[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Military Instruments

[Dave Hanson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dave Hanson 
To: verbose at daktel.com 
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Military Instruments


Interesting post regarding Military Instruments. I can relate one story....my dad was a career Army officer and my folks were stationed in Nurnberg, Germany where he was the special service's Officer, this was 1961. One of the many things related to his job was to supply entertainment for the troops in the 7th. Army training area which was massive.

I decided to visit them in Germany but arrived without a trombone. Dad took me to an area with many warehouses to pick out a trombone. I was amazed at what was available. In one warehouse were at least 500 trombones of all makes from small tenors to bass or large bore horns. Some were silver plated and others were brass but none  I saw had any military ID stamped or etched  on them. I opened at least three dozen horns and finally found one I liked and played on it during my stay in Nurnberg, but I have never seen so many trombones in one place in my life. He told me there were literally thousands of other instruments but not really sure how long they had been there or where they came from, but the horns I tried were all American made professional models and not terribly old. It would be interesting to find out where they all went, or perhaps they are still in those warehouses.

It went back in stock upon leaving the country, just in case you wondered.

Dave Hanson
Atlanta
----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lowell Busching 
  To: Dave Hanson 
  Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List 
  Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 5:18 PM
  Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Military Instruments


  Bob Ringwald may be able to correct any misconception I have on this 
  story, but Dick Cary, the musician and arranger and more, supposedly 
  left the service after WW II and took his Peck Horn with him. Whether 
  they let him, or the other musicians, take their horns with them or in 
  the "confusion" of the mustering out process at that time, pack it in 
  their bags, I have no idea.

  During the time he was in the Army on the east coast Dick went "AWOL" to 
  play on the Eddie Condon radio show. If anyone has those recordings they 
  may notice his name was not mentioned on the earlier ones, even when he 
  played piano or whatever, but once his commanding officer got credit for 
  allowing him to appear, he was.  Maybe that same officer let him keep 
  his Peck Horn, or just said nothing.

  Are there any other such musicians on the list that knows these kind of 
  things happened?  My uncle LeRoy was a jazz trombone player with the 
  Army 164th during  W.W. II in the Pacific, starting with Guadecanal. 
  Their instruments arrived about 6 months after they did. They worked as 
  stretcher barriers until they arrived and then of course played in the 
  regular Army functions as well as for entertaining the troops for years.

  Before he got discharged in 45, LeRoy was "held over" by popular demand 
  (of the Army) for another 6 months or so in Chicago to help welcome the 
  troops back home.  I know he had a trombone when he came home, but 
  whether it was the one he had used all those years or one he had left 
  home, I have no idea. I would like to think the military might have let 
  him keep his instrument after going through all that!

  The military being what it is, this may not have been the case. Do any 
  of the other list mates have similar experiences or stories from that 
  era on what happened to all those instruments or if the military 
  demanded them back?  Not just military marching band instruments, but 
  the units like Glenn Miller's band. Military dance bands etc.

  Zeke Zarchy, and I believe Trigger Albert, are still alive and may know. 
  How about it Bob?

  Mad Dog.

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