[Dixielandjazz] Sarrusophones

[Stan Brager]

Sidney Bechet played the Sarrusophone on "Mandy, Make Up Your Mind" with
Clarence Williams Blue Five on December 17, 1924. Louis Armstrong on cornet,
Charlie Irvis on trumpet, Buddy Christian on banjo, Eva Taylor was the
vocalist. Williams played piano.

Scott Robinson on his Arbors' CD "Think Big" recreated Bechet's role and
added more sarrusophone to it.

Stan
Stan Brager
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jobriant at sunrisetelecom.com>
To: <Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:57 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Sarrusophones


Tom Wiggins wrote:

> Perhaps that lovely instrument (the Sarrusophone) was
> just unfortunately missmatched with a bunch of other
> more well known and exposed OKOM instruments that
> have been over tuned for mellowness and sweetness. :))

Well, the Cornets and especially the Double-Belled Euphoniums are certainly
more mellow than the Sarrusophone.

But we weren't hearing this Sarrusophone as it was intended.  Pete played it
with a single-reed mouthpiece, as do a number of other contemporary
Sarrusophone players. I'm guessing that his instrument is either a Bb Bass
or Eb Contrabass Sarrusophone, but that's just a guess.

But as invented, the Sarrusophone used a double reed.  Here's some
additional information, adapted from the International Double Reed Society
web page:

The Sarrusophone was invented in 1856 by Monsieur Sarrus, a band leader for
the French 13th Regiment of the line. M. Sarrus The French patent was
awarded June 9, 1856 and gave manufacturing rights to the firm of P. L.
Gautrot in Paris. The Sarrusophone was intended primarily for use in the
marching band, to replace bassoons and oboes -- which are difficult to play
when marching and can't be heard very well outdoors anyway.

The Sarrusophone fingering system is suspiciously like that of the
saxophone.

And like the Saxophone, the Sarrusophone came in a family of several
instruments of differing sizes and pitches:

Eb Sopranino
Bb Soprano
Eb Alto
Bb Tenor
Eb Baritone
Bb Bass
Eb Contrabass
C  Contrabass
Bb Contrabass

These similarities did not go unnoticed by M. Adolph Sax, who sued Sarrus
for patent infringement. Sax lost.

Gautrot in Paris and C.G. Conn in the USA had manufacturing rights.  Conn
made about 200 Eb Contrabass Sarrusophones between 1914 and the early
1920's.  To enable single-reed instrumentalists to play the Sarrusophone,
both companies also made a single-reed mouthpiece for it, similar in shape
and size to a soprano Saxophone mouthpiece.

Apparently Sidney Bechet also played Sarrusophone, and made some jazz
recordings on one or another member of this instrument family.  I'd never
heard of these before (much less heard them), but I'd venture a guess that
he had a Bb Soprano Sarrusophone; the fingerings would have been similar to
his Bb Soprano Saxophone.

In another message, Bill Gunter wrote:

> If you took all the ugly noises in the universe and
> rolled them into one it would still not sound as bad
> as a sarousaphone [sic]. Pete could put the ax down
> and make armpit farts and get a more beautiful sound
> than that ugly, miserable excuse for a "musical"
> instrument. It truly is an instrument for people
> with "tin ears" or perhaps a death wish.

Some C.G. Conn advertising literature took a different tack:

"Although comparatively new in this hemisphere, the Sarrusophone as produced
by Conn has already established itself in America. and its popularity is
assured."

However, the IDRS concludes its Sarrusophone article with a statement that
seems to agree more with Bill:

"The brief popularity and rapid decline of the Sarrusophone is perhaps, as
Heinz Becker has pointed out, an argument for the hypothesis that the
lifespan of an instrument depends more on its tone quality than its
technical quality."

I would agree with that, but not too loudly, as someone is likely to bring
up the fact that I own and play an Ophicleide.

Jim O'Briant
Tuba (& Ophicleide & other stuff)
Gilroy, CA