Over the years I have written a number of articles about bamboo saxophones, and saxes made of other kinds of wood. Then yesterday I noticed a photo posted by Cresny on Flickr.
While also showing a bamboo saxophone, this photo is different from the others that I’ve featured on my blog, in that this sax is hanging in a museum…
Bamboo Saxophone
Photography by: Cresny Source: Flickr
This photo is part of a set that Cresny put together on Flickr called Musical Instrument Museum. Unfortunately Cresny doesn’t mention where this is, but based on the way the instrument is attached to the wall, and the nature of the description card, I suspect this is in Scottsdale, AZ.
I’ll freely admit that I had never heard of the Philippine island of Luzon before. Nor did I know that the Philippine capital of Manila was located on the island. (Apparently I was either sleeping or cutting class that week in high school geography class.) 😳
In a quick scan of the previous articles about bamboo saxophones that I have written, I noticed that a number of these horns came from that part of the world. As a matter of fact, in the early 20th century the Manila Orchestra played a variety of bamboo saxophones—which came in a variety of different shapes—that were to have rivalled their metal cousins in tone.
However, given all the various shapes and sizes of modern bamboo saxophones that I have come across over the past few years, I’m surprised that none of them have looked exactly like this one. Not the ones from Angel Sampedro, or Philipus Jani, or Waiboon Tungyuenyong, or even Malcolm the street musician’s. This leads me to suspect that each one of these players has developed their own design either in isolation, or with the input of locals only.
Furthermore, given how distant from each other and wide-spread the designers and players of these bamboo saxophones are, and that these horns are just the ones I’ve happened to have stumbled across, just how many people worldwide do you think are making their own saxophones out of bamboo?
So the next time we are perplexed looking for the perfect horn, mouthpiece, or reed, lets just count our blessings. We could be playing on something that looks like this.
Yes, it is at MIM in Phoenix, AZ. I probably have a few other pics of it around somewhere.
I thin the MIM will eventually hit its stride. From the pics I saw when it first opened, its sax collection at least was very limited. I believe today it is quite a bit bigger. Presumably the rest of the museum’s collection is growing as well.
This bamboo saxophone—or technically not, since as someone pointed out on my FB page, it lacks a true conical bore— doesn’t have its makers name attached, which is too bad. Given it is so new, the artist who made it is still likely alive, and likely still making saxophone-like instruments. It would be nice to give him credit.