What the heck is Anthony Braxton playing?

[Hardbopjazz]

Looks like a missile launcher.  I wasn't aware there is a sax with a deeper sound that the baritone sax. 

Does anyone know what this instrument is called?

Yes, that's Dave Holland on bass.

[Justin V]

Looks like a contrabass saxophone.  There is also apparently a subcontrabass saxophone, but I don't know if anyone in jazz has recorded on one.  

[Milestones]

Yeah, that sure is a beast! 

 

[danasgoodstuff]

good graphic but no C-melody

[colinmce]

I’m fairly certain I’ve seen photos of Scott Robinson playing the sub-, but I don’t know that he’s recorded on it. Contrabass certainly. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

8 hours ago, colinmce said:

I’m fairly certain I’ve seen photos of Scott Robinson playing the sub-, but I don’t know that he’s recorded on it. Contrabass certainly. 

Robinson plays a Contrabass Sarrusophone, which I think is the same instrument that the picture above calls a "Subcontrabass", on this:

 

 

[JSngry]

Sarrusophone is a different instrument family than the saxophone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarrusophone

Check this stuff out: http://www.jayeaston.com/galleries/Unusual_instruments/Unusual_p_rothphone.html

There's a picture of Grant Green!

but this is not it:

 

[Rooster_Ties]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Sarrusophone is a different instrument family than the saxophone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarrusophone

Check this stuff out: http://www.jayeaston.com/galleries/Unusual_instruments/Unusual_p_rothphone.html

There's a picture of Grant Green!

You weren't kidding, Grant Green!

I remember digging around on a related website quite a bit 15 years ago, this one...

http://www.contrabass.com/pages/compendium.html

http://www.contrabass.com/

...and it looks like the basic webpage design dates back maybe 20 years (not that there's anything wrong with that!).  A lot of these low-bass winds are really interesting, especially the more oddball ones that date back to before the 1920's, even back in into the mid-19th century in some cases.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

So it sounds like a subcontrabass saxophone was never made? If so, then Robinson plays the Contrabass saxophone on this one:

Not my favorite sound. Sounds like painful flatulence.

[JSngry]

http://www.contrabass.com/pages/subsax.html

Instruments like this are great for orchestral use, as texture. As far as being viable for sustained improvisation that is not based around texture...hmmmm...at some point the physics take over and that shit just muddles into itself.

 

 

Can't see the videos at work, but is this what Scott Robinson is playing? A tubax?

http://www.contrabass.com/pages/tubax.html

[Justin V]

3 hours ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Robinson plays a Contrabass Sarrusophone, which I think is the same instrument that the picture above calls a "Subcontrabass", on this:

 

 

I think that video is of the same song that Sidney Bechet recorded using the sarussophone.  I recently bought Bechet's Mosaic Select and I get a kick out of Bechet on sarussophone. 

[JSngry]

From everything I can tell, a sarussophone is a double reed instrument, like the bassoon which it was sorta designed to mimic. Did Bechet play any other double reed instruments? Or are there single reed models of the instrument as well?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

1 hour ago, Justin V said:

I think that video is of the same song that Sidney Bechet recorded using the sarussophone.  I recently bought Bechet's Mosaic Select and I get a kick out of Bechet on sarussophone. 

From the All Music write up:

"He only plays the contrabass sarrusophone on "Mandy, Make Up Your Mind" (which in 1924 had the only other recorded sarrusophone solo) and his playing falls short of Sidney Bechet's maiden effort. "