Tuba Fats was the king of Traditional Jazz on the street. Not that there were many other bands doing it out there at the time (for much of the '90s, brass bands were not permitted to play on the streets in the French Quarter, for “noise complaints”), but even if there had been he still would have reigned supreme. Everyone treated him with respect, at least everyone who counted. Having worked the street for decades he knew and was on good terms with the old cops on the Quarter beat, at any rate – even mean old Sergeant Alesich and Asa, his peer on the force – my knowledge at the time hardly extended beyond the Quarter, but if the size of his second line funeral procession is any gauge, Tuba was one of the most loved musicians in town. Augie thought the world of Fats, and of his wife Linda, whom Augie adored.
Anthony “Tuba Fats” Lacen was a very well respected member of the music community. He, along with future members of the Dirty Dozen and Hurricane Brass Bands, and Wynton and Branford Marsalis, had been a member of the legendary Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band, organized by the great guitar player and Jazz Historian Danny Barker. “Tuba” and many of his fellow alumni periodically worked at Preservation Hall. (The first time I saw him was at the Hall, possibly when I saw the Willie Humphrey play with Wendell Brunius on my first visit the weekend of NYE 1989, possibly in '92.) Tuba played with a bunch of bands, as did many brass players – Olympia Brass Band, Doc Paulin, Trémé, and so on.
Tuba Fat's group was officially known as “The Chosen Few Brass Band” (or sometimes “...Jazz Band”). He always had a great group of players. At the time I started seeing them they were an interesting mix, if a bit ragged: regular members were of varying age ilk – old and young; white, black, Creole and Japanese. Trad players would generally leave the street for a paid gig indoors or in one of the open-air tourist traps on Decatur, so there was a lot of turnover.
Tuba Fats typically set up on the opposite side of the square from us. At the time I arrived they were restoring the Cabildo – one of the two historic buildings, along with the Presbeteyre, that flank the Saint Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square – so there was a lot of construction noise on that side. Often Tuba found it very difficult to play because of the noise but also because they had erected a wooden wall around the area of the steps in front of the building where people would typically sit and watch the band. The Big Mess liked to set up in a “U” formation using the benches opposite each other, and a light post between them as center stage, facing the opposite side of the square (“Uptown”); Tuba’s band typically set up in a row of one or two benches, facing towards the Cabildo (or the Lake, more or less).
The first time I played on the square I was on that side, in front of the Cabildo, with Mickey “Slewfoot” McLaughlin. Before I joined the Mess I often played that spot with Mickey and his crew; Mickey’s band that year was almost a farm team for the Big Mess – younger players like myself would play with Mickey while we were hoping to pick up sets with some of the members of the Big Mess, or after we had been banished once Augie and the other senior Mess members arrived. Or if Lissa and Scotty were doing an early set of Ragtime, Johnny and I would go to the other side for a little while. Or vice versa. That spot was harder to work as a string band, with all that construction din; it’s easier for horns to cut through. But Tuba found it very frustrating that year, and often didn't bother to come out, or you'd see his battered horn holding down the spot on the benches, while he waited for a pause in the construction work, or for his band to arrive.
Some weekends Tuba did not come out and his band would play without him. They didn’t have as much clout without the big man, – it was Tuba's spot, but if he wasn't there it was up for grabs – so often they’d have to wait for him to appear to get their turn, or for the string band to get tired. Tuba did a fair bit of international touring, especially in the summer, and took indoor jobs when they came his way. But when Tuba showed up on the Square, you gave him the spot. Everyone knew it was Tuba's spot. Seniority meant something.
In the first band I saw him with he had a couple of really great Japanese players. I don’t recall her name, but a young woman used to roll a little spinet piano out there. I believe she still lives and plays in New Orleans. And Hiro, also from Japan, played really great tenor banjo. He was out there all the time. His clothes got ragged and his skin was baked a dark rust color by the end of the season. The almost inseparable duo of Bear and Banjo Mike were playing with Tuba in the beginning of my tenure out there. That was Bear on cornet (and pills) and Banjo Mike, with his red and white candy striped shirt, overalls and tattered straw hat, on tenor banjo (and vodka); also Scotty Hill on trombone and Jerry “Flipper” Meldrum on tenor. Scotty and Flip were a couple of middle aged, apparently hard drinking white guys that had been playing in the quarters since the 70s. Sometimes Tuba had Jerry “Barbarin” Anderson (who also played with the Big Mess) on drums, or a couple guys on snare and bass drum duty.
After a couple years Tuba’s band had a bit of a turnover. Mike died from the drink, Bear (who could barely hang with Tuba's crew) no longer found a place in the band and eventually OD’d; Scotty and Flipper worked a lot on Decatur Street. When Andy had lost the bass job with the Big Mess after taking an inside gig for about a year, he joined Tuba Fats’ band. Tuba often had a string bass or a sousaphone play with him because he did a lot of singing. He was a very melodic, creative player and would be able to weave around them and solo. I've heard it said that he wrote the book on modern New Orleans tuba stylings. (I'm certainly no expert, and Kirk Joseph's role cannot be ignored either.)
When the band got big they would typically spread out over a couple of benches, making for a really enjoyable stereo experience if you were seated on the steps in front of the Cabildo (after they had finished construction). Keith “Wolf” Anderson (a founding member of Rebirth and a fun showman) played on the Square a lot from about my second year on. He was in Tuba’s large band of the mid-90s, which besides Hiro, Andy, Tuba and Wolf often included Jack Fine on trumpet (Jack was a real old and crusty fuck who is a hell of a player), Joe Braun on alto sax, John Rodley on guitar, Dwayne Paulin on trombone, occasionally his brother Ricky on clarinet, sometimes Glen David Andrews or other trombone players. (Later a kid named Seva moved to town and bought Augie's ;ast real National guitar Norman had found cheap in Kentucky.) Tuba’d often end up with sections: two or three guys on banjo and/or guitar, Andy and Tuba on string bass and horn, a snare and bass drum, two trombones, tenor and alto sax, trumpet and cornet. Or something like that.
By that time the Big Mess had been back on Royal Street for a couple of years, since construction in the Quarter had prevented the street from being closed off during the day, and we were stuck on the Square. And Tuba's band then was incredible. There was nothing like it to be found anywhere else in town – it was not technically a brass band, at least not in the traditional sense, and it was bigger than most jazz bands that were playing at the time. “Commie” Paul Kemnitz (I believe Bobby Lewis came up with the moniker, due to the Milwaukeean's propensity to spout revolutionary platitudes between songs) played in Tuba’s band quite a bit when he had moved to town and was a floater, sometimes playing with us, sometimes solo, until he got a steady gig with us. And just before our band completely disintegrated in '97 he quit and started playing with Tuba again, and later Doreen and Lawrence Ketchens. Paul is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist.
Tuba’s wonderful wife Linda Young sang with him in the old days, sometimes just a few songs, until she tragically fell ill and died of cancer. Linda was as sweet as her man, and they were very much in love. She was big and beautiful and had a wonderful voice. Wikipedia has her as a “blues shouter,” which I suppose she was, but what I remember is the Gospel. When she died, a few years after I joined the street scene, some said Tuba was never the same again.
Tuba Fats was a gracious man. He was really one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. He always remembered you and he always had a smile and a laugh, even if he was sweating bullets out there in the heat (he must have weighed three hundred pounds, but never seemed to me to be grossly overweight – he was genuinely a giant) and not making much money. One time he had no band and wandered across the Square to say hey to Augie. We had no bass player and Augie invited him to play. That was fun and very different. When I was starting to get into some traditional jazz stuff around '94/'95, after I got my first banjo uke, I always wanted to try playing with him again, but never screwed up the courage to do it. I’m sure I would have been welcome, and shepherded along. I was still pretty shaky on my jazz keys – Bb, Eb, F, etc. – and I was timid.
After my daughter Luciana was born in '99 (two years after I quit the street) I brought her down to listen to Tuba and the other bands on a regular basis. I would sit and listen and smile; she would dance and I would give her a dollar to throw in the case. While playing, Tuba would extend a hand to her; hers looked like a tiny china doll’s hand compared to his. One of the last times I saw him we were on the bus together down Esplanade. He had just picked up some sausages from the Italian deli across the street from the old Whole Foods.
Tuba died early in 2004. His second line funeral was epic. I have no idea how long it stretched, but I believe I counted eight brass bands. They had a Big Red Tuba on top of his coffin. I was proud, and sad, to march in that parade. That may have been the only Jazz Funeral I ever turned out for, because he was a New Orleans jazz legend, and I felt honored to know the man.
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