Larry Gianni

Ok, here’s a quick French Besson History lesson. Most of this was learned from Zig Kanstul, Hal Oringer, Dave Rodgers and Robb Stewart , all names everyone should know and all very respected people and un-official historian’s of the French Besson saga.

The Besson’s you are thinking of are the replica’s made by Zig Kanstul for the Boosey and Hawks Company starting in 1983 / 84 using original mandrills, saved from the Nazi’s in WW II by French Besson employee’s after the purchase of the Besson name by the English company following a fire that put the French company out of business. The Kanstul copies (they say Kanstul on the bottom of the second valve casing and use 4 digit serial numbers) named the Brevete (.460 bore) and the Meha (.470 bore). The Meha was named for the grand-daughter of Madame Besson.

OK , here we go … most players refer to original Besson’s as either pre-war or post war French Besson’s ( of course we are speaking of WW II and the occupation of France by Nazi forces that severely limited production of the French Bessons for approx. 5 years )

There is a gap of SN#’s between approx. 88,000 and 92,000. Fr. Besson Meha’s, .470 bore start at the 92,000 mark (circa 1945)

Form here on out, we’ll refer to only original French Besson, not copies.

Besson Brevete’s were the trumpet of choice for most of the top trumpet players in the US since the 1920’s. Both classical and commercial players used Besson’s. The Besson Brevete’ ( .460 ) was the only model , for all intents and purposes, at the time offered by Besson. When WWII started, Carl Fischer Musical Instruments lobbied Congress to actually ban the French product from importation because of the Nazi occupation. This conveniently gave the trumpets made by Carl Fischer little foreign competition. Because of the vast use of Besson’s thou, the importation of trumpet parts was allowed for repairing purposes only, tariff or boycott free. The only condition put of Besson was that each piece/part had to be stamped with the make , model and “ Besson “ stamped into the brass and the bells would be stamped with “Fabrication “on them to signify they were for repair purposes only.

During the war a man named “ Rappawana “who lived in NY got the great idea to fill the Besson trumpet void the idea to import parts that were to be used for repair and build Bessons in the US. With the help of a NY repairman by the name of Marchione (sp?) that’s exactly what he did. At this point, the .470 bore Meha’s were introduced in Europe and with the help of Rappawana, so did the states (Besson did not know or would have approved of this arraignment)
, during this time, happened to need a new bell and all that was available was a Meha bell, a Meha bell was installed on a Brevete’ body, so came about the rare .460 bore Besson Meha. It’s rare trumpet model (, 460 bore Meha) of opportunity and circumstance. Again, serial numbers start the authenticate Besson Meha’s at 92,000. The most valued Meha’s are number from 92,000 to 100,000 . After 100,000, the Besson Meha’s were being built in London, with the infamous London Valve casing (something like the Yamaha/Schilke valves of the 1980 that gave player so much trouble) and the different brass that the London Bessson’s used.

It is said, the French Besson’s, post-war, used left over mortar shell casing from the War that littered the landscape. ( plus there was a great shortage of brass and other metals in post war France ) and with the heat of the explosion or the shell, plus the annealing used to forge bells and leadpipe, it’s said , this brass gave the Besson’s made in France there distinctive sound, and feel.

Brevete means “ Patented “ in French and the parts sent during the war time , the second valve casing had “ decote “ stamped on it which means “ tax ( tariff ) free “ which signified to US Custom’s that it was exempt from “ the French Product Legislation “

A .470 bore trumpet was a breath of fresh air for commercial player ( also classical player used them ) who needed much more room than the “ peashooter “ sound and feel that seemed to be losing it's luster , plus parts are getting higher and louder with the Big Bands of Herman, Barnett, etc and eventually Kenton, the day of the Conn 22B ( and the like ) were ending.

Here’s the irony to the Besson story:

The war situation with the large company Besson and the quality problems of the giant US instrument manufacture such as Conn and Frank Holton gave an opportunity to small trumpet makers , who started copying Besson’s closely because for there popularity , to grab small part of the trumpet market.

These small companies, whose owners usually did a lot of the work had names like Vincent Bach, Eldon Benge, Dominick Calicchio and Rudy Muck and F.E.Olds.

Now, Bach would be considered the industry leader like Besson was in it's heyday and small trumpet companies are comming up to fill a void left by certain aspects of Bach's line a quality. Think about it.

Trumpet Trivia:

Harry Glantz played a Rudy Muck trumpet for most of his career and was the first player to put his name on a “player endorsed“trumpet mouthpiece. ( Holton had just left Rudy Muck’s employ to start his own company was asked to produce the “ Harry Glantz “ line of mouthpieces. His name was Dominick Calicchio and he produced the mouthpieces for 2 years, until demand proved overwhelming for the small company and Conn started to product them and then eventually Charles Colin made the last series of “Glantz “mouthpieces.

Dominick , while under the employ of Rudy Muck, made a , uniquely designed , high note , first mouthpiece. Dominick , under his won name , also made Maynard a mouthpiece in the early 50’s and the original lead templates , used by Dominick to make a record to the shape of the rim, cup and backbore are now in a drawer in Tulsa.

The Rudy Muck/ Calicchio mouthpiece was used as the basis of the MF ( 50's Kenton High Note Trumpet Player ) mouthpiece offered by Florida Big Band leader / trumpet player Dan McMillion , using GR mouthpieces as the mouhtpiece suppliers, named "Groovin High I and II".

LG

Hope this helped.