[Dixielandjazz] Instruments and vibrato

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

Surplus dumping makes a lot of sense.  I used to play a silver Conn 10 M 
Tenor.  The AF played silver horns for quite a while.  Those horns were 
hauled off to some depot or another and who knows where they went.  At that 
time they had a very strict accounting of instruments and I can remember a 
couple of guys that got to pay for their horns when they came up missing.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Richoux" <tubaman at tubatoast.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Instruments and vibrato


> Just like any other military item - band instruments were produced to 
> specification, regulations and quantities (many of those procurement 
> specs for military band instruments were written by a certain 
> Representative C. G.Conn from Indiana - he was in Congress well  before 
> the Spanish American War and exclusive contracts with the Conn  company 
> lasted to WW1 and beyond.) I have owned several Conn horns  marked USQMC 
> (United States Quartermaster Corps) from WW1 Army bands.
>
> As I mentioned in a previous message, I don't think the surplus 
> instruments from the early years of the Civil War would have survived 
> 30-40 years to to be used much in New Orleans in the 1900s, but there  was 
> likely to be a flood of better quality instruments available  after the 
> Spanish American War of 1898. There was a strong Army and  Navy Supply 
> establishment in New Orleans at the time and the way  things are surplused 
> out of the services has not changed much in 150  years. Some local agent 
> could have purchased large numbers of horns  and dumped them on the 2nd 
> hand markets of the city.
>
> It would be interesting to look closely at Louis Armstrong's "First  Horn" 
> to see if there was a military marking on the bell!
>
> However, if we ignore all of that completely and just look at the  history 
> of ALL brass bands in the US from 1865 to 1900 it become  obvious that 
> there were many thousands of instruments produced in the  USA (and Europe) 
> that would be all over the place - finding cheap 2nd  or 3rd hand 
> instruments in a city the size of New Orleans would be no  problem.
>
> Certainly easier than it would be now that Werlein's has moved out to 
> Metairie...;-)
>
> Dave Richoux
>
> On Sep 23, 2007, at 3:08 PM, Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis 
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> My only disagreement with all of this is the number of instruments  from 
>> military bands that were supposed to have flooded the market  after 
>> several wars.  I have no idea of the history of pawn shops  but just how 
>> many could New Orleans have had and how did all those  musicians just 
>> happen to show up in New Orleans just to hock their  horn.  Now some have 
>> pointed out that New Orleans was a main port  during the Spanish American 
>> war but so were several others.  Why  didn't we see a growth of Jazz or 
>> something else from those  cities?  I also don't accept that the U.S. 
>> government just let them  take their instruments when mustered out. 
>> Could have happened but  the government didn't let them take their horse, 
>> gun, cannon or  ship so expensive musical instruments in any number, I 
>> don't think  so.  Also during the Spanish American war there just weren't 
>> lots  military of bands.
>>
>
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