Here’s another one from early jazz: the Mound City Blue Blowers was led by Red McKenzie, whose instrument was comb and tissue paper. Here he is on Hello, Lola, recorded in 1929.
The line-up for this record is really impressive: Red McKenzie on comb, Glenn Miller on trombone, Pee Wee Russell on clarinet, Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax, Eddie Condon on banjo, Jack Bland on guitar, Pops Foster on string bass and Gene Krupa on drums.
It isn’t a soprano sax.This is what a soprano sax sounds like. The hot fountain pen has the breathy tone of a clarinet, not the raspy, nasal tone of a sax.
Here is a period ad for the hot fountain pen.
“I Think I’m Going To Kill Myself” by Elton John, 1972. The song was originally planned to feature Elt’s stepfather playing the spoons. When that didn’t pan out, they got Legs Larry Smith (from Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) to tap dance. Elton’s band wondered if Legs would bring anything else to the studio besides tap shoes, and one member joked he might bring a floor with him. They had a good laugh at the thought. Surprise, surprise, Legs brought a floor to the studio.
Live performance with Legs:
Also from that same album, Honky Chateau:
“Mellow” and “Amy” feature electric violin solos by Jean-Luc Ponty (it sounds almost like an organ in “Mellow”).
Elton John - Amy (1972) With Lyrics! - YouTube – “Amy”
and “Hercules”, while this is not a solo, features a “rhino whistle” during the instrumental. What’s a rhino whistle? It was just a noise producer Gus Dudgeon could make cupping his hands over his mouth. Someone suggested it sounded like a rhino whistle, and that’s how it was listed as in the credits.
sb
Here’s Adrian Rollini again from the days of early jazz (he really liked oddball instruments). He played something he called a “goofus” (it’s official name was a “couesnophone”) - a keyed multi-reed instrument shaped like a saxophone. Here is an article about it.
Here is Adrian Rollini with a goofus solo on “Bessie Couldn’t Help It” by Rube Bloom and His Bayou Boys. The solo starts at 2:26.
Not a solo, but Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine used ashtrays as percussion instruments on the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” (called out in the recording as “Hal and his famous ashtray!”), as well as on Dean Martin’s “Houston,” and also played snow tire chains on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Silly me! I meant “Cool, Calm, and Collected,” from the same album (Between the Buttons).
That’s a kazoo, right?
[quote=“TubaDiva, post:79, topic:781626”]
Oh! French horn, Leon Russell, “A Song For You.” Sublime.
[/QUOTE]One of my favorite songs.
Ha! Learn something new every day if you’re not careful.
Since it takes soprano sax reeds, we’re still in the same ballpark. Weasel horn by any other name …
Never seen or heard about this before today … I know a lot of trad jazz people and have never seen this anywhere.
Thanks for enlightening me!
Bonzo Dog! The ultimate “different instrument” track! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DUEAG5eO6c
Yep. Brian (Jones) played kazoo, harmonica, and electric dulcimer on that one. I might have suspected your switcheroo had I not forgotten about that song.
Great, thanks!
I see I messed up earlier and included a bass solo. So, how about a Chainsaw solo.
Has anyone yet mentioned Jerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”? It is unique amongst pop songs (as far as I know) by using a saxophone solo to serve as the chorus.
I hesitate to mention one of my favorites, the twin violin solo in “Within Attraction” from the 1993 “Yanni Live at the Acropolis”, just about takes the cake for me. Orchestra conductor Shardad Rouhani and band solo violinist Karen Briggs played a “statement-recapitulation-answer” dual solo that’s longer about 7 minutes long. It’s worth your time to look it up, I think. (I think Briggs mopped the floor with the concertmaster! He did a fine job, even so.)
I’m very fond of the saxophone solo/refrain in Gerry Rafferty’s 1978 “Baker Street”, and to Johnny Colla’s absolutely ripping saxophone bridge solo in the 1984 “The Heart of Rock & Roll” by Huey Lewis and the News.
(Doggone it, Sam Spade PI, you got in ahead of me. Good work.)
I just thought of another. Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra sometimes featured Buster Moten on accordion (Buster was Bennie’s brother, uncle, cousin or nephew - no one knows for sure). Here, Buster starts off Moten’s Blues with an accordion solo.
Apparently, yes. I did not know that or even think to look that up until now. Nice bit of trivia to know. ETA: And he also plays on “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.”
It’s possible this is NSFW!
The band is Sukekiyo (a band featuring Dir En Grey’s singer Kyu). The song is Aftermath and the bowed instrument is a/the Taishōgoto.
I hope this counts - Acker Bilk playing a beautiful clarinet solo in ‘Stranger on the Shore’.