[Trombone-l] Bass trumpet

[Tony Clements]

In order to get a discussion going, I¹m hoping several of us have spent some
time playing bass trumpet in an orchestral setting. Here, in San Jose, bass
trumpet, tenor tuba, contra trombone has always rested in my lap, mainly
because my San Jose Symphony colleagues have never spent much time playing
these instruments and with Jim Self¹s encouragement, I played them a LOT in
college. In addition, I get a premium for playing these instruments, which
is always helpful.

I have a great 1940¹s vintage Mt Vernon Bach that I had completely
overhauled some time ago with a tuning jigger on the main slide; Dick
Ackright in Oakland did the work and the horn is pristine.

I have play a lot of the good bass trumpet tunes: Bartok¹s ³Kossuth²;
Janacek ³Sinfonietta²; ³Rite of Spring.² Never played an Wagner <DARN!>. I
have always played a Bb instrument. Some time ago, a friend of mine wanted
to sell his bass trumpet; it was an Alexander. It was in c. As a tubist who
mainly plays CC tuba, I was intrigued by this. I got the instrument and
tried (tried being the operative word here) to play the excerpts I had
performed many times. NO WAY! What¹s up with that? Anyway, I sold the
instrument for him; wish I hadn¹t.

Recently a friend of mine, Hi Frank, build a beautiful Eb bugle out of a
1930¹s vintage Conn trombone bell. It played beautifully! In tune, great big
sound, a wonderful instrument. Well, I got this hair-brained scheme to make
it into an Eb TENOR trumpet. I ordered a set of valves (4 rotaries) from
Alexander (it only TOOK 2 years!). I sent them up to Frank, hoping he could
GRAFT them onto the Eb bugle. Apparently, it isn¹t as easy as I had hoped.
Long story shorter, I sent it down to John Sandhagen at the Boneyard in LA.

He assembled this thing and it plays beautifully! We are doing ³Rite of
Spring² in June, so I get the part from ³Cherry Classics² and blew through
it. WOW! It was a SNAP! All these years, playing it on the Bb bass, was a
bit of a blow. On the Eb (for which it was originally intended) it lies
right in the bread and butter range and the fingerings are right in there,
no weird stuff. The ONLY thing is the low written F (fingered 124 on the
instrument). But I believe wit a 5GS mouthpiece (I was using a 6 1/2 AL)
this should be a breeze.

Food you thought. Comments?

Tony Clements