[Dixielandjazz] Plunger

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

A plunger is a plunger is a plunger, named for its function of clearing drains (which can be discharged even by stone deaf plumbers) and not as a matter of musicians' terminology 
It is noted somewhere on or around a Delmark DVD of a German band visiting USA for an annual Bixfest, visiting the Chicago premises which used to be -- in chronological order -- the Sunset Cafe and then the Grand Terrace, that, even in its latest identity as a plumbing warehouse, the fact that horn players still come to buy rubber plungers  maintains the building's connection with jazz. 
The item fits the hand for putting the thing over the bell of the horn, and also distorting the shape to make a narrow space as another tonal modification. No plunging movement involved. 
A nice bit of improvisation with gear not initially devised for musical purposes but something which might have been made to measure -- but didn't need to be!
And of course it couldn't have been made to musical measure because without it being there from the start, there could hardly have been a purpose for it to match. 
Which came first, the trumpet or the plunger? 
The same goes for some of the hardware used by the percussion virtuoso James Blades assisting Benjamin Britten with compositions with an oriental influence --  it is quite possible he also used a plumber's plunger, but rather than applying it to a trumpet or trombone bell he hit it. 
And I suspect most of our native English speaker friends will know most of this anyway. 

Robert R. Calder