ONEBA --- TUBA --- THREEBA --- FOURBA

CLICK HERE FOR "BANDA" MUSIC

Those of you who don't live in Southern California, El Sur de Alta California, are going to wonder what this is all about.  I don't blame you.  It is still a mystery to me and to the Police in the Los Angeles part of the world too.  It is an epidemic of robberies that seem to be very lucrative for the the thieves.  I was in the car today running errands when this story came across the wires.  It was funny, at first, but then it got interesting.  When you are innocent about something, it is easy to take the story lightly.  This was one of those times.  It has everything to do with the culture of southern California.
We are in one of those eras where the fad rules.  We all know about that.  Hair dos, peg pants, pointy shoes, buccaneer pants and shirts, Volkswagen "Buses," charcoal pink, RAVE parties and so many other things.   What you have to know about Southern California is that fads come in twos.  There are those that are Latin fads and those that are "Anglo" fads.  Well, it appears that the latest leading fad is "Banda" music.  This is Latin music that is played whenever three or four people want music.  It is played anywhere.  It is based on the TUBA sound.  You can't be a BANDA group if you don't have a tuba sound.  These days, if you don't have a TUBA sound, man, you ain't got no BANDA.  As it also turns out, you ain't got no TUBA you also ain't got no dinero, no lana for you.  ["Lana" is "dough", "Bread"...you get the idea.]
I'm sitting here listening to this music and I have to admit that it is nice.  If you click under the picture,  I captured a song for you.  I have to warn you that there is no such thing as an "instrumental" in BANDA.  There's always a song.  It's always emotional.  There's one entitled "Te amo a morir." [I love you to death]  And so it goes.
The mysterious part is that there have been nearly three dozen or more tubas that have disappeared from high schools all around L.A.  That's perhaps not so mysterious.  After all, robbery is robbery.   But a tuba is not a harmonica.  How do they do it?  After they've done it, what do they do with it?  Where does it go?  No one knows.  They have not recovered a single one. Not one!  That's serious $$$, or as they perhaps say, "Lana."  How serious is it?  Well, if it's 36 tubas, it's between $78 to $100 K.  Expensive!  In fact it is very difficult for a school to replace a tuba.  Who knows, maybe the school will have to start hiring the thieves.  Now there's a thought.  Imagine, a marching band Robin Hood!
The economics on the BANDA side of the fence are equally impressive.  A good tuba player in a busy band [I understand that these days they're all busy], a good tuba player, I say, brings down $100 per hour.  There is a story that I heard today that the audience stuff the bell of the instrument with green backs so that the player will not leave.  There are at least two recorded times when there was a "C" note in the bell of the TUBA.  Ya know what?  If they can pay the guy that kind of money, they must be able to buy the instrument.  But then, I guess, it wouldn't be pure BANDA.  Stolen tubas always sound better.
Finally, I have to say that in the last hour I have heard some "oldies, but goodies" Mexican songs translated into BANDA.  Kinda sweet, I have to say.

So there you have it.  Serial TUBA thefts.  I'm wondering one thing more.  Why don't the schools learn to lock the doors?  Maybe it's not in the contract.