An iconic New Orleans instrument is missing.
Preservation Hall Jazz Band creative director Ben Jaffe said his sousaphone tuba, recognizable for featuring the black and white hand-lettered name of the band curved around its bell, was taken from a car following Preservation Hall's guest appearance at a Music Box Village performance Saturday (Feb. 24).
Jaffe said the tuba was taken as the band was loading out from the show during a few brief minutes when their car, which was parked a few blocks away from the venue, was left unattended as they gathered their belongings.
The hand-lettering, which Jaffe applied himself in tape, "is almost impossible to remove," and even if someone managed to do so, he said, it would leave an impression "like putting a piece of tape on your arm, and then going into the sunshine for 12 years."
Jaffe acquired the horn just after Hurricane Katrina, and since then it's been with him on every Preservation Hall Jazz Band recording and performance.
"It's become a part of my history and part of the band's history and part of the city's history," he said. "That horn is a symbol of the rebirth of this city."
The horn, manufactured by Mario Corso, also features an etching on the back of its bell with that name and the name of the city where it was created, Milano. Jaffe said he didn't know it was missing until they were unloading the band's car late Sunday and early Monday morning.
Jaffe could get another tuba -- but he said it wouldn't be the same.
"The relationship a musician develops with their instrument is unlike really anything else," he said. "It's this physical thing that helps you communicate your art. Without it, I'm just a guy literally blowing hot air."
The band has created an anonymous hotline for tips, which can be called at 504.418.0367, and they're offering an undisclosed reward for the tuba or tips that lead to its reacquisition.
"I believe in karma and that the instrument will come back into our life," Jaffe said. "I think it was an opportunity that somebody saw and it was in a vulnerable place at a vulnerable time."