MIM Rolls Out Famous Music Cities Exhibit
PHOENIX – There are many ways in which American cities can distinguish themselves from one another.
At the Musical Instrument Museum cities show off their individuality through displays of musical memorabilia. A section that opened in 2018 in the United States/Canada gallery showcases four famous musical cities: Los Angeles, Calif., Memphis, Tenn., Philadelphia, Pa., and Elkhart, Ind.
Each exhibit shows some instruments and personal effects that give each city its musical uniqueness.
“We decided to focus on a few cities that have had a few important contributions to American music,” said David Wegehaupt, MIM associate curator for USA/Canada and Europe. “They connect in our gallery the way some of the other displays are laid out. Perhaps, over time, it might be time to feature another city – like Toronto, Chicago or St. Louis. There’s countless cities in America that we could create exhibits for.”
Rock fans probably will appreciate the Los Angeles display the most, as two members of the Wrecking Crew are prominently represented: Tommy Tedesco (1930-1997) and drummer Hal Blaine. The Wrecking Crew was a consortium of session musicians based in L.A. who provided instrumental backing for hundreds of recordings in the 1960s and ‘70s. They were not publicly recognized for their work, but they got respect from industry executives, who kept bringing them into recording studios to back a wide variety of musicians from Frank Sinatra to the Beach Boys.
Blaine brought the nickname to light in a 1990 book, attributing it to older musicians who believed that their work on rock songs was going to “wreck” the industry. Many of the players had formal backgrounds in classical or jazz music.
What does the most recorded guitar in history look like? That’s it, on a stand just off the floor: Tedesco’s Fender Telecaster. And next to it is one of Blaine’s drum kits, with twin bass drums that have caricatures of famous pop singers Jan & Dean on the skins.
“Los Angeles, like all these cities, has a lot of different musical things happening – all at once, all of the time,” Wegehaupt said. “When you think of Los Angeles, you think of studio music, especially in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, you know, when bands were using more studio musicians.
“As with everything, studio culture changes a bit over time, and (record) labels stopped having quite as much of a budget for studio musicians. The ‘70s was prime time for the Wrecking Crew.”
Blaine is acknowledged as being the most recorded drummer in history. Like his session mates, he was a tireless worker. Blaine was one of the musicians who scratched their names into Tedesco’s guitar. He had an assistant who would go ahead to the next job at another recording studio to set up a drum kit while Blaine was still working at the first studio.
Hal Blaine’s drum kit featuring caricatures of pop stars Jan & Dean
“These guys were working so much,” Wegehaupt related. “They would do a session in the morning for one company, have an hour to grab lunch and then go over to another studio for another session. They’d have an early evening session and maybe a gig in prime time – late night with the Beach Boys, for example.
“There’s a story I tell about Tommy Tedesco. He had three phones lines at his home. You know, this was before there were cell phones or recording machines. He’d come home and kiss his wife and kids, and then he’d say, ‘Has anybody called?’ He would be ready to run out to the next gig. That’s hard work and dedication, but it’s also not wanting to lose your spot at the next gig to someone else.”
Tedesco was a true artist. When someone handed him a piece of sheet music, he looked at it as just notes on a page. “The music is the way I interpret it. My creativity is turning those notes into the music,” Wegehaupt quoted Tedesco as saying.
“These guys were incredible artists, and that’s why they were called for basically every gig,” Wegehaupt said. “Popular music is constantly changing, so it’s amazing to think, over two decades, how many styles of music they played. They had to figure out how to jump from sound to sound. They contributed to dozens and dozens of No. 1 hits.”
Another part of the L.A. display pays tribute to the late Lalo Guerrero, a guitarist and singer who Wegehaupt described as “the father of Chicano music.”
There’s also a trumpet played by Wayne Bergeron, who “plays on every kind of music that’s played these days,” according to Wegehaupt. Bergeron’s credits include the soundtrack of the movie La La Land. “If you watch the Academy Awards (telecast),” Wegehaupt said, “the trumpet player in the band is gonna be Wayne.”
Over in the Memphis display you will find the Gibson B25-N acoustic guitar and case that was used by Walter “Furry” Lewis (1893-1981), a prominent blues artist in his day. There’s also the model 5506 Deagan organ chimes, manufactured by J.C. Deagan Inc. “This was a short-lived experiment,” Wegehaupt said, “because (the instrument) is too large to transport very far.” W.C. Handy’s Memphis Blues Band used a set of these chimes, which measure about six feet wide and over six feet tall.
Also on display, as a loan from the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, is the Hammond B3 organ that was used by Booker T. Jones. A trumpet and saxophone represent the Memphis Horns, a brass section that made many appearances on recordings at Stax Records. “If you look up their credits list, you’ll see that if you do the work and put yourself out there, you can go far,” Wegehaupt commented.
The feature of the Philadelphia display that jumps out at the viewer is a pair of colorful, extravagant costumes from the annual Mummers Parade. Going back to 1901, it is one of the longest standing cultural festivals in the United States.
“Almost no one’s heard of it,” Wegehaupt said, “but, if we have a visitor from Philadelphia who has seen the display, he might say, ‘yes, you nailed it.’ It’s one of our very unique traditions.”
In front of one of the costumes is a Keystone State No. 30 banjo mandolin, which was played by the leader of the Quaker City String Band in 1923-25.
Have you ever heard of a keyed bugle? There’s one of those in the Philly display.
“This bugle represents Francis Johnson, who was a bugle virtuoso in the early 19th century,” Wegehaupt said. “Valves for bugles were developed in the early 19th century. He led a band that played in Europe and appeared in the first racially integrated public concerts in the United States, so it’s really cool to represent him with one of the keyed bugles in our collection.
“People aren’t used to seeing valves on a bugle-type instrument, so it’s just interesting to look at the layout and see how this instrument works.”
The Elkhart display is not about a particular musical genre, nor any individual performer. Sitting 110 miles east of Chicago and five miles south of the Michigan state line, it is a major center of band instrument manufacturing.
“Back in the late 19th century Charles Gerard Conn made his first cornet,” Wegehaupt related. “As you can see, he built quite a factory. And people who became advanced instrument builders split off and made their own companies, like (Gus) Buescher and (Henry) Martin.
“Basically, if you’re buying a non-imported band instrument in the United States, especially in the 20th century, it likely was made in Elkhart, Indiana. Numerous and different companies produce various band-type instruments, providing affordable instruments for students trying to learn music and play in their (school) band. They definitely specialize in woodwind and brass instruments.
“This is the city that puts instruments in all the students’ hands who have their first musical experience in all styles of music.”
Is there something about Elkhart’s location that spurred the band instrument industry?
“I’ve driven through there,” Wegehaupt said, “and it seems to be in the middle of nowhere. There’s not a lot around there. It’s not close to Lake Michigan, so there’s no easy way to import a lot of metal. Basically, once everything got going in Elkhart, there weren’t many cities that competed. They dominated the musical instrument manufacturing.”
Some of the Elkhart instruments on display are a Model 16E mellophonium, Stroboconn tuner and Model No. 914 “Multi-Vider” (all from C.G. Conn); a piccolo (from Artley, Inc.); a double-bell euphonium (from Martin); a Model 104 flute (from W.T. Armstrong Co.), and a soprano saxophone (from Buescher).
On that note, we leave it to music enthusiasts to come to MIM to view these interesting displays and take a tuneful trip around the nation while walking just a few feet.
