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thedrifter
01-17-09, 07:15 AM
SC man finds calling in instrument repair
By DWIGHT DANA
(Florence) Morning News
Posted: Friday, Jan. 16, 2009

FLORENCE, S.C. Jim Gleason wanted to be a drummer when he was in the sixth grade, but his band director said the tuba was his calling.

And Gleason has never regretted it since the band director stuck a shiny, new tuba in his hands. Gleason, a Kansas native, said Dorothy of the "Wizard of Oz" never had it so good.

"It took off from there," he said. "They let me take the tuba wherever I went. It was a great ego trip because the guy with the biggest horn gets the most pictures taken of him."

Although he had to turn the tuba in before he joined the service, Gleason found another one in the Marines. He played in Marine bands until the corps said he had a higher calling.

"They sent me to the Navy School of Music for 1 1/2 years," he said. "That's where I got my interest in repairing orchestral wind instruments. I apprenticed for three years."

Gleason retired after 24 years in the Marines. He and his wife found their way to Florence in 1994.

He opened Jim Gleason Old World Music, where he repairs professional band instruments.

"It takes air to play these instruments," he said. "The music is made for the mouthpiece back. All the instrument does is change the pitch and amplifier."

Gleason doesn't work on oboes, bassoons and piccolos because they are high maintenance and complicated. Also, he doesn't see many of them and stocking parts for them is expensive.

Eighty percent of his work is through elementary, middle and high schools. So, he sees plenty of clarinets, flutes, saxophones, trombones, trumpets, tubas and others instruments.

He said the sax is the hardest to work on.

"A clarinet has 25 to 40 parts, while a sax starts at 300 and goes up," he said. "They are very high maintenance and they aren't cheap."

Gleason has lived in Florence longer than any other place. He loves it, especially the outpouring of support he felt after having to close his shop for two years when he had throat cancer.

"God is going to put you where he wants you," he said. "I couldn't do a lot when I had cancer, but the band directors brought their students over to clean my shop. They all sent me cards. It was overwhelming."

Gleason gas watched students go from elementary school to become teachers. He has known Eric Terry, the band director at South Florence High School, and Tyler Hutto, the band director at Latta High School, since they were in the sixth grade.

"This is the first time I've ever actually been a part of a community," he said, choking up a bit. "I never realized it would mean that much to me, but it really does."

Gleason still plays the tuba. He said you can find tuba players from "right after Mozart to John Williams."

And what about solos for the tuba?

"Tuba players are kind of like bumble bees, they aren't supposed to fly, but they do it anyway." Gleason said. "We're not supposed to play solos, but we do it anyway.

"It takes a love of music to play anything, and to play it well, you have to have patience and discipline. You also have to turn everything over to the person with the little stick."

Ellie