non-standard "saxamaphone"-like instruments

[Rooster_Ties]

OK, I had this big idea for a thread all thought out as I was driving back from St. Louis on Sunday. And, of course, now I can't remember even half the details. But before I forget to even start the thread, here goes...

What are all the non-standard "saxamaphone"-like instruments that have been used and/recorded on over the years??? And who are the guys who have invented/developed them, and recorded with them??? I know, many of them are home-made (non-standard) instruments, but some of them were given semi-official names (at least by their creators, Roland Kirk comes to mind).

AND, since a good number of them (or at least the best known ones) were developed and/or "found" by Roland Kirk, let's open this same discussion/thread up to the topic of playing two (or more) saxes at the same time, like Kirk and George Braith are probably the best known for.

>> Are there any other guys who are semi-well-known for playing 2 or more saxes at the same time???

>> Does anybody have any pics of the two saxes that Braith supposedly welded together into one instrument?? I can't remember if there's a pic of it/them in the complete BN Braith Conn (and I don't know where mine it at the moment, it's around here somewhere).

There's a guy here in Kansas City (Mark Southerland) who plays alto and tenor together at the same time, and does a GREAT job with it (as well as Braith, to my ears). He also has several homemade sax-like horns, including a piccolo body that he's grafted a soprano sax mouthpiece onto. He can get a full range of notes out of it, but needless to say that they're not all "well tempered", if you get my drift. Still, he gets quite a range of expression out of the thing. I think it's the only such homemade instrument of his that I've seen, but I understand he's got others too. He plays in a band called Malachy Papers, and perhaps more frequently on the homemade instruments in a side-project of his called "Snuff Jazz". (Probably more accurate to say he co-leads Malachy Papers, for the record.)

Anyway, post any and all pics of any homemade sax-related instruments here, and any info about multi-sax-playing guys you can think of, and (for you musicians on the board), any thoughts about the technical issues of any of these subjects.

Edited March 17, 2004 by Rooster_Ties

[couw]

Braith and his double horn

[Rooster_Ties]

left to right: manzello, saxo soprano droit, saxo alto droit, saxo coulisse, saxo basse, saxo glissando, connosax, saxello, saxo soprano courbe

Source (scroll down)

[JohnS]

Slide saxophone.

[David Williams]

Mats Gustafsson's fluteophone: flute with an alto sax mouthpiece.

[PHILLYQ]

I think at one time Henry Threadgill played something called a 'hubkaphone' that was a weird mix of a saxophone and something else...

[couw]

Xero Slingsby played a bikepumpaphone. no idea what it looked like. sounds weird though.

[JSngry]

I think at one time Henry Threadgill played something called a 'hubkaphone' that was a weird mix of a saxophone and something else...

No saxophone, just a bell tree made of hubcaps.

[paul secor]

Snub Mosley, though primarily a trombonist, played an instrument he called slide saxophone. In photographs, it appears to be a combination of both saxophone and trombone, with mouthpieces for both instruments.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Dick Heckstall-Smith (soprano & tenor)

Wilbur Sweatman (3 clarinets)

Vladimir Chekasin (2 altos)

One of Kirk's stritches had a bell taken from a french horn. See Roy Haynes: Out of the Afternoon.

Mike