Wild Tuba, 1953

[Art Hovey]

A long-lost recording has been found at last:

http://www.purevolume.com/downloads/176 ... a_1953.mp3

Another version, perhaps more easily accessible, is here:
http://www.box.net/shared/h73khof7f1

When my father heard this record on the radio around 1953 he immediately hopped onto a train to Manhattan and bought it from the radio station. It was a 78 rpm and the label said something like "for broadcast only; NOT FOR SALE".

He was sure it could not be anyone else but Bill Bell, but Bill firmly denied it. Who does it sound like to your ears? Seems to me there was only one guy who could play like that, and he was studying with Bell around that time. Come on, 'fess up!

When I was in college I smuggled the record out of the house and brought it to New Haven so that Eli Newberger could hear it. At one point Eli remarked (with characteristic modesty) something like "Holy s----! Even I can't do that!"

If I don't get arrested first maybe I'll upload the flip side one of these days. On the label the tubist's name is listed as "Arki, the Arkansas Woodchopper".

[Chuck(G)]

Art, when I click the link, it just takes me to purevolume's home page, not to the MP3. Have they obliterated it already?

[GC]

When you get to the site, choose the Search button from the upper menu bar. On the Search page, click the Artist button and type in the word "Galvanized" in the blank. Three choices will come up; choose the Galvanized Jazz Band. Only one selection will show up: Wild Tuba 1953. Press the play button and wait a few seconds: it doesn't start instantly.

[Chuck(G)]

Thanks.

Vincent Fiorino is the tuba player. See:

http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2007 ... o-red.html

Harold, was Mr. Florino one of your two?

And does anyone have the "Golden Tuba" LP?

I've never seen Florino discussed on this BBS before.

[Art Hovey]

Thank you, Chuck, for your helpful link. I wish the text in the album cover were legible. I doubt that the tubist in the "Red Canary" recording was using the big Conn in the picture Fiorino. It sounds more like Harvey's little conn to me.

The "purevolume" link that I posted opens for me when I use Internet Explorer, but not when I use Opera. I think it may have something to do with the default media player that I am using; I still have a lot to learn about this stuff.

I just tried the box.com version on the "I'm learning to share" site and found that it won't play for me using Opera, but at least it goes right to the download file.

[Mikelynch]

Chuck,
I have the "Golden Tuba" album. It is...uh...well...remarkable....

According to the cover, Vince was identified as the "fastest tuba player in the world" by some organization. I want to say that is credited to Downbeat magazine, but I don't have it handy to check; and that does seem to be an unusual category for Downbeat.

A much younger Vince is also pictured on some Conn catlogs from the 40's (and maybe late thirties), with something that looks like the love child of a cimbasso and a recording bell tuba (picture a recording bell tuba, with the body horizontal, but with the bell facing forward (towards the "bottom" of the tuba)). In one of the pictures it looks like there a slide on it.

Mike

[Art Hovey]

Mike,
Can you post any copies of those pictures?
Can you upload an mp3 of one sample cut from the LP?
Does he sound like the tubist on "Red Canary"?

Thanks to Chuck's help I have uploaded the flip side of the Red Canary record; it's called "A Tuba Square Dance". REAL cornball stuff, but lots of tuba:

http://www.box.net/shared/sqoited2x0

[Chuck(G)]

Thanks to Chuck's help I have uploaded the flip side of the Red Canary record; it's called "A Tuba Square Dance". REAL cornball stuff, but lots of tuba:

http://www.box.net/shared/sqoited2x0

Art, thanks for the second clip, compared to the first side, that was, uh, contemporaneous....

[Steve Marcus]

I have the "Golden Tuba" album. It is...uh...well...remarkable....

Mike's quite right.

What's surprising about the "Red Canary" recording is that the tuba playing is much more clean than on the Golden Tuba LP, and also (thankfully) lacks the awful school-bathroom fake reverb/echo that is on every song of the LP. It's almost hard to believe that it's the same player.