TED NASH

I’ve got what feels like the first day off if in ages. But a day off is always an opportunity to advance projects and ideas that are floating around - either currently just a conception, or perhaps something you have started but haven’t finished. I have a lot of these...

The first bit of exciting new is my daughter, Lisa, moved to New York. She was born in Brooklyn, moved to Northern California at age 4, and grew up in a sleepy mining town called Grass Valley. She really does seem more a California girl than a New Yorker. However, after receiving her diploma in radio and TV broadcasting, she is back in the Big Apple, applying for jobs. Several blogs back I included a link to hear Lisa’s singing on a Youtube video, and will do so again here (mainly because I am a proud father):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ4OPm305fE

Many years ago my father, Dick Nash, gave Lisa a beautiful old trombone he had once used. Lisa always loved playing it, and one Christmas it was hers - a vintage Olds Super with 7.5 inch red brass bell with a nickel resonator ring, duel-bore handslide (.485/.500), fluted inner slides and a nickel outer slide. In fact, this was the trombone my father first had me playing when I was 7, long before I could reach 7th position. I didn’t play it long enough to ever explore just what I might find in 7th position, but switched instead to the piano, for which I seemed to have a stronger affinity.

Well, Lisa has decided to part with the Olds Super and we just listed it on eBay. If you know any trombone players who might want a small bore horn, or are fans of Dick Nash and would like to own an instrument he played, this their chance. Here is the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330629842891&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

A bunch of other things going on, and I will write more detailed blogs as they develop. One I am very excited about is “Project Student Horn” which is getting under way. I have been buying and fixing up older professional alto saxophones, models that have been overlooked. Many young players can’t afford to own top professional instruments, as they cost thousands of dollars, and end up buying inexpensive student horns that are basically garbage. That’s just not right. I am going to launch “Project Student Horn” very soon, which will offer to students at a very low cost ($500) an instrument I have sought out for its nice sound and good mechanics, repaired and ready to go, with a new mouthpiece (I am currently working with Beechler on a design), neckstrap, ligature and cap. (By the way, I just recorded my latest album with one of these horns, and have been touring and performing on one with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - used it on the PBS Live from Lincoln Center broadcast "Wynton at 50" last week).

More to come...