Danbassin

[quote=rowuk;374873]I read this comment about the garden hose on a regular basis and often think about what it is supposed to mean. Most of the time I get the impression it is a cheap shot from the uninformed. In this case, the thread was intended to document Monette playing experiences not possible qualities of garden hoses.

Have any of you tried to play a garden hose (8 foot is about the length of a nat in C)? Just the hose without a bell is so out of tune that nobody really benefits. If you have a standard Bb bell laying around and cut the appropriate length of garden hose off, the intonation is usable and you have an el-cheapo nat in C. I will question the statement that anybody could sound good on it!

Robin,

With risk of hijacking this aside from the thread, it did remind me of a story that can bring us back, squarely, to Monette, and loyalists of said equipment.

I was lucky enough to grow up around New York City, and, as a teenager, when my focus was much more focused on Jazz, was incredibly lucky in that I got to meet and, on occasion, hang out with some Jazz greats. One of the giants I still can't believe I even got to meet, let alone regularly talked with over a period years was Art Farmer.
The decorated Flumpet that Dave made for Art was also the first Flumpet II, which is now the standard version of the instrument, but the earlier version didn't have sheet bracing. Of the various icons saw-cut throughout his horn was a double-bass. Art had had a twin brother who played the bass. I believe he had died at a relatively young age, but, in conversation with Art - at the time I was deciding between leaving a wonderful Jazz band I had played in that met on Saturdays, or to go to Juilliard Pre-College, and I was very curious as to how great players got to where they did - he told me the story of how he, and his brother, started to play.
To cut to the chase - Art Farmer's first horn WAS a garden hose! I forget exactly how his brother made a mock double-bass or 'cello, but Art blew through a length of garden hose with a funnel at the end for a bell! As the story goes, the neighborhood put together a collection, and they bought him his first trumpet.

Whether this means 1) that he made that garden hose sound Oh, so good, or 2) they thought that the sounds he might make from a trumpet would be easier to deal with those from a hose is up for debate.

He was a fantasitc musician, a killer player, and one of the kindest men I've ever met.

-dan