[Dixielandjazz] Gumming /Smelling up the horn - was Clarinet tuning

[Steve barbone]

Larry Walton Entertainment at larrys.bands at charter.net wrote:

> The primary things that gum up clarinets are  candy, chewing gum, soda
> and milk,  Candy, chewing gum and soda because they contain sugar which
> causes pads to be gummy and Milk because it forms a kind of glue.
> Elmer's glue is made from milk. These are typically kid foods.  Other
> things will gum up woodwinds but many adult beverages unless they are
> sweet don't do a lot of harm.  Straight vodka has never rotted a pad.

Had a friend of mine who many years ago, fell heir to Andy Russo's trombone.
Russo was the house trombonist at Nick's in NYC circa 1940s-50s. Great guy,
great player. Like most Italian Americans, he did love garlic.

Andy's horn was pungent, to say the least. The new owner, who detested
garlic put a lot of soap and water through that horn before he could play
it. Caveat, don't try that with a clarinet.

When I tried out a new Yamaha top of the line Custom, noted that the owner's
manual exhorts us all to swab the "debris" from the horn immediately after
playing. Debris? :-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve