Jack Richardson: "The Big Man with the Big Horn"

Описание: John W. "Jack" Richardson (1874-1939) was the longest-tenured tubist in the wildly popular band of John Philip Sousa. Accordingly, he was also the most famous Sousaphonist during the heyday of that unique shoulder-borne tuba named after his legendary bandmaster.

As I continue to chronicle the history of the Sousaphone, I knew that I eventually needed to give attention to Jack and his 43-year career as a bass player. As luck would have it, his hometown is right along my weekly commute, and that made digging into his story an attractive pivot for me. I was even able to locate his great nephew, Jim Richardson, who provided a number of images and artifacts related to his great uncle. Provided here is the video version of my article on this legend of the Sousaphone, published in the Winter 2025 issue of the ITEA Journal.

The images included here - the vast majority of which are in the Public Domain and all fall under the Fair Use provision - are either from my collection, or are provided by many gracious individuals and institutions, including Jim Richardson, Christopher Davis, Philip Espe, Mark Jones, Susan Maldonado, Cristina Meisner, Mark Overton, Scott Schwartz, Douglas Yeo, the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, the Newark-Arcadia Historical Society, the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Collection, the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Digital Collections, the Allentown Band Photograph Collection at Muhlenberg College, the Muskoka Digital Archives, the U. S. Marine Band Library, and the Facebook page of John Philip Sousa, featuring the collection of Barry Owen Furrer.

The "soundtrack" for the video features pieces that relate to the historical period addressed in each segment of the video, and most are courtesy of the U. S. Marine Band. Here they are in the order of their appearance:

1. "Music, Maestro, Please" - Tommy Dorsey (1938)
2. "Semper Fidelis" - John Philip Sousa (1888)
3. "Finlandia" - Jean Sibelius (1899)
4. "The Liberty Bell" - Sousa (1893)
5. "The Bride Elect" - Sousa (1897)
6. "The Invincible Eagle" - Sousa (1901)
7. "Brooke's Chicago Marine Band March" - T. P. Brooke (1901)
8. "Maple Leaf Rag" - Scott Joplin (band recording from 1903)
9. "The Fairest of the Fair" - Sousa (1908)
10. "Second Suite in F for Military Band" - Gustav Holst (1911)
11. "The Pathfinder of Panama" - Sousa (1915)
12. "U. S. Field Artillery" - Sousa (1917)
13. "A Mingling of the Wets and the Drys" (Humorseque) - Sousa (1926)
14. "Lonesome Nights" - Spike Hughes (1933)
15. "The National Game" - Sousa (1925)

For full documentation of my research, including footnotes and image credits, see the corresponding article in the ITEA Journal, Winter 2025 issue.