The couesnophone, also known as the goofus or queenophone, is a free-reed musical instrument in a saxophone shape, patented by French instrument manufacturer Couesnon in 1924. Its reeds vibrate when the desired keys are activated and the player blows through a tube. "Best described as a mouth-blown accordion," [1] "it sounded like a cross between a harmonica and an accordion." [2]
Couesnon was awarded patent no. 569294 for an instrument that was described as a saxophone jouet (lit. 'toy saxophone'). Unlike the saxophone, the couesnophone is a polyphonic instrument with a set of single reeds, one for each of the notes produced, similar to a melodica. The keys are set in a keyboard with a layout similar to that of the early Hohner melodicas, [3] in parallel rows corresponding to the white and black keys of a piano. Its rubber mouthpiece allows the horn be held and played vertically like a saxophone, or horizontally like a flute or melodica.
The couesnophone was introduced into jazz and America by bass saxophonist and vibraphonist Adrian Rollini, though he is sometimes credited with its invention. [1] The term "goofus" might have been coined by jazz musicians such as Rollini, [4] or Ed Kirkeby, [5] because it is easier to pronounce.
Recordings with Rollini on goofus include The Little Ramblers' "Deep Elm"; [6] The Goofus Five's "Everybody Love My Baby" and "Oh! How I Love My Darling"; [7] the Varsity Eight's "How I Love That Girl", "Doo Wacka Doo", "Oh! Mabel", "Happy (Watchin' All the Clouds Roll By)", "Ain't My Baby Grand?", and "I Ain't Got Nobody to Love"; [7] and Joe Venuti and the Eddie Lang Blue Five's "Raggin' the Scale". [7] Don Redman played the goofus on "You'll Never Get to Heaven With Those Eyes", "A New Kind of Man (With a New Kind of Love for Me)", and "Cold Mammas (Burn Me Up)". [8]
Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type. The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the diskant, usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side, and the accompaniment on bass or pre-set chord buttons on the left-hand side. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica include diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth to direct air into or out of one holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. The most common is the diatonic Richter-tuned with ten air passages and twenty reeds, often called the blues harp. A harmonica reed is a flat, elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound.
The saxophone is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to produce a sound wave inside the instrument's body. The pitch is controlled by opening and closing holes in the body to change the effective length of the tube. The holes are closed by leather pads attached to keys operated by the player. Saxophones are made in various sizes and are almost always treated as transposing instruments. A person who plays the saxophone is called a saxophonist or saxist.
The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usually covers two or three octaves. Melodicas are small, lightweight, and portable, and many are designed for children to play. They are popular in music education programs, especially in Asia. The modern form of the instrument was invented by Hohner in the late 1950s, though similar instruments have been known in Italy since the 19th century.
A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front.
A free reed aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound as air flows past a vibrating reed in a frame. Air pressure is typically generated by breath or with a bellows. In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, it is number: 412.13. Free reed instruments are contrasted with non-free or enclosed reed instruments, where the timbre is fully or partially dependent on the shape of the instrument body, Hornbostel–Sachs number: 42.
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭, smaller than the B♭ tenor but larger than the B♭ soprano. It is the most common saxophone and is used in popular music, concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, pep bands, carnatic music, and jazz.
A Chemnitzer concertina is a musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed category, sometimes called squeezeboxes. The Chemnitzer concertina is most closely related to the bandoneón, and more distantly, to the other types of concertinas and accordions. It's essentially a bigger version of the Anglo Concertina that sounds more akin to an Accordion due to having Multiple Ranks of Reeds.
Adrian Francis Rollini was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who primarily played the bass saxophone, piano, and vibraphone. Rollini is also known for playing novel instruments such as the goofus, a free-reed instrument resembling a saxophone, and the "hot fountain pen", a sort of keyless miniature clarinet.
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons. This differs from the piano accordion, which has piano-style keys. Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs categorize it as a free reed aerophone in their classification of instruments, published in 1914. The sound from the instrument is produced by the vibration of air in reeds. Button accordions of various types are particularly common in European countries and countries where European people settled. The button accordion is often confused with the concertina; the button accordion's buttons are on the front of the instrument, where as the concertina's are on the sides and pushed in parallel with the bellows.
The bass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family—larger and lower than the more common baritone saxophone. It was likely the first type of saxophone built by Adolphe Sax, as first observed by Berlioz in 1842. It is a transposing instrument pitched in B♭, an octave below the tenor saxophone and a perfect fourth below the baritone saxophone. A bass saxophone in C, intended for orchestral use, was included in Adolphe Sax's patent, but few known examples were built. The bass saxophone is not a commonly used instrument, but it is heard on some 1920s jazz recordings, in free jazz, in saxophone choirs and sextets, and occasionally in concert bands and rock music.
The Claviola is a musical instrument that was designed in the 1960s by Hohner technician and designer Ernst Zacharias. The instrument was produced for a few months in the late 1990s before being discontinued.
The California Ramblers were an American jazz group that recorded hundreds of songs for many different record labels throughout the 1920s. Four members of the band – Red Nichols, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, and Adrian Rollini – went on to front big bands in later decades.
Murray McEachern was a Canadian jazz trombonist and alto saxophonist, perhaps best known for having played trombone for Benny Goodman from 1936 to 1937. McEachern is also remembered for playing both the trombone and alto saxophone for the Casa Loma Orchestra from 1937 to 1941.
Live at Birdland is a 2003 live two-disc jazz album by guitarist John Pizzarelli and his trio. The song choices are mostly ballads and jazz standards, performed in the swing medium, mixed up here and there with a few original compositions. Pizzarelli consistently garners favorable reviews from critics at Allmusic, generally receiving 4 stars or more for his albums.
A Cajun accordion, also known as a squeezebox, is single-row diatonic button accordion used for playing Cajun and Creole music.
Swing is a soundtrack for the 1999 film of the same name, which stars Lisa Stansfield, who also recorded ten songs for the soundtrack and co-wrote four of them. The album was released in Europe on 10 May 1999 and in North America on 13 July 1999. Swing garnered favorable reviews from music critics who called it a "gem" among the soundtracks. The album, full of jazz and swing songs, reached number six on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart. On 2 June 2003, it was remastered and re-released in Europe with an alternative cover art.
Presenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, the Jazz Orchestra is a 1966 big band jazz album recorded by Joe Williams with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and released on the Solid State Records label.
A free-bass system is a system of left-hand bass buttons on an accordion, arranged to give the performer greater ability to play melodies with the left-hand and form one's own chords. The left-hand buttonboard consists of single-note buttons with a range of three octaves or more, in contrast to the standard Stradella bass system, which offers a shorter range of single bass notes, plus preset major, minor, dominant seventh, and diminished chord buttons. The term "free-bass system" refers to various left-hand manual systems that provide this functionality: The Stradella system does not have buttons for different octaves of the bass notes, which limits the types of melodies and basslines that can be performed with the left hand.
Dee Gee Days: The Savoy Sessions is a compilation album by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie featuring performances recorded in 1951 and 1952 and originally released on Gillespie's own Dee Gee Records label. Many of the tracks were first released as 78 rpm records but were later released on albums including School Days (Regent) and The Champ (Savoy).