Mouthpieces Monster Mouthpiece sighted on YouTube !

blues_growler · Jan 22, 2008

It's not the colour I'm bothered about, I'm aware of ivory Brilharts etc.,
but is this not an usually large mouthpiece that the soloist is using ? Maybe it's just what I call the reefer effect but to me this mpc looks as big as a can of baked beans.
Also, where were the embouchure police when this bloke got stared ? He seems to be blowing out of the side of his mouth. Surely, that's not allowed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMJ2XH_qHkU

Linky Lee · Jan 22, 2008

I have no idea, but it does look huge.

I don't think playing from the edge of your mouth is much of a problem. Loads of people seemed to do it that way.

Jules · Jan 22, 2008

could be an unusually small headed tenor player who just makes the mouthpiece look huge!
storming good track by the way.... pretty much the kind of material we're, er... 'borrowing' in Fat45.

RedBottom · Jan 22, 2008

What year is this clip? My guess is that it's from a time when musicians earned even less than they do now and he was playing on the only mouthpiece he could get, even if it wasn't the most appropriate.

As for the embouchure, my teacher plays like that, more noticeably on clarinet, but I've seen him do it on sax too. If the guy's got an awkward mouth shape, bad teeth or even no teeth in parts of his mouth, then it could be the reason.

blues_growler · Jan 22, 2008

Oh sh*t, I just looked in the mirror and I do as well !

Bobby G · Jan 22, 2008

Good grief, it's enormous!!! How can you even get something that big in your mouth???

Great tune, though, and the kind of stuff I'd like to 'borrow' too, in fact in a much more basic, untogether sort of way it's kind of how some jams I go to end up...

Jules · Jan 23, 2008

that mouthpiece isn't wound round with gaffa tape, or whatever the 1950s equivalent, is it?

frankb · Jan 23, 2008

😱

It's an enormous mouthpiece with a tiny, weeny, little tenor sax shoved into the end of it!

Linky Lee · Jan 23, 2008

Could he be mainly a Bari player, and was experimenting with his Bari piece on his tenor with some insulation to make it fit?

Even then it's darn big for a Bari piece.

jools · Jan 23, 2008

OOH-ER missus! that is indeed a WHOPPER!
It's not a Billhart. Had loads of those and can tell from comparing it the length of the crook. But what is it!? it might just be a bari piece. They used to do crazy stuff like that back then. Parker used tenor reeds on his alto when he could get them. Some guys stuck chewing gum inside the mouthpiece to make 'baffles' Everyone was scrambling round for a unique sound.
The sax looks like a Conn Chu Berry