(formerly) my helicon

[bloke]

When I (finally) finish "enhancing" an instrument, I'm never really "proud" of any of them, but only very PLEASED with them
(as I don't proceed with any of these types of projects, when I can tell that they're going to play out-of-tune or suck in some other way. Thus, all end up "successful").

That having been said, I don't "cling" to any of them. Over the years, I've learned that (though the majority of makes/models of tubas sorta suck) there are WAY MORE MODELS THAN I PERSONALLY NEED which actually rock, and I will NEVER allow myself to be a collector, and I'm certainly NOT going to create a "bLOKE MUSEUM OF COOL CRAP THAT I'VE BUILT" - if (even though an instrument might play remarkably well and also "look cool") it ends up collecting dust.

This one is now located in the Pacific Northwest, and is NOT collecting dust - so my past efforts (with this specific amazingly great instrument - and realize that I did NOT "make" it, but only "enhanced" it...so I'm NOT claiming to be "tuba-jesus", here) are continuing to go "to the good" rather than "to waste".

Mostly, it just made me smile to see this pic on fb, and it's current owner (seemingly, quite happily) USING it.



bloke "The very last time I 'used' it, I didn't even play it (having recorded the stuff that we played on the previous day at Ardent Studios - using my Besson recording bell comp E-flat)...I just used it as a visual in a friggin' Hallmark Movie ...oh yeah, and it ALMOST plays as well as the Chinese knockoffs ."

[kingrob76]

I hope they let you keep the hat.

[bloke]

I hope they let you keep the hat.

The hat, dark sunglasses, black suit, shiny purple shirt, and clashing tie were my standard fare for playing in a NOLA brass band c. 15 years ago.

[Three Valves]

I hope they let you keep the hat.

[bloke]

When in my very early through mid 20s (interrupted one year when I decided to try out “kolij teechin”), I played with a not-very-good “dixieland“ band consisting of people who were approximately my same age.
One of the inane things that we did - probably to distract from our mediocrity – was to continuously put on all sorts of different nutty hats.
I might still own a ridiculously large bright-green beret, and I know that I still own a fire helmet - both from that era.

[Charlie C Chowder]

As a clown I see a hat as the icing on a costume. It is usually the first thing somebody sees of you and helps draw them in. It stands to reason that the $200.00 pair of shoes you are wearing are the last thing they see.

But your makeup is most important,
CCC

[cjk]

I hope they let you keep the hat.

The hat, dark sunglasses, black suit, shiny purple shirt, and clashing tie were my standard fare for playing in a NOLA brass band c. 15 years ago.

Wow, has that been 15 years already?

[bloke]

I hope they let you keep the hat.

The hat, dark sunglasses, black suit, shiny purple shirt, and clashing tie were my standard fare for playing in a NOLA brass band c. 15 years ago.

Wow, has that been 15 years already?

That’s when it began.

[Rick Denney]

Wasn’t that band started by New Orleans expatriates who had moved away, up to Memphis, after Katrina? That was 2005.

Rick “tempus fugit” Denney

[bloke]

…followed up by a good bit of chaos.
I don’t recall the band really having been formed until a little over a year later in 07, prompted by a wealthy lady - who owned a large corporation, and who was also on the Metropolitan Opera board – tossing out a bunch of grant money for displaced New Orleans musicians. I was involved, because there really wasn’t a displaced New Orleans tuba player in the Memphis area.
I learned a lot (certainly of that genre’s repertoire - as well as playing a bunch of 80s funk - that was already in my head, but which I’ve never played on sousaphone before), and the band left its mark:
Probably half of the band was made of people in the Memphis area, as was an amazing virtuoso-level drummer - who is also a very fine pianist, named James Sexton. A Sexton video/interview - put on YouTube by Memphis Drum Shop - is worth viewing.
I’m doing a Mardi Gras gig with him in Jonesboro Arkansas, and the set list that he sent me are mostly stuff that he and I first played with that band - NOLA brass band fare - during that era.

I recorded nearly everything on that CD with that helicon. “Lundi Gras Strut” was recorded with the 5450, and you might notice that the tuba sound - on that one track - is more “pure“, and less “funky“...nearly as if an electronic sample of a tuba (except – hopefully – without the horrible attacks that are typically part of electronic tuba samples).
This CD – all recorded in one day - and nearly all stuff that we had NEVER ever played before that day - was recorded to (not really demonstrate what we could do, regarding New Orleans brass band and funk fare, but) to demonstrate our versatility:
(Some of that grant money funded the recording session.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlmbvHtgLKI

Wasn’t that band started by New Orleans expatriates who had moved away, up to Memphis, after Katrina? That was 2005.

Rick “tempus fugit” Denney