Frank Nelson's Crumpled Cornet

nobody@flickr.com (Museum of Making Music) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 09:55:58 -0800

This old crumpled cornet was given as a gift to Frank Nelson, a trumpet player, a former band member of The Bruce Davis Quintet, a participant in The Andy Griffith Uptown-Downtown Variety Show, and now a local San Diego resident. Despite its damaged appearance, the cornet has played in tune and had a great sound for many years.

Frank Nelson received this piece from his old friend Jerry Bredouw, another band leader in Fresno, who in turn obtained it from his father, an avid collector of unusual instruments. When Mr. Nelson acquired the cornet, its valves were frozen and needed to be freed up by a repairman to make it payable.

Because of its unusual look, Mr. Nelson used this cornet as a conversation piece when playing with The Bruce Davis Quintet on Dixieland numbers. The cornet reached the high point of its performance career when Mr. Nelson performed with it on The Andy Griffith Variety Show in 1967. The cornet was retired from its long performance career in 1992 after a Carnival Cruise to Mexico when Mr. Nelson played it for the last time in public.

In the following YouTube clip, Frank tells the story of one of the makeshift repairs that was done to the instrument on a cruise. The clip also includes Frank playing the battered instrument on the Andy Griffith show:

Frank Nelson's Crumpled Cornet

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Frank Nelson's Crumpled Cornet