Have Tuba, Will Travel

story by Hardy Peacock, photos by Mary Jo Tucker

Well, the situation was somewhat different. 

It was a weekend. It was a beautiful day.  Kathryn and Pearce were intent on Christmas shopping and did not want me to interfere.  I didn’t have anything that I was supposed to do…well at least there was not anything I HAD to do. The 1986 diesel-powered Mercury Topaz was running again, so what else could I do. It was time for a ROAD TRIP!

Maybe it is something about beautiful days in the fall or something about Conway; whatever it is the car was running well, and the road was calling.

William J. Bell was the culprit this time. William J. Bell was born on Christmas day in 1902. He was a big man with a big spirit and a big horn.  He played the Tuba. He played the tuba as no one else ever had or has since for that matter.  He had a wonderful time.  He played in groups like the Cities Service Band of America and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  He played solos.  He wrote music. He played in small ensembles. He played classical music, he played marches, he played jazz.  He made music.  He had fun. He insisted that tubas and tuba players never got a chance to really show what they could do.

After his death in 1974 some of his friends, including Harvey Phillips (who plays a lot of tuba himself) and Paul LaValle (Bandmaster of the Cities Service Band of America), wanted to do something in his honor.  They decided to have a concert on the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City. They invited anyone who played the tuba or euphonium (you might know it as a baritone horn) to show up and play Christmas music.

The idea caught on.  You might say it was a success. For 31 Christmas seasons since 1974 all over the United States and in many countries around the world dedicated, intrepid musicians gather in honor of Bill Bell and have a wonderful time.  Go to TubaChristmas.com and see for yourself. The big ones include Chicago, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C., and the skating rink at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Some of these events will literally have thousands of musicians and more thousands in the audience.

Dr. Louis Young, Assistant Professor of Tuba, Assistant Band Director at the University of Central Arkansas, is the guiding light for the Conway Tuba Christmas.  For four years now he has organized, administered, played, and conducted a loose aggregation that has a good time and tries to make music. There is no reservation needed, RSVP does not apply, almost no one registers in advance. He just casts his bread upon the waters and waits to see who shows up.

My odyssey began about a week before the concert when I noticed a blurb in the paper about the upcoming concert.  I did have a small problem in that I do not own a tuba. I did own a tuba, but when the band building burned at the University of Arkansas in the mid-sixties my horn went to that big band shell in the sky.  I do have a small piece of scorched, melted brass that is all that survived.  Each year at Christmas we put a sprig of holly and a ribbon on it.

My first thought was, “What are friends for if not to be used?”  Then I thought of Jerry Horne, owner of The Band Museum in Pine Bluff.  Well, Jerry and I are not close friends, but we know a lot of the same people.  So I charged up to Pine Bluff, reintroduced myself to Jerry, told him what I needed, and was rewarded with the loan of a tuba.

Then I discovered that, luckily, the big, brass horn just fit in the backseat of the old Mercury.  All that was left was to find my mouthpiece (Bach 24AW.  Every tuba player has their own mouthpiece), recruit my little sister, Mary Jo Tucker, as a running buddy and photographer (she took the shots accompanying this story), locate the music book,  find my Tuba Christmas scarf, and get the show on the road.

Simple, huh?

The cost to participate is $5.00.  For this you are awarded a commemorative button that proclaims the year and Merry Tuba Christmas. You do have to purchase a music book ($12.00), but the same book is used every year, so you only have to buy it once.  The buttons for the 25 year and the 30 year anniversaries are larger than the others, but didn’t cost any more. 

Registration and the rehearsal were held in the UCA band room. The band provided muffins, apples, and orange juice, plus music stands and fellowship. Old friendships were renewed.  New friendships were begun.  The 25 or so musicians ranged from teenagers to much older than teenagers.  We were all having a good time.  The ensemble included college students, high school students, college professors, a young lady from Oklahoma, some innocent bystanders, a mathematician,       a few business-men, and a retired supreme court justice. The instruments included euphoniums, tubas, and one E-flat Sousaphone. There are no tryouts.  If you have the brass to show up and sit in you are welcome. No one complains.  No one refuses to sit next to you.  If you need help with music, music stands, valve oil, or remembering the fingering pattern for D-flat below the staff, it is readily available. 

Greg Lindstrome insisted that he was given his old, silver, E-flat Sousaphone to discourage him from playing. It doesn’t seem to have worked.  Decorating his green and white Merry Tuba Christmas stocking cap were at least a dozen buttons showing participation in past concerts.  Decorating his Sousaphone were ribbons, greenery, and tinsel. Sometimes he adds Christmas lights. 

Maybe he is hard to discourage.

The music is arranged in traditional, four-part harmony in First Euphonium, Second Euphonium, First Tuba, and Second Tuba.  (The first and second divisions have nothing to do with who gets to play the melody; that gets passed around. What it means is that First Euphonium is the highest part, sort of like soprano in a choir, the Second Euphonium is the alto, First Tuba is the tenor part, and Second Tuba is the Bass.) No one will tell you where to sit or that you should play first or second.  Somehow it always works out.

After a short (very short), informal (very informal) rehearsal the move was on for downtown Conway and the band stand in Simon Park, next to the Conway City Hall..

For a while it seemed as if the concert was the best kept secret in town, but eventually more and more people drifted in until the audience was larger than the band.  (It probably helped that most musicians were accompanied by at least one friend or relative.)  The concert consisted of about 15 traditional Christmas Carols and songs including Adeste Fidelis, Joy to the World, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and of course, Jingle Bells.  (I could have mentioned that we also played the one about the good king, but I didn’t want to fight the spell-checker over Wenceslaus.) The audience was invited to sing along and many did.

The entire operation is a total leap of faith. The publicity is negligible and consists almost entirely of word-of-mouth, a couple of announcements buried in various newspapers, and the TubaChristmas.com web site.  The organizers go about the tasks of organizing on the field of dreams system.  “If we have it they will come.”         Katie Simms (from Oklahoma), Judge Newbern , Greg Lindstrome, Lou Young, and about 20 more showed up and had a wonderful time. Afterall, that was what we had in mind.

If you check with TubaChristmas.com you will find a state-by-state listing of every Tuba Christmas concert around the world. Unfortunately you will also discover that the December 4th event was the only one scheduled in Arkansas this year.

Keep watching. Things look better for next year, already.

You just never can tell who just might come out of the closet carrying a tuba.

There are so many great moments in music.  A brass band playing a Sousa March. A philharmonic orchestra and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Ray Charles singing God Bless America.  Frank Sinatra singing anything.  Bing Crosby and White Christmas.  Barbara Streissand, Luciano Pavarotti, Keb Mo’, Elvis, and Bo Diddly. Oops!  I was about to forget Patsy Cline and gospel music.  Whatever your thing is, it can be expressed in music.  None of these are any more joyful than the sheer exuberance of a bunch of new-found best friends playing euphoniums and tubas, making the sounds of Christmas just for the pleasure it brings.

You really should join in and experience the fun.

Bill Bell would be so proud!