Honk.

To the left is a shot of Anthony Braxton playing a contrabass sax. This is one of the better shots of this instrument as it gives you some idea of it's brute size. Braxton is a multi instrumentalist who plays all the saxes, many kinds of flutes and keyboards. His compositions are considered among the elite of avant garde jazz. Highly original in both his playing and writing it is not surprising this intrument finds a home in his music.

Scott Robinson also plays one if these fellows and you can hear this and a few other big instruments on his album Thinking Big. He plays a bass saxophone and a contrabass sarrusophone too. (that other real big horn to the right). A Frenchman by the name of Pierre Louis Gautrot invented this instrument in 1856 (it also came in different sizes, not just the size of a Peugot) and was intended to compete with the Adolphe Sax's instruments of the mid to late 1900's.

One other variation on the goliath sax is an oddity called a tubax, short for tuba-saxophone. Why am I getting that all too familiar feeling? You know the one where people start going for a vision and don't stop? It is a more recent invention as far as these kinds of instruments go, being first made in 1999 by Benedikt Eppelsheim of Germany. Its a little easier to take with you to the beach owing to the fact that its pipe is bent into more coils than either of the other ones so it doesn't scrape the ceiling.