Klarinet Archive - Posting 000059.txt from 1994/10

From: David Lechner <dlechner@-----.NET>
Subj: Keilworth straight alto
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 12:01:24 -0400

I was intrigued by Jay Heiser's message regarding the Keilworth straight
alto sax and the horns used by Rahsaan Roland Kirk. This was the subject
I alluded to some weeks back when I posted a message asking about the
existence of a saxophonists' list and raising the question of how far the
discussion was normally allowed to veer away from clarinets.

In the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD ... there is an article about Kirk
which says his two atypical horns (stritch and manzello), well, here's
the exact quotation ...

In a music-shop basement Kirk discovered a manzello and a
stritch, rare horns apparently used in Spanish marching
bands. The manzello approximated the pitch of the soprano
saxophone - close as they said in the booths, but no cigar
- and the stritch was an off-pitch alto saxophone.

I have couple of Kirk's albums which show him playing these two horns.
They are not "straight" in the sense of a modern straight soprano. The
neck has a curve about like that of an alto _clarinet_ (different bore,
obviously) and the bell appears to have about the same degree of curvature.
The overall effect is like a stretched "s" curve, with about the middle
80 % of the horn straight.

Can anyone possibly confirm the "Spanish marching band" portion of the
quotation, or is that apocryphal?

While swerving onto the subject of exotic reeds, I might as well throw
this out, which also has little to do with clarinets, but ...

Wait, there was this jazz clarinetist, Sidney Bechet... (there's one link)
A few weeks back, in discussing metal clarinets, someone alluded to
sarrusophones (metal double reeds)... (a second, nebulous link to an
existing thread).

Okay, here's the point. If anyone is curious as to the sound of the
sarrusophone, there is a wonderful recording found on _The Genius of
Louis Armstrong_ volume one (lp, there may or may not be a CD reissue at
this point) called "Mandy, Make Up Your Mind!" (The tune actually cropped
up on the third or fourth "inning" of Ken Burns' _Baseball_ series on PBS.)
This is _very_ early Armstrong (1923). On "Mandy", Sidney Bechet plays
contrabass sarrusophone and -- along with providing the bass line --
takes a _wonderful_ extended solo. So if you ever wondered, ...

Actually, I'd be curious whether anyone knows of _any_ other recording of
_anyone_ playing _any_ member of the sarrusophone family in any context.
I believe I remember seeing a medium sized one (tenor, maybe) in the
instrument collection at the German National Technical Museum in Munich.

If too many people feel this is too far off topic, my apologies in
advance; I'll try to be better; and I'd welcome any responses via my
e-mail address, dlechner@-----. If
there's interest in a summary, I can post one subsequently. I'll let you
all be the judges. (Ducking quickly for cover behind the flame resistent
firewall ....)

--David