Galveston. (Other alumni from the 1920s Peck Kelley group include Jack Teagarden, Leon Roppolo, Pee Wee Russell qnd Leon Prima.)
He worked and recorded with Ted Weems orchestra from mid 1929 to 1942 (tuba, string bass, vocalist) and can be heard on the band's Victor, Columbia and Decca records. (Red Ingle was also in the Weems' band, from 1931 to 1941.)
He also recorded with Jimmy McPartland's Squirrels (April 1936). Joe joined Spike Jones' City Slickers (string bass, tuba, vocalist and arranger) in July 1942 and was with the group until 1946, plus later guest spots with the band. He is featured on Spike Jones And His Other Orchestra 1946 versions of "When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba".
During the 1940s-1950s he was on the Capitol records made by Wingy Manone, Eddie Skrivanek (Sextette From Hunger), Marvin Ash, [Charles] Lavere's Chicago Loopers, Nappy Lamare's Levee Loungers, Zutty Singleton and Billy May, and with Bob Crosby's Bob Cats in 1950 (part of the Coral 'Sousa Marches' album).
He joined Red Ingle's Chosen Seven in March 1947 and is on their famous early Capitol records.
On radio Country Washburne worked on the 'Great Gildersleeve', 'Fibber McGee and Molly' and Bing Crosby 'Chesterfield' radio shows. He also led the band on the Roy Rogers radio show. In early 1950 he also led the band on Curt Massey - Martha Tilton CBS and NBC television shows for over ten years.He then retired from the studios to operate a music studio.
Country Wasburne's compositions include "Oh Mo'nah", "One Dozen Roses", "I Saw Esau", "We'll Sing The Old Songs", "Everybody Calls It Swing", "At Last I'm First With You", "That's The Reason"and "Them Darn Fool Things". He became an ASCAP member in 1943. He died from a heart attack at Newport Beach (or Santa Anna), California on 21 Jan 1974.
More pictures to be posted below -
For those who are interested in this sort of stuff, a search of the
DJML archives will provide a lot of info not available many other places - Red Ingle's son Don has been on that list for years, and he has posted stories about Spike Jones, Natural Seven and other great novelty bands.
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