Re: Re: Joe Tarto & His 8 foot tuba? Lou Long?


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Posted by Mark Heter on July 28, 2003 at 07:58:18:

In Reply to: Re: Joe Tarto & His 8 foot tuba? Lou Long? posted by Art H on July 27, 2003 at 22:38:22:

I believe Brian Nalepka inherited that beast. He and Joe were very close friends, and I believe Brian plays Joe's string bass with the Manhattan Rhythm Kings to this day.

For those who care - it had two lead pipes, one standing (made to Joe's height, which wasn't that tall) and another for playing in a seated position. There was a rotary valve to change between them. Old man White must have had a sense of humor.

Joe used to play "Big Joe the Tuba" on this thing in front of the Band of America. Joe used (I'll regret this later, I know) a Fred Pfaff mouthpiece (they were good friends) on all his tubas, including this one - it was pretty big, as I remember. He may also have used it on Karl King's "Octopus and the Mermaid" which was inserted as a "paste-up" into Phil Lang's "Sea Songs" a typical Lavalle gimmick.

The horn itself plays like someone stuck a wet towel down the bell. It's a real hodgepodge of parts that were laying around the shop at the time is was made. It used the .687 three valve section mated to a bunch of "dance band" model and "symphony bass" model parts, with the same old bell collar that was used on the tubas and sousaphone for decades, as I remember. The kind of horn that was constructed after a Friday afternoon "liquid lunch".

BUT - it LOOKED GREAT!

Joe's regular horn was a huge Conn three valve recording bass (long action) with the 90-degree bell front. I believe he and Fred Pfaff picked it out around 1936 or so. Joe's work in the 1920s was done mostly on Conns.

As I've stated elsewhere on this site, Joe's superb musicianship surmounted the horns' inadequacies.

MH


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