Climax Jazz Band in a 1978 TV show featuring alto player Dick Cary.
Dick Cary was the first pianist in Louis Armstrong's All Stars
Already in the late fifties in the Netherlands when I started
collecting jazz LP's some of my favourrites were these Eddie Condon
recordings. In many Dick Cary was on piano and on occasion he played
the Eb alto horn. With a beautiful tone and with these fabulous
counterpoint improvisations he became one of my jazz heroes.
It was of course an enormous honor and thrill to be able to have him
play with our band on a TV show. Magnolia's Wedding Day is pleasant
tune to improvise through. Much later I realized that the bridge
should have a different chord structure. However Dick didn't know the
tune and therefore all went fine and smooth. One of the favourite film
clips in my collection.
I have some other Dick Cary recordings on Alto Horn - very great stuff!
(Climax JB is from Canadia, hence the alternate spellings )
There is not enough Alto Horn anymore (outside of British Brass Band territory - even if they call it Tenor Horn...)
Mells seem to have taken over that voice, bit they are not the same!
I was fortunate enough to hear Dick Cary on several occasions when he played with jazz bands in NYC. He made some nice records with Bobby Hackett if you can find them - replacing the trombone in the front line with a brass alto voice. He lived in New England up on the Cape I believe.
Most of the piano work on Armstrong's All-Stars was done by Marty Napoleon (nephew of Phil) who still with us at the age of 90.
The OTHER guy who did a a lot of hot mellophone playing starting the 1920s with Red Nichols, Miff Mole etc. was a guy named Dudley Fosdick. Fosdick eventually ended up playing 2nd trumpet and mellophone with Guy Lombardo for many years. In the 1970s toward the end of Guy's career, the 2nd trumpeter was still doubling mellophone in the arrangements.
You can look up the Stan Kenton mellophones band on the internet. Mixed results to say the least...
Mark Heter
1926 Martin Handcraft 3v upright bell front action ; 1933 Martin Handcraft 3v bellfront; King 2341 (old style); King top-action 3v; Bach (King) fiberglass sousaphone.
Mr. Cary makes the Alto horn sing loud and clear. His solo is impeccable, and super melodious. This is way too rare, and this, the smallest real tuba, should be represented in quartets: imagine the sonority of Alto, Euph, Eb/F bass and Contrabass. I look forward to the day when those charts appear. One could just rewrite the high euph parts for alto tuba. I don't think it should be called Alto Horn any more. It's a TUBA!
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