Try this at home (and in recital)

[enewberger]

For those tubists with some piano chops, the 2nd of George Gershwin's 3 piano preludes makes a fine performance piece. You hold your horn across your lap and play the simple piano part with your left hand. It's essentially a minor blues plus a simple bridge, with the only required acrobatics in the last arpeggio.

If you'd like to see how it's done, here's a movie I just put on my web site, taken last September at a concert at the University of New Hampshire.

http://www.elinewberger.com/video.html#Gershwin

I'm playing my Harvey Phillips Holton CC here. The quoted NYTimes review is of my 1985 recording of it, on the duo album with Jimmy Mazzy, "Shake It Down." There I used a Holton Del Negro CC, pictured on the page.

Warm regards in this bitter cold to all,

Eli

[WoodSheddin]

That is one cheap bastard. Wouldn't even pay for a doggone accompanist.

[dgannett]

I saw Eli do this on his piano at home when Harvey & I were visiting once.
If Eli wasn't such a great guy he'd really irritate me!
Hey Eli - how do you like your Harv Holton? Do you still have that Holton you bought from me that you cut down to a CC?
I'm just recovering from an industrial accident a year ago August, had my face smashed in by a 4 ft steel bar. Through God's grace I wasn't more seriously hurt, but it has been a temporary set back for my playing, such as it is.
The upside is that for the first time in my life, I have straight teeth. My upper palate is a rather strange shape though (from the inside) and that bridge where my teeth were all knocked out feels like a dinner plate, but I'm hoping the muscle memory will kick in. Who knows - I might even have high chops once it's all over!
Through an amazing circumstance, my original horn from 30 years ago is being returned to me, so I figure it's time to get my chops back (can you get back what you never had?)
I reek of diesel.

[enewberger]

Great to hear from you, Dave, and to hear that you avoided that particular bar, mostly. I do hope your embouchure becomes even better as a consequence. Think Django Reinhart's left hand.

I thought of you a couple of days ago when I saw a Martin CC on eBay, cut from CC. Because that York Master BBb you sold me so many years ago after our meeting in the Hyatt Ballroom in Sacramento, right after you nearly burned the place time musically and pyrotechnically, got a sex change, too. I stuck a Martin bell on it, and it was one responsive beast. But not needing such a monster with the Black Eagles, after nearly overpowering the studio session with Butch Thompson that led to the "In Search of New Orleans" album, I put an ad in the Internation Musician and sold it to Dave Unland.

How does a horn return to you after 30 years? GPS? Low-Jack?

[dgannett]

Hi Eli -

Man, that was a nice horn - hope it got a good home!
My '70's vintage Conn 2J is coming by way of friend who has had it all this time and decided he doesn't want to play any more, which is a shame because he's a monster...on the other hand, I know the feeling. I quit entirely for a couple of years ('95 - '97) and ironically, it was right in the middle of that when I got a call from "Music City Tonight" (the Crook and Chase show) to do a guest shot...and they wouldn't take no for an answer. Yamaha sent me one of their super sousa's and I blew it up good for the show and then receded back into the woodwork.
BTW - have seen you on TV a couple of times in your work for the hospital - God Bless you for the wonderful healing work you're doing for those traumatized children and their parents. I'm mighty proud to know you...

Dave

[Rick Denney]

...Because that York Master BBb you sold me so many years ago after our meeting in the Hyatt Ballroom in Sacramento, right after you nearly burned the place time musically and pyrotechnically, got a sex change, too. I stuck a Martin bell on it, and it was one responsive beast.

Now that sets the bells rattling in my head (or maybe voices), but Chuck G and I have discussed what bells might work in a York Master. I have the one Oscar Lagasse once owned. What Martin bell did you use? Did you replace the stack from the ferrule up, or did you fit a Martin bell into an attachment ring?

I'm thinking that small attachment kept B&M from expanding the taper to a proper throat.

Rick "curious" Denney

[enewberger]

It's kind of a long story, but here goes. From 1963 to approximately 1982, I played a Holton CC Del Negro 4 valve horn. Inevitably, it needed repair, so I set out to find another one. John Richards in Portland, OR, I learned from Walter Sear in NYC, who sold me the first one, had one in BBb. I worked out a price with him, flew to Philly and met him in the baggage area (also the symphony librarian, he had to flew some music home to the Phila. Orchestra). I gave him and check and brought it home, with its not one but two bells. The original bell was a mess, creased, punctured, and sawed off fairly crudely, and the one John was using was a Martin bell, with a proper ferrule. With Bob Osmun's hand, and my original Holton as a template, and Bob Rusk giving telephone consultation, this Holton was cut down to CC in Bob Osmun's shop. It was perfect, with its original restored bell, and I used it on practically every subsequent Black Eagle recording and the recording called "The Men They Will Become: Jazz Takes on Male Character," with Butch Thompson, piano and clarinet, and Jimmy Mazzy, banjo and vocals.

So when I bought Dave Gannett's BBb York Master, I gave Bob Osmun the Martin bell, smaller in diameter than the York bell, and asked him to make it work. The solution was brilliant, so far as I could tell. But for the life of me I cannot remember its diameter, much less how far down the new fitting went. The whole works was re-silvered, and the sound was huge, focused, and sweet.

Hope this helps! Call Ithaca for more details!

Eli

[Rick Denney]

It's kind of a long story...

Thanks for the story and the information. If you had a picture of it, I might drive to Ithaca to make a copy of it, heh, heh.

The marriage of a York Master, which by itself seems a bit stiff, and a Martin bell, which is anything but, just might be perfect.

Rick "who owns both bells in nearly original condition" Denney