The Story of the Comb In Jazz

“The Story of the Comb in Jazz” is a special workshop showing how music can be made from everyday objects and simple home-made instruments.

MY INSPIRATION

This comes from my childhood, when I was fascinated by brass bands and used to create my own parades with my friends…The instruments were, of course, made from lids pilfered from our mothers, as well as pots, mallets, graters, suitcases, funnels and combs. Only after many years, when I read the books, “On the Borders of Jazz” by Leopold Tyrmand and “My Life in New Orleans” by Louis Armstrong, did I understand how important childhood playing is for future development.

THE JUG-BAND

I built a lot of instruments to fit the orchestration of the so-called jug-band (an early style of blues orchestra). I work on the assumption that the roots of popular music lie in Black American Blues, which gave rise to Jazz, Rock and all the typical rhythmic music of today. During my lessons, I play genuine recordings of early Blues and Jazz groups, presenting these instruments, teaching the children how to play them and encouraging them to make more of the same. My workshops are full of noise, but also, more importantly, fascination at the possibility to create sounds. I will never forget the time I worked with blind children…their joy at discovering they could make some music stays with me still!

THE INSTRUMENTS

Most of these instruments are found around us…the washboard, which in some places has almost become the symbol of old Jazz, the kazoo (very similar in sound to the comb itself), which can be made from any tube or cut from a bottle or funnel, which is very popular in skiffle bands in Europe, but had featured earlier in the juvenile “spasm bands” on the streets of New Orleans and the more adult jug bands of Memphis. Also the washtub bass (a double bass made from a washtub, a broomstick and a piece of string), which was very popular amongst musicians of the Mississippi Delta…Add to this boxes, suitcases, lids and a mass of other percussion instruments

THE PRIDE AND JOY

The workshops I lead are not designed for any traditionally defined group or for participants with any particular musical training. I want to give all the participants the chance to play together on simple musical instruments and that is the only requirement! If we manage to play a straight piece of music, it will come from the satisfaction and pride of working together on strange-sounding music of their own creation.