Erhu and me.

The Chinese erhu, or Chinese fiddle is an interesting musical intrument. It has 2 strings, is played with a bow and has a most unusual sound box. The erhu has a heritage going back some thousand or so years. A similar instrument came to China around the 10th century that had 2 strings and was either plucked or bowed. Its possible that the erhu was derived from this instrument called a xiqin, from the Xi tribe of Central Asia. Anyways, the Chinese liked the vibe and developed a whole family of intruments called huqin. Theres even a big version, bass size, thats evolved to play the more modern compositions.

The overall look of the intrument is fragile. The neck is thin, the tuning pegs mere pencils and the soundbox, well thats another story. Traditionally it has been either hexagonal, liu jiao, indicating a southern Chinese intrument, or ba jiao, form the North, and just to be different, 8 sided. Made from hardwoods it is capped on the ends by python skin. Things get a little odder the more we examine the erhu. The skin has to be python skin. Period. Its what gives the erhu its distinctive twang and can't be duplicated with, say, polyester.

Now as for playing, the bow is placed between the two strings. The musician moves the bow back and forth alternating between the strings or by placing the bow at more extreme angles, catching both strings simultaneously. Finally, to give this device an even steeper learning curve, the player does not press the string to the neck, which is common with many bowed intruments. Instead they merely press their finger on the string where they want the note to be. Combined with its unique sound box, this gives the erhu its distant, haunting quality.

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.

Toot.

I'm going to give automobiles a rest for a bit and pick on musical instruments. It would be too easy to go for the odd ball crazy stuff. Instead I'm going to take a short look at genuine intruments that by the very size of them, almost got out of hand. First up is the contrabass saxophone.

Adolph Sax included the contrabass in the first group of saxophones he invented around 1840. He had designed instruments to fit most musical ranges, and with an eye for the dramatic was justly proud of this monster being part of the all saxophones bands of the era. Saxophone bands were popular through the late 1900's and into the 20th Century and any band worth its lung power had a contrabass.

A baritone sax weighs in about 15 to 20 pounds and is about 31/2 feet high. Marching bands are not fond of this. The contrabass is in the 50 pound range and stands 6+ feet high. Solely for orchestral or ensemble playing, nobody bops around with one of these. They play an entire octave below a baritone sax or bass clarinet. Check in tommorow where I'll get some pics of these beauties and links to current musicians who play them.

Cup coffee with that.

On this day in 1885 or 1890, Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe, aka Jelly Roll Morton was born in New Orleans. His birth certificate apparently said 1890, while he said 1885. He started playing for money in brothels at 14 and by the turn of the century was looking for bigger things. He headed out on the road playing minstrel shows all over the south then headed north, first to Chicago, where he wrote the jazz standard Jelly Roll Blues in 1910 or so. It was published in 1915 and became the first jazz song ever published.

Once he got going he moved to Califiornia where he had a hit with "The Crave" then went back to Chicago in the early 20's. He was recorded and his music was sold first on piano rolls and later on records. Later that decade he moved to New York City with his wife, but hits were elusive.

In 1936 he moved to Washington DC and ran a horrible old bar called the Music Box where nothing much happened to forward his music career except that he was discovered by Alan Lomax, a historian interested in getting some of Morton's original new Orleans jazz recorded for the record of the Library of Congress. These recordings, including interviews and transcripts of interviews, are what jazz buffs remember most of his musical output as they are the truest snapshop of the birth of American jazz from the incubator that was Storyville, New Orleans.

He was stabbed at the bar he managed and was seriously wounded in 1938 and moved shortly afterwards to Los Angeles. He was never properly treated for his wounds and suffered for 3 more years before he died in 1941.

Better than a motorcycle.

I am going to be ending the series on cars with this superb example of what happens when a company looking to broaden its line of vehicles and branch into new markets makes a horrendous mistake. I give you the Zundapp Janus.

Zundapp was quite well known for its motorcycles. The company has been around since the 1st World War when it made weapon parts. After the war, like many suppliers to war effort, the company looked to move on with other products. They developed a line of motorcycles that was well recieved and notable for innovations such as enclosed engines and drive shaft powered rear wheels. Not surprisingly they supplied the German government during the 2nd World War with quality motorcycles.

After the war, this must be getting tiring for Zundapp, they again looked to find a niche. This time they produced a scooter the "Bella". The fifties found them producing their one and only car, the Janus. This amazing vehicle, named for the Roman god, was literally two ended. It had two seats; one facing forward, the other, back. A very tiny 14 horsepower single cylinder two stroke engine sat in the middle between the seats. Riders alighted from doors at each end.

It could go about 50 mph but handling was dependant on the weight balance between the front and back seats. Unless it was pretty even, the centre of gravity was alarmingly off kilter. A heavy passenger would lift the front wheels and cause steering irregularities.

Can't imagine what it was like to be the passenger in traffic.

Less is less.

The 1957 King Midget Model III, classified as a "micro car" was the mighty steed of a long line of Midgets. The brainchild of Claude Dry and Dale Orcutt, the original was a kit produced around 1946 and aimed at what market, it's hard to tell. The inexpensive very small car market. Yes the kit was only 500 bucks or so but that gave you the frame and running gear and patterns for any local sheet metal shop to fabricate the body for you. Unless of course you wanted to do it yourself. I have seen home made cars and usually backyard tickerers are very good at one aspect of automobile manufacturing. rarely do they pass all facets of the trade. I remember someone driving around my town in the buggy contraption from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It looked a perfect reproduction, but it was usually on the side of the road ringed in smoke with the owner a respectful distance away fearing other/more eruptions from the engine compartment. The point is, even though the Midget was boxy and plain with no compound curves to mystify any craftsmen, there is every chance the body work was inventive. They also sold 2 models the Junior and Trainer that had no plans included for body panels. Owners could make whatever thay wanted!

To add to the adventure of owning a Midget kit you were given absolute freedom to power it with any power plant you wanted, so long as it was small and had one cylinder. Read that to mean lawn mower. Typically Midgets were powered, either home built or factory assesmbled, with power plants ranging from 2 to about 10 horsepower. All those horses were coupled to one rear wheel only (removing the need for a rear differential) through a custom designed 2 speed automatic transmission. From what I can find out there seems to be many variations of the King Midget; from models with no reverse and pull start, to others with more sophisticated features like speedometers. The designers of the car came from the American civil air patrol and knew a thing or two about aircraft construction. As a result, this car was light, about 500 pounds.

I haven't found too much on performance specs on these except that Model 3's could go about 50mph. If you had one of the more austere models you might need to have someone pace you to find out.

Picaresque to you too.

On this day in 1771, Scottish writer Tobias Smollett died. A poet, he wrote plays, travel books and what has become his legacy, the picaresque novel. Best known for Roderick Random and Peregrine Pickle, he actually started his adult life as a doctor and was commissioned aboard the HMS Chichester as its medical surgeon.

While so engaged, his travels included stops in Jamaica. He eventually returned home with his bride in 1747 and set up practice as a surgeon. But writing was his thing and he quickly got to work. He published his first poem "The Tears of Scotland", about the Battle of Culloden, but his first hit was "Roderick Random" in 1748.

Quickly thereafter came "Peregrine Pickle" and "The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom in 1753. He also came out with a history of England, whick took him eight years to write. Thank heavens England was 350 years younger then.

"I think for my part one half of the nation is mad—and the other not very sound."