The old adage, necessity is the mother of invention, has proven to be very true for Philipus Jani, who lives in the Tambunan District of Malaysia. He borrowed a saxophone from a friend, promptly fell in love with the instrument, but couldn’t afford one. So he decided to make one for himself instead.
“The experiment started in 1993, and I finally perfected a saxophone made of bamboo 12 years later.” “I used my own calculations and measurements for placement of holes and now, it functions perfectly,” the New Strait Times quoted Jani, as saying. “This traditional instrument is as good as the modern one and it shows that we can improvise and make instruments of our own using resources like bamboo,” Jani added.
Source: http://living.oneindia.in
Jani sells his small somporing for 500 MYR (Malaysian ringgit), and his large ones for 1000 MYR (approx $140 US and $280 US at the time of writing). Each instrument comes with a case made of bamboo. It takes Jani between 4 to 7 days to make an instrument.
EstherK recently took this photo of Philipus Jani playing his small somporing. It’s shape and size would lead one to believe it is of the soprano variety. The larger somporing was captured in this colour, and this black and white photo by ae8za. This larger somporing has the classic shape of a tenor saxophone.
These somporing certainly look somewhat more advanced then the vintage bamboo saxophones that the Manila Orchestra were playing in the early part of the 20th century.
Source: blog.modernmechanix.com
I wonder how they would compare in sound?
Helo…do u know Phillipus Jani’s contact info?
Hello abel. Welcome to my site.
No, I’m sorry I don’t have any contact information for Philipus Jani. I wish you luck finding him though.
Best regards,
Helen
Hi Abel, are you looking for Jani? I am currently working with his new website for his music and instrument.
I can convey your message to him if you want it urgently.
Rgds,
VJ
hi Mr verus john. did you still have any contact information for philipus jani? i want to write article about him. kindly reply my comments. thankyou.
I hadn’t seen those bamboo mouthpieces before. Wow! They were very impressive looking. Definitely a work of art. Very nice sound to them as well. I didn’t explore the site fully, so I didn’t see if there were prices anywhere in anything other than Japanese. Wonder what they cost. :scratch:
As far as the bamboo saxes goes… Well I hope that the ones Philipus Jani makes are better in the intonation department. 😯 … But I do think the bari one is kinda’ cool, and would look rather interesting hanging in my studio.
I hate replying to myself, but I bet it sounds like one of THESE (there is audio at this site):
http://larkinthemorning.com/Straight-Bb-SoPrano-Bamboo-SaxoPhone/p/WIN139/
I bet his small one (the one that looks like a saxello-style soprano) sounds a lot like a (modern) tarogato, which in turn sounds like what it is, a wooden soprano sax with smaller holes. I can imagine that he has enough “meat” on those bamboo segments to have a fully conical inner bore even though the outside goes in graduated steps. I’m not a big believer in body material changing sound — the SMOOTHNESS of the material however can matter a LOT, but bamboo can be sealed, as it is in the bamboo mouthpieces here:
http://www.bamboomouthpiece.com/English.htm
I see no reason it can’t work, and it probably does. My only doubt is if it’s economically viable as a business venture. Low-end Chinese saxophones are just too cheap. Bad for the artisan builder, but probably good for the majority of budding musicians.