Where do all the kazoos go???

Subject: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: The Shambles
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 02:58 PM

There must have been thousands of this small but perfectly formed instruments made and sold, over the years but where are they played?

Do people rush home from buying kazoos at festivals and secret themselves in locked and sound-proofed rooms to practice their playing?

Where do the expert players perform?

It is time to come out of the closet.

We must be told.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 03:19 PM

Shambles..look for them in Jug Bands (wherever they play) and kids' Kazoo orchestras! (I know of one around Toronto)

I bought a hand made rosewood (no, I'm not kidding) Kazoo at the N.O.M.A.D. festival in Connecticut 2 years ago and have played it exactly once since then. It's the loudest instrument in the universe, and if my wife Heather finds it, I know she'll throw it out!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: The Shambles
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 03:30 PM

Rick

Do you think that is what happens to the majority of them?

Not mine though, as my wife is the kazoo player in the band and she instructed me to purchase one for her yesterday, when I went to the first festival of the year. I didn't see any rosewood ones though.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mikal
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:43 PM

Hey! I resemble that remark!

I was given one as a joke years ago by my Uncle Joe. I paid him back by playing it all the time at the family get togethers. I am considered a Kazoo Virtuoso, (which is one step above pond scum, so my Uncle claims.)

There used to be a lot of really good steel ones comming out of Hong Kong. We bought a hundred of them for a marching Kazoo band thing a few years back.

My old one is retired now, and the only ones I find here are the half-sized plastic jobs!

Mikal (hey, it makes the Bodrhan look like an instrument of the gods!)

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: from:lingolucky
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 04:58 PM

there is a strong new trend in music, certainly in the houston area, which is the ukulele band. there are at least 30 of them in Greater Houston, most of them inspired by one talented musician: Buddy Griffin. Most of the players are of retirement age, and they play to all kind of organizations, but mostly to senior citizens. and they all have kazoos. my wife and i are proud members of the bayland ragtimers, led by r. l.. henderson it keeps us out of mischief and sometimes we play folk music, lingolucky @2aol.com

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: from:lingolucky April 3
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:00 PM

there is a strong new trend in music, certainly in the houston area, which is the ukulele band. there are at least 30 of them in Greater Houston, most of them inspired by one talented musician: Buddy Griffin. Most of the players are of retirement age, and they play to all kind of organizations, but mostly to senior citizens. and they all have kazoos. my wife and i are proud members of the bayland ragtimers, led by r. l.. henderson it keeps us out of mischief and sometimes we play folk music, lingolucky @2aol.com

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:14 PM

Rick....Rick.........Bro........mudcateer.........pard.......We need to talk.

You bought a ROSEWOOD freakin' KAZOO???? Kong Kazoos don't cut it huh? A Rosewood Kazoo...is that East Indian or the more humble Bolivian? Did this guy offer you anything else? Jade Ocarina? Bubinga and Padauck Slide whistle? Madagascan Ebony Nose Flute? A Tiple maybe?

Well that'll about do it! I mean Karen has offered to let me get one of the animal ocarinas, but I'm holding out for one where I blow up a possum's ass. But a rosewood kazoo? two questions left...........First, is this guy still around and second...Does He Have Anymore???

catspaw

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mike Billo
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:16 PM

I kazoo (it's a noun and verb)and I'm proud of it!A lot of self-important types frown on it as "not a real instrument" but it's activated by the human voice which is the ultimate musical instrument. In the mid-'70's, I was in the house band at the Abbey Tavern Irish pub here in San Francisco and had a beat up old saxophone that I stuck a kazoo on in place of the mouthpiece, and on rock 'n roll songs I would play the kazoo while pretending to "finger" the keys of the sax. People often complimented my "sax playing"!!!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From:
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:17 PM

FROM: Lingolucky SUBJ. RE: where do all the kazoos go? Date: 03 Apr 1999 there is a trend in music toward UKULELE bands. thirty or more in the Houston area. they all have \kazoos and use them for instrumental breaks. you can get used to them. my wife and i are proud members of the BAYLAND RAGTIMERS , led by R. L. Henderson. We play AARP meetings, retirement homes, lodges with good results. The kazoo works easily into choruses along with ukes, banjos, fuitars, piano and keyboard. Really, the band sounds pretty good. ingolucky

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: from:lingolucky
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:19 PM

there is a strong new trend in music, certainly in the houston area, which is the ukulele band. there are at least 30 of them in Greater Houston, most of them inspired by one talented musician: Buddy Griffin. Most of the players are of retirement age, and they play to all kind of organizations, but mostly to senior citizens. and they all have kazoos. my wife and i are proud members of the bayland ragtimers, led by r. l.. henderson it keeps us out of mischief and sometimes we play folk music, lingolucky @2aol.com

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:26 PM

Mike--A great tale! Jesse Fuller, who wrote "San Francisco Bay Blues," had a kazoo tucked in beside his blues harp in his harmonica holder. He played them along with guitar (usually 12-string) and his home-made foot pedal electric bass. I saw him near the end of his life-- he'd have coughing fits between songs, but still put on a great show. He lived in Oakland, across the bay from SF, and had family in Berkeley. I had his granddaughter in a freshman English class at Berkeley High. --seed

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Ted from Australia
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 05:40 PM

Kazoos, (quite rightly in my opinion,) unless carefuuly watched over and used at least once a week, slip through a wormhole in space to join all the capos, plectrums, electric guitat leads and blues harps. They go to a parallel universe next to the place where all the ball point pens are.

Regards Ted ;-)>

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Banjer
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 06:55 PM

That must be somewhere near where all those single socks live.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mike Billo
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 07:07 PM

Hello BSeed! I saw Jesse Fuller here in the Bay Area many times(towards the end it was hard to enjoy a performer who was so obviously ill, but you're right, he could still put on a great show) and he was a tremendous inspiration to me. For my money he was the greatest one man band ever(remember his "footdella"? The bass instrument he played with his feet? Wow!) and a true hero of the kazoo. While we're talking about kazoo heroes, although primarily rememberd for his slide guitar playing, Tampa Red had some incredibly cool jazzy phrasing on the Kazoo.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 09:11 PM

For some great Kazoo stylings check out the "Hoosier Hotshots"....Ok..take it away Hezzie! Brownie McGee hooked one up to a trombone, although I've never heard a recording of it. Others are Geoff Muldaur (and Maria, of course) and Erik Darling on "The Weavers at Carnegie Hall" part two.

Herr Katzpaw. Ve haf vays of making you shtop flunderblunking about mine rosevood Kazoo. Unvortunately ve haf vorgotten zem.

P.S. In the realm of great musicians playing questionable instruments....Louis Armstrong does a hot chorus on slide whistle (please no one start a thread on this instrument) on his "Hot Five " sessions.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: campfire
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 09:35 PM

"Flunderblunking"?

I think that's my new favorite word!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mike Billo
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 09:36 PM

Greetings Rick; With all due respect to a fellow mudcatter, you have some facts wrong. Paul "Hezzie" Trietsch played the slide whistle (what Louis played on the Hot Five session you mention)jew's harp and washboard. I have very nearly everything the Hoosier Hot Shots ever recorded, and I'm pretty sure(of course, I could be wrong)that the Kazoo never appeared on even one recording. As far as starting a thread on the slide whistle, I don't think we're in any danger because there have never been that many players. Now back to Kazoos, for hot dixieland comb and tissue paper/kazoo duets, check out the Mound City Blue Blowers. As far as great musicians playing questionable instruments, how about the many times Jimmy Dorsey held his thumb over the tip of a bicycle pump air hose, for "Hot Bicycle Pump" solos?

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: karen k
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 10:25 PM

Yes, Rick really does have a rosewood kazoo from the NOMAD Festival in CT. I know because I saw it and tried to get one too but the man who made it only had one. I got one the next year though. Ask Rick about the funnel he attaches to it. Talk about loud!

Back in the 60's Jesse Fuller stayed at my house 3 times when playing at a coffeehouse that I helped to run. What a wonderful man. There aren't many like him. I can still see his fotdella set up in my living room and hear him singing Ol' Man Mose, Monkey and the Engineer and many more. He was the politest, most humble man I've ever known. He couldn't understand the fuss that people made over him. I'll never forget getting to know him. Those were the days.

Long live the kazoo - the only instrument which I can play melody on!

karen k

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 10:33 PM

Mike!! This has been my week for wrong information. Of course the Mound City guys were what I was thinking of when I wrote "The Hoosiers.." Two days ago I said "SugarCane Harris " when I meant "Hi-Tide Harris!" Geez, what's the point of being a musical trivia nerd when you get it wrong twice? I'm on my best behaviour from now on. My Daddy used to say "measure twice, cut once", so I'm gonna "think twice, type once."

A wonderful local player named "Washboard Hank" plays and TOURS WITH a kitchen sink! He is unrivaled on his instrument.

Dawn, because to me that's the most beautiful name in the English language, I dedicate, and hereby give my word to you. By the way MY favourite new word (coined I believe by Susan Goldberg) is "Omphaloscopist" which means an ultra-navel-gazing singer songwriter.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mike Billo
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 11:22 PM

Rick; Thank goodness for your posting! I began thinking "he could be right" and was going to spend a sizable part of Easter going through my Hot Shots 78's looking for thge kazoo solos I had convinced myself you must have heard.Is there anything more obsessive/compulsive than a Hoosier Hot Shots fan? Boy, the stuff my wife has to put up with.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Apr 99 - 11:52 PM

Hi Karen, how you doin? Thanks for confirming the existance of the rosewood Kazoo. Yeah I neglected to mention the insertion of the two plastic funnels. Perhaps THAT'S why Heather hates it so much. Do you know the maker's name? Do you know how to find it? I had his card but lost it.

Mike, gotta agree that being a "Hoosier.." afficianado does put one beyond the pale. Perhaps we should start a thread on "what's your weirdest musical influence?"

Some of mine: Bert Brecht, SINGING the "Three Penny Opera" in German. Not ONE friend of mine has ever been able to listen to it for more than a minute! I love it.

Didier Hebert's singing on the Harry Smith Folkways collection. Have to admit, it's hypnotic to me.

Tiny Tim. 'nuff said.

Paul Mason Howard's Dolceola playing on Leadbelly's L.A. sessions. It's wonderful!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: campfire
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 12:26 AM

Well, so long as nobody gets "flunderblunked" by an "Omphaloscopist"....

I'm honored, Rick!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: The Shambles
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 01:54 AM

I think a Flunderblunker is a very good term for those who continue to pour scorn on and lump all singer - songwriters together, as if ALL they produce is introspective, and therfore not worth even the effort to listen to. I'm OK now, pet subject rant, out of the way.

May they all be destined to sit at the end of Rick's Rosewood kazoo.

Jesse Fuller was a great inspiration to me also.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mark Roffe
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:14 AM

I've had a metal kazoo clamped to one side of my harmonica holder for 25 years. I don't know where the old ones go, 'cause I ain't never had to replace it (and I've had a brand new never-used spare one standing by for about 20 years). Although I dig novelty/jug band energetic kazoo playing, my real inspiration for kazoo comes from Tampa Red...not the early stuff where he was known as the "The Guitar Wizard," playing uptempo slide on his gold plated style 4 National, but rather on the c.1960 Prestige Bluesville albums "Don't Tampa With the Blues" and "Don't Jive Me," where he played simple slow blues on a Gibson archtop, accompanied only by his two-horned kazoo. He played slow, musing, intentional, soulful kazoo. Kazoo as a serious and emotional instrument rather than a maniacally humorous novelty.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:35 AM

The mention of the rosewood kazoo reminded me of the surprising presence of a gold inlaid cedar kazoo that was found among the items in Tutankahmen's tomb. This bore out the suspicions of late 1800's egyptologists that the instrument portrayed in a frieze in the tomb of Ramses 11 was indeed a kazoo, being played by a high priest of Osiris in a funerary procession that also included lutes, drums, and flutes.The presence of this unlikely instrument in Ramses tomb decoration was probably a reference to the Battle of Kadesh, where Ramses' army had triumphed over the Hittites leaving, as another frieze states, " the strangers of Hatti slain by the Son(Sun) of Amon, their kazoos scattered in the dust." At this time, there was apparently no social stigma attached to this instrument.

What connection, if any, exists between the ancient Egyptians and the first century Christian Kazoo Cults that sprang up in Asia Minor has not been established. This much is known. These early cultists considered the Kazoo much more than a musical instument. They often wore these symbols of their belief on leather laces around their neck, using them as an audible means of identifying one another. The rapid increase in the number of these Kazoo cultists resulted in a declaration by Constantine that their belief was a heresy, and in time the kazoo was almost entirely stamped out.

Strangely enough the kazoo was not seen again until it re-emerged among the Basques of northern France in the 1600's. Basque immigrants probably brought the kazoo, along with the bota bag,to America in the early 19th century. During the Civil War the kazoo became a popular instrument among soldiers on both sides of the conflict. There was even a Kazoo marching band, The 12th New York Kazoo Zouaves, who suffered tragic losses at the Battle of Antietam when they were mistakenly fired upon by units from their own side.

Make no mistake, the history of the Kazoo is an illustrious one. For more information, read Edward Mahoney's Kazoos Through the Ages , or contact the kazoo web site at the Julliard Institute at www.kazoostudies.com ...LEJ

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: reggie miles
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:37 AM

Mike, I'm a Hot Shots fan myself. Are you familiar with Captain Stubby and The Boone County Buccaneers I don't have any of their recordings but I do have a late thirties bio rag of both bands and the similiarities between Captain Stubby's and Hezzie's washboard/sound effects units is astounding. They cound be twins. They're so much alike that I wonder which one came first the Captain or the Hezzie version. Captain Stubby (Tom Fouts)was at that time (late thirties) a part of a radio broadcast ensemble doing a show called the Boone County Jamboree on WLW. I gleaned this info from a song folio of favorite songs published by M. M. Cole Publishing Co. of Chicago. All of the songs in it were copyrighted between 1930 and 1941. The Hoosiers info is from an album of songs and photographs published by the Hot Shots in Chicago its copyright is 1938. All of this is such an obscure bit of trivia that it's probably of little use to the world at large here in 1999 but being a washboard/sound effects gizmo player for the last twenty years I find it fascinating that two contemporaries could be performing during the same time frame, in the same geographical location with such amazingly similiar eclectic instruments. Mind you each group was covering a different style of music. The Hot Shots were more pop and jazz and the Buccaneers very much country and hillbilly. Washboards that I've noticed over the years, (and there aren't a lot of us), all seem to have one thing in common and that is that no two are much alike. While I'm sure there are new converts every day still our numbers are few and interest in this sort of thing is not exactly main stream music industry stuff. Now getting to the kazoo, I've been collecting unusual kazoos for years. They've been around for some time. I've managed to unearth some great examples of their evolutionary transformations. Well you gotta collect something, and being a player of such an odd collection of sounds on my Eldorado rhythm board, kazoo seemed to fit right in. My current favorite that I use is a kazoozaphone. A metal bodied kazoo with a Sousaphone shaped metal bell over the resonator chamber. And speaking of Jesse, how many of you are familiar with Robert "Oneman" Johnson? He's a good friend who created a twelve string "foot piano" similiar to Jesse's five string "foot diller". Oneman also uses a hyhat like Jesse. He plays four different types and styles of guitar, (not simultaneously, he's a man after all not an octopus). He does however play guitar, foot piano, hyhat, and a harmonica in a rack, which also serves to hold a kazoo, at the same time, just like Jesse. He is also a wonderful writer, last count about 140 songs. It's been a distinct privilege to have his blessing to perform and record his material which makes up a large part of my song bag. Tampa Red's involvement with kazoo has had definite influence on my friend Jack Cook. Jack is a guitarist and when we play together he enjoys requesting Jesse Fuller tunes of me so he can kazoo along. Jack and I have been mixing it up with another friend Mogen Speiss who plays reeds, (clarinet and sax). Two kazoos and a clarinet isn't something for the timid. It's been great fun. Finally, (I bet you were wondering when I'd run out), there is someone else I thought I should mention concerning this idea of kazoozolgy. This young man is known as Carlton Baltimore, who presently and almost exclusively plays music on the streets of the Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. Carlton has got to be one of the foremost exponents of kazooing without actually playing a kazoo. Instead he uses a variety of funnel shaped rolls of paper or even the bottoms of paper cups as resonators and amplifiers of his unique kazoo technique. He is a very powerful player of this eclectic art form and has a beautiful bass range singing voice as well. Okay on to another thread. See you there,

Reggie Miles

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:46 AM

"Don't Tampa with the Blues" just jumped to the top of my to be acquired list, along with a replacement kazoo (I like the trombone kind)--all my old ones (along with some of my blues harps and a bicycle belonging to the kid next door) got turned into wire coathangers. --seed

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Barbara
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:52 AM

Thought that was paper clips, seed.
All my kazoos end up in the back of the kitchen tool/junk drawer with the bicycle tire repair kit and the decorations off the wedding cake and the solder and mouse turds and...
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Banjer
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 04:48 AM

Herr Fielding, Ze mezods may hav bin forgotten, but check back on ze thread about Mudcat shutting down and ze fate of Max and all should become clear to you again! (Your Bert Brecht singing The Three Penny Opera in German and the suggested hog tying make for a start)

Lonesome E J, I am not so sure that the friendly fire that ended the 12th NY Kazouaves Marching Band was accidental, or tragic for that matter.

I can't remember all the details, but it seems some years ago there was a young feller that swallowed a kazoo which ultimately found its way to the lower end of the intestinal tract where it became lodged. Subsequent meals of beans, onions and other gas producing foods provided hours of entertainment.

All this history reminds me of a story: It seems that many years ago Alexander the Great, during one of his many forays out into the world, had traveling with him an alchemist. This Man of miracles concocted a liquid which when soaked into cloth would change color with the passing of time. Alexander ordered him to make a cloth impregnated with the substance which he promptly affixed to his wrist. He used it, of course as we would use a watch today, to tell time, hence its name, ALEXANDERS RAG TIME BAND.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 06:33 AM

Oh Gawd..........THAT WAS THE WORST, THE WORST!!!!!!!

I'm goin' back to bed.

catspaw

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Night Owl
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 06:40 AM

CUTE!!!! And just how do we explain the silly grin on our faces today?

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Banjer
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 08:31 AM

Night owl, just do the way I do, explain nothing, let everyone wonder...

G'night Catspaw....

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Tony Burns
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 11:41 AM

For those who must have a wooden kazoo there are 2 models listed in the Lark In The Morning Catalogue. They do not list a rosewood model however, I was in the San Francisco store in February and know that they carry more instruments than are listed in the catalogue.

PS. In case my attempt at creating a link did not work here is the URL for the page in the catalog containing the kazoos. http://www.larkinthemorning.com/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/Winds

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Mike Billo
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 12:09 PM

Reggie!! You sure sound like a kindred spirit. I've never heard of Captain Stubby and the Boone County Buccaneers. Who's been keeping this information from me? I'm going to have to start seeking out their stuff immediately. The only other band I've found that sounds like the HHS, that were performing at the same time as the HHS was a group from Texas called Bob Skyles and his Skyrockets. In fact one of their records was "We're Not The Hoosier Hot Shots". I'm sure you already know about Washboards International, but just in case you don't, they are at http://www.washboards.com. Are you aware of the Washboard rub-off on the last day of the Saceamento Dixieland Jubilee memoroial Day weekend? Hundreds of washboard players from around the world playing simultaneously (not everybody's cup of tea, the faint-hearted are soon weeded out)and swapping design ideas. Also, my wife, Marian, and I maintain a Spoons,Bones and Washboards site at http://homestead.com/oldmusic/MusicalSpoons.html check it out. I've never heard of Robert "Oneman" Johnson or Carlton Baltimore either! You're posting was a wealth of information. Anyone interseted in the Washboard rub-off in Sacramento or, talking washboard lore in general (you may be the only one Reggie)email me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 01:51 PM

Howdy Shambles. Can't agree with you more about lumping groups of performers together with one choice word. (even if the word tickles my funnybone, like "omphaloscopist") I'm sure Ms. Goldberg (or whoever coined the word) counts many songwriters among her friends, as I do. (and I make my own songs as well) However, 3 hours at one of our prime open stage venues here in Toronto, might just send the most tolerant folk fan racing off into the night searching for someone who can play a guitar without "plugging in" and can sing about something other than the current problems with their love life. The nick-names probably come when someone has become inundated with a certain style and shouts their new word to the heavens. Not to worry though, being called "celtoid" has not resulted in thousands of guitarists retuning from DADGAD to regular tuning. The ugly sobriquet "Folk Nazi" hasn't sent ultra traditionalists running to buy Lonnie Donegan records, and the slightly snarky "white blue singer" tag, never stopped me from trying to play like Tampa Red or Big Bill. I have two framed rejection notices on my desk at the moment. One from a festival saying in effect: Thanks, but you're too "commercial" for us, and the other, also from a festival implying "you're not commercial enough!!" Oi Vay! Got to laugh!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 02:17 PM

Damn but I LOVE threads that include both good topics and good (or bad) humor.

For many people that inability to "classify" leads to some interesting "classifications." Rick, you have the best example I've heard in a long time. Your tastes and interests defy specific classification, and since you don't have a strong focus on any one thing, nobody knows what to think. In my somewhat distorted view though, I view that as the true heart of folk. The sounds and traditions are passed along regardless of "race, creed, or origin." I can never buy off on a new piece not being folk simply because it's new. Nor does age impart greatness. Folk is a musical history and all history starts now.

Perhaps it's our complex world and the fact that in most walks of life specialization is a way of life and to do a good job, you must keep a narrow window. I think we allow ourselves to go the same way in areas of music as well, and more's the pity.

catspaw

PS--I'm serious about the possum ocarina; saw one and should have bought it, but we needed the money for gas to get home and my plastic was filled...vacation...What a stupid decision. Gas fer chrissakes!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 02:28 PM

Catspaw, sorry but I have to question your spelling. The "Possum Macarena" you're referring to was done by V.P. Al Gore while continuing to try and convince country folk that he's still just an ol' plow boy at heart!

While touring Washington Last week we went by the VERY exclusive school he attended. He didn't learn to slop the hogs in THAT place!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 02:38 PM

Yeah..."Daddy's" place in TN. ain't much of a hogg slopper either!

catspaw

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Barbara
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:13 PM

Catspaw, if you can give me a clue about dimensions, I might be able to make you a clay possum ocarina. I can't remember just offhand what makes them sound. Do they have a whistle aperture? If I lay my hands on a functional one, a possum one should be easy; I regularly make gargoyles and critters and rattles and such out of clay. (fired). How bout a possum kazoo? I bet I could do one of those. Did it have a tail at all? or was the tail curled around and the butt the soundhole? Want to send me a sketch? I'm serious.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 03:22 PM

Hey ... Far out Barbara ... I'd love it and Thanks!!!

The Kazoo would be great and the rat like tail could curl around the body on a kazoo a lot easier. Please go for it! I'll be happy to pat AND I'll send you something fun in return...and it's musical. (Before someone thinks the worst). Let me know if I need to send you something diagram wise.

THANKS>>>THANKS>>>THANKS

catspaw

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 07:21 PM

I didn't know I played a 'kazoozaphone/..but I guess I do...I had a broken 'trombone' model..and one of those sousaphone types..so I screwed the bell on the trombone remnant, and now have a kazoo with 2 bells...one of which can be turned 'round to face me..like a kazoo monitor!..one can also mute either or both bells for varied sounds..lots of volume! I was given a layered wood kazoo a couple years ago..(sound holes on two sides..wonder if it's the same model as the Rosewood one..(tho, this is NOT rosewood..)(met a guy who made a rosewood recorder once..he found out the hard was he is allergic to some rosewoods, as I am...so be careful..blistered lips can wreck your love life!)

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 07:30 PM

That's the same as I've got Bill. I just looked at it and maybe it's not rosewood..but it's some kinda wood. If your good lady is around, I posted a question for her on the Mudcat pics thread. I'm startin' to tear up another instrument!

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Barbara
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 01:20 AM

Say, Bill, do you call that thingie a kazooba?

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: reggie miles
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 03:36 AM

Mike,

Thanks for the links. See ya in cyberspace, Reggie

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: Bert
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 09:15 AM

Wow! I haven't played a kazoo since I was kid. Our local youth club had a kazoo band, we each made our own instruments using garden hose and various funnels. Ah, happy memories.

Our leader played 'conductor' and tried to make us play The Blue Danube but every time his back was turned we would play schoolboy songs such as Billy Boy & John Peel.

It was a great skit that went down well with audiences.

I think all those kazoos must have long since passed int Kazoo Heaven.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: AlistairUK
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 09:34 AM

Well it seems we have...wait for it, wait for it...Kazoos up the wazoo here.

Oh I can here the groans across the miles.

Alistair (kazoo player and proud of it)

p.s. catspaw. What is this fixation you have for blowing wind up a possums' arse?

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: catspaw49
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 12:07 PM

Because a 'possum's funnier than a 'gator...and who else would have one?

catspaw

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: AlistairUK
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 12:18 PM

cat: I think it's down to childhood trauma myself...did a possum blow up your arse when you were a child perhaps?

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: karen k
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 02:22 PM

Rick, The toymaker at NOMAD who makes the rosewood kazoos is:

Subject: RE: Where do all the kazoos go???
From: karen k
Date: 05 Apr 99 - 02:28 PM

Rick,

Oops, just wanted to keep you guessing a bit longer!

Kazoo maker is: John E. Foley of JF WOODWOKS 15 Rebecca St. Trumbull, CT 06611 Sure hope he doesn't mind my posting his name and address.

But probably nobody minds a little free publicity.

karen k