美国国家公共电台 NPR Case Closed: Preservation Hall's Missing Sousaphone Is Returned

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ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

And now a true crime story that involves a theft, an anonymous¹ tip and a very special tuba.

(SOUNDBITE OF TUBA MUSIC)

SHAPIRO: That is the missing tuba - a sousaphone, to be exact. Here's its owner to tell us about his instrument, how he lost it and got it back again.

BEN JAFFE: My name is Ben Jaffe, and I'm the tuba player with the Preservation² Hall Jazz Band. And two weeks ago, my sousaphone tuba went missing after one of our shows in New Orleans.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JAFFE: If you're trying to identify the sound, you listen to the low end. You listen for the bass³. You listen for the bottom.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JAFFE: You wear it around your neck almost like a gigantic necklace, and it has a bell that comes up over your head.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JAFFE: I purchased my horn shortly after Hurricane Katrina. I lost my instruments in Hurricane Katrina. It just has become a part of me. It's traveled the world several times with me. It's - I mean, every little nick and ding on that horn has a story behind it.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JAFFE: When we realize the horn was missing, we began, you know, searching all of the obvious places that we thought it could be. We went back to the venue⁴ that we played at, and we double-checked there. And then there is this sinking feeling that it's gone.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JAFFE: That's when we got the word out and started working through social media to get, you know, the whole community motivated to locate the instrument. And ultimately it worked. Someone who had read the newspaper spotted⁵ the horn and contacted us anonymously⁶. And through that tip, we were able to retrieve⁷ the instrument.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Yeah, look out now.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: All right.

JAFFE: Keep your head up.

I just got the horn back yesterday. I spent the day cleaning the horn and getting the valves working again. There was some damage to the valves. I'm going to have to ship the horn to a specialist to have it overhauled⁸. But I was just so excited to have my horn back that even though it's damaged, I'm just going to - I'm going to play it anyway.

All right, so I've got my tuba right here. Let me play it for you.

(SOUNDBITE OF TUBA MUSIC)

SHAPIRO: That's Ben Jaffe, the tuba player for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans. We caught up with him in Austin, Texas. The band is debuting⁹ a new documentary called "A Tuba To Cuba" at the South by Southwest Music Festival.

(SOUNDBITE OF TUBA MUSIC)

JAFFE: Yeah.