1941 Conn 10M: History as seen through the life of a horn.
Here is another 10M, but they never get old. This beautiful tenor is from 1941 and it had one owner previous to its acquisition by the client for whom I did this Full Mechanical Overhaul.
The previous owner was Earl Dantin, leader of a 50's era working band called Earl Dantin's Esquires. There are several newspaper clippings in this slide show in which you can see Earl, this horn, his band, and a couple write ups about The Esquires, their music, and their tour of the Southwest. The privilege to glimpse a horns previous life is really special. It should never matter if the musician and their music is forgotten and obscure. All that matters is the musical history in the horn and the energy that passed through it.
Every musician knows that pre-performance feeling; butterflies all wrapped up tight with eager anticipation and purpose. It doesn't matter if you are performing in a community band, in a radio studio, at your favorite club, or in front of the largest audience for which you have yet to play. It is a feeling that can only be experienced prior to a performance, and when you haven't performed in a while you start to miss it. That is the energy I'm talking about. It's in the horn. And we get to see a little of that history in the pictures of Earl and this horn here. And that is really special. History as seen through the life of a horn.
The present owner of this horn is a National Championship Level Lindy Hopper. So, I imagine some heavy riffing will be heard from this horn soon.
Here is another 10M, but they never get old. This beautiful tenor is from 1941 and it had one owner previous to its acquisition by the client for whom I did this Full Mechanical Overhaul.
The previous owner was Earl Dantin, leader of a 50's era working band called Earl Dantin's Esquires. There are several newspaper clippings in this slide show in which you can see Earl, this horn, his band, and a couple write ups about The Esquires, their music, and their tour of the Southwest. The privilege to glimpse a horns previous life is really special. It should never matter if the musician and their music is forgotten and obscure. All that matters is the musical history in the horn and the energy that passed through it.
Every musician knows that pre-performance feeling; butterflies all wrapped up tight with eager anticipation and purpose. It doesn't matter if you are performing in a community band, in a radio studio, at your favorite club, or in front of the largest audience for which you have yet to play. It is a feeling that can only be experienced prior to a performance, and when you haven't performed in a while you start to miss it. That is the energy I'm talking about. It's in the horn. And we get to see a little of that history in the pictures of Earl and this horn here. And that is really special. History as seen through the life of a horn.
The present owner of this horn is a National Championship Level Lindy Hopper. So, I imagine some heavy riffing will be heard from this horn soon.
There has been much debate as to whether this horn had received a full factory re-lacquer. I am certain it received a lot of work, and it was most likely at the factory, but I can not determine if it had been fully re-lacquered, or partially. The work was done extremely well. Even with the hammer marks, which you can see in the photos here. While this kind of dent work is frowned upon in a big way these days, it was standard operating procedure back then. As a matter of fact, I remember being told that was how good dent work should look. I apprenticed under guys that started their repair careers in the 60's. It was a shop that did only cosmetic overhauls. So after the dent work was finished, the horn was sent to the buffer, where presumably, a very conscientious buffer would lightly smooth and blend such hammer marks. I don't know a single repair tech that would persuade anyone to have their horn cosmetically overhauled today, and I think that is why this type of dent work is not done anymore. Besides, it's not hard to face your hammer with some teflon, and then you don't leave these marks anyway.