I’m reprinting the contents of an email here, sent to me by Lewis Pelham, and it really does sum up our (often) futile search for a better mouthpiece – when all along we don’t know what potential is lurking in some of the mouthpieces we already have…
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Alan – as you know, we have an old friend aged 79 who has been a pro sax player all his life. Johnny Marshall has never had any other job, and is a world class player. A pupil of the Army’s Duke of York Public school from the age of 8 he played clarinet and sax from day one – pictured right. "Dukies" led straight into the Army where he played tenor in the Army’s No. 1 band. Subsequently he went on to play with the Basil Kirchin Band through almost any band you care to mention, including six years with Georgie Fame. He backed Sarah Vaughan on her UK tour and the young Stevie Wonder when he toured the UK at thirteen years old.
I mentioned all that only to substantiate his pedigree – his playing is simply astounding in any style you care to mention. He has always been frightened to try different mouthpieces, not wishing to enter the "search for the Holy Grail". Yesterday we invited him to visit us for the day and he was interested in my arsenal of mouthpieces. I favour my Lawton 8*B over a vintage 8* Colletto. Probably because of it’s high baffle and tiny chamber, the Colletto is loud, bright and piercing. Difficult to control it is reluctant to subtone below D – whereas, for me, the Lawton is far creamier and will do just about anything.
To illustrate this to the sceptical Johnny Marshall, I played my Buescher Big B tenor with both the Lawton and Colletto in turn. JM agreed that I did indeed sound much better on the Lawton. Johnny then picked up the tenor (don’t forget he’s now an alto player and has literally not touched a tenor for decades) and repeated the exercise.
The result was utterly astonishing – with the Colletto he could do anything – ultra mellow with glorious subtone, to a screaming filthy sound. He had utter and instantaneous control of not only a strange horn, but an even stranger mouthpiece. He simply adored the Colletto, and said that if he ever played tenor again he would break my arm to own it. He liked the Lawton but claimed that it had nothing like the versatility of the Colletto. I learned a salient lesson – it is a mistake to make sweeping statements about the perceived and advertised qualities of various mouthpieces – it’s all down to the player.
This morning, I again tried the Colletto – it is still piercing and harsh… Kind Regards, Lewis.
P.S. -
With regard to his playing of the Colletto, he could easily understand why it was too bright in my hands (mouth!) – but he said that a good mouthpiece will allow you to play the sound in your head. Sound advice I think, and in the case of the Colletto it would allow a vast canvas of your head sounds.
He said that it (the Colletto) was the best mouthpiece that he had ever played. He also said that one’s personal preference was too often dictated by the piece that played most easily the sound in your head, but this invariably means that it will not allow you to stray too far from this preconception. I am now persevering with the Colletto ! If he can exploit it’s inherent versatility then, given time, so can I – in any case I would be foolish to disregard what I heard him doing with it…..
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There has always been a link here, in the Blogroll, to a favourite track recorded by Johnny Marshall as part of the North Devon Jazz Quartet – playing My Funny Valentine
Whatever happened to April – seemed to have slipped by at breakneck speed without a single new post. So – just as a quick “catch-up”, here’s a few things that have changed, although I’ll probably expand on them in future posts.
My tenor Lawton 8*BB is back with me from its holiday in New Jersey (wish I’d gone there with it 
), and is now in the fine company of an 8*B and an ebonite 8BB – click/hover here for a picture of them all – both recently acquired from cyber friends – many thanks to Jon and Andrew for very sensible prices. I’ve been checking them all out on my old $77 Martin stencil tenor, and I very much suspect that the Lawton 8BB ebonite will end up on the Aquilasax bare-brass C, deposing the current Couf J10*S. The brass 8*B will probably become the main tenor piece, leaving the 8*BB either free for re-sale or as an emergency paint-stripper…
All this ‘tenoring’ has raised my tenor hackles, and nice as my old Martin tenor is, I ‘ve just won a new Steve Goodson (stop that hissing…) Orpheo burnished brass tenor sax for a BIN offer of just $500 (that’s a total delivered cost, including shipping and UK VAT/duty, of less than 500 quid for a well equipped piece of kit. They are around eleven hundred pounds/quid (incl. shipping) if you buy them in the UK from Goodson’s UK outlet. All it needs now is for Noteworthy Musical to invoice me via Paypal, so that I can actually pay – but I guess things move slowly in Texas ?
That’s the tenor, on the left – looks wierd, that high-G rod going all the way up the back, past the knuckle-duster… Here is some more info about the Orpheo tenor – and a Youtube video – featuring Valdemort himself, with all the playing done by Derek Nash, from the UK….
What else ? Well, both my alto and tenor Tone Edge Links have gone to a very nice man in Southampton – thanks Roger. Plus I’ve been checking out ways of renovating those old ebonite mouthpieces – I can ‘almost’ get them to taste like new again ! And – this is partly why the posting hiatus – I’ve finally bitten the bullet and am clearing out all the junk from my house. Can’t live like Steptoe any more. So what I can’t sell on the website will go by eBay – although I’m amazed that (if you include Paypal fees) I can now look forward to losing 15% of the selling price as commission – or to the tip… Guess there’s no eBay/Paypal recession !
The C’s haven’t been neglected, still playing the Conn PanAm C-Sop and the bare-brass Aquilasax C. Anyway, hello again, and I look forward to posting a new topic at least every few days – watch this space. If I owe anyone an email response, apologies, they’ve been coming thick and fast – I’m wading thro’ those (as fast as I can go) as well 
– if you’re really desperate for a response, send it again so that it’s at the top of the pile…
It was so far back that I honestly can’t remember when I bought this Lawton 8*BB tenor sax mouthpiece. I got it from Bill Lewington’s magical emporium, when they were in the West End – just the other side of Cambridge Circus from Shaftesbury Avenue – and I seem to remember the salesman saying “Have you tried the new Lawton ?” when I explained that I wanted something with as much bite, but a wider range of sounds, than my faithful ’0′ chamber Berg Larsen.
In a 2001 interview with JazzNation, Geoff Lawton said “…and I’ve been making them ever since. You’re talking forty-odd years…”, so the timescale fits. All I can remember is that I parted with around 20 quid for a spanking new Lawton. I may well soon be parting with my tenor Lawton for a great deal more than that – enjoy the pictures ! Click on the image for a web page full of lovely Lawton pictures…
Having spent most of my active musical life playing alto and tenor sax with metal mouthpieces – initially stainless steel Bergs on both, but latterly a Lawton 8*BB tenor piece, and a bronze alto Berg – I now find myself reverting back to rubber in search of a more subtle sound…
I’ve also always had a few ebonite Links and Bergs in the arsenal, but often found them to be relatively inflexible in the overall range of sounds – anything that could provide a lush sound, couldn’t always come up with the power and edge when pushed, and vice-versa. I know modern pieces like RPC do address this, but I’m coming at the problem from a slightly more economical angle. It all started years back when I picked up a handful of vintage fat Couf Artist’s on eBay (the two in the centre of the pics are all that’s left of them, as I stupidly sold a couple), and ever since I’ve been picking up the odd streamline tenor and alto version until I’ve finally acquired the six here – all excellent players I might add.. It’s good to have a pair of each – as mouthpiece quality can vary, although not noticeable in any of these so far.
As a real bonus, the slimmer ‘Streamline’ tenor Couf’s seem to have quite good intonation and sound on C-Melody – a bonus indeed ! I suspect the chamber is just that little bit smaller than on the fat tenor Couf’s. And they all (well, the four tenor ones) have big wedge baffles, so no lack of edge when needed. One of the alto Couf’s has an ‘after’ baffle, less substantial than the tenor ones, and the other alto Couf will doubtless be the subject of some experimentation with epoxy putty. I look forward to concentrating on just these six for the foreseeable future, I’ve already found great potential with a couple – it would be great to also find one of the relatively rare soprano Couf’s (not just the Couf badged Runyon), but my soprano Meyer – with the heavily wedge baffled Metalite M11 soprano in reserve - suits me just fine. Interesting times ahead.
For further info on Couf mouthpieces, click here, and also here – all the ones shown here are ‘Artist’ models.
And still alive and kicking ! Well, not exactly kicking, as my arthritic knees may apparently also have a touch of gout :( I await the blood test results with interest, and just hope they didn’t test for leprosy as well :D Just to cheer myself up here’s a quick blast of Spike Jones – Flight of the StumbleBee – which degenerates into the Laughing Song.
Throughout my formative years I thoroughly enjoyed them and also our own home-grown Temperance Seven, Bob Kerrs Whoopee Band, and of course the Bonzo Dog DooDah Band – to name but a few !
So what’s new ? I recently lost the bidding on an ebonite Lawton 8*BB tenor mouthpiece – I just wanted to try one against the metal 8*BB that I’ve had for decades, but the prices are just plain silly. But the good news is that I won the bidding on a rather curious Saxscape Downtown alto mouthpiece – big wedge baffle, and the fastest response I’ve ever found – only a #6, but paired with a Rico #2 reed it plays effortlessly, even up into the harmonics – here’s a very quick sound-bite, while I practise on it for more adventurous sounds. More edge than the Grim Reapers Sickle… And bought from a man called Zoltan Sagi – bit of a memorable name is that…
Looking for the oldest Rico Plasticover box I have, to try and find out (for another thread) when they first came out – I came across this old box of Plasticover clarinet reeds… That WAS from a long time ago !
I’ll just draw your attention to what’s printed inside the box – ” Important – To neutralise reed moisten thoroughly before playing “.
OK !
“Moisten the plastic covered reed” ? Whatever you say, Mr Rico, just keep taking the tablets…. Don’t seem to be able to find that very helpful advice either on, or in, later boxes of Plasticover reeds… Wonder why ?
Continue reading about Rico may just have been a little confused….
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