National Kazoo Day

[journeybear]

Huh! Does anyone refer to the town as K-Zoo for short? Now would be a good time to do that.

[Bertram Henze]

Huh! Does anyone refer to the town as K-Zoo for short? Now would be a good time to do that.

Kalamazoo itself sounds like an abbreviation, like - Kalamity Zoo?

[journeybear]

Now, now! Kalamazoo is the location of the Gibson factory, where our revered Gibsons originated, were created and developed, and from where rose to prominence and came to be known as the ultimate fretted string instrument, and deserves all due respect.

[journeybear]

By the way, Boaz Frankel, the writer of that fine musico-historical treatise, opened a kazoo museum, appropriately titled The Kazoo Museum. Originally established in Seattle in 2007, then relocated to a larger space in Seattle, then to Portland OR, and finally to Beaufort SC, where it is situated on the grounds of the Kazoobie Kazoos factory. This peripatetic history may be the result of Mr. Frankel being run out of town repeatedly. I hope not. It's a fine instrument, All-American, and capable of great subtlety and emotional resonance.

[OldSausage]

Look, Kazoo Day is over. Today is National No Kazoo Day.

[mandolinstew]

[QUOI gotTE=journeybear;760695]

Get out your zoomaphones, because Thursday is National Kazoo Day! There is more information at this website about this holiday:

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreh...y/kazooday.htm

and many other odd annual celebrations:

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/january.htm

Also check out http://www.kazoos.com/historye.htm

The above image is the enormous kazoo atop the kazoo factory in Eden, New York

National Kazoo Day
When: Always January 28th
People young and old love Kazoos. Kazoo Day celebrates the the joy of this musical instrument.

Alabama Vest of Macon Georgia made the first Kazoo in the 1840's. Actually, he conceived the Kazoo, and had Thaddeus Von Clegg, a German clockmaster make it to his specifications.

Commercial production of the Kazoo didn't occur until many years later in 1912. Manufacturing was first started by Emil Sorg in Western New York. Sorg joined up with Michael McIntyre, a Buffalo tool and die maker. Production moved to Eden, NY where the factory museum remains today. [Ed. note: See below, or go to website]

Kazoos are easy to play. Simply hum a tune into the kazoo, and you're an expert. Kazoos can be played solo, or in groups. It plays a great tune both ways.

What do you do on National Kazoo day? Why, play the kazoo, of course.
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Origin of National Kazoo Day:

We know when the Kazoo was invented, and by whom. We know a lot about the history of the Kazoo. But, we do not know who started National Kazoo Day.....yet. Stay, uh...tuned.

There is no evidence to suggest that this is truly a "National" day, which requires an act of congress.

If you have any information about this holiday, please email us.

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Now, I recall back in the early 1970s, when musicians were experimenting with all kinds of instruments, someone decided to put an electric pickup on a kazoo. He put it through a wah-wah and a distortion unit, and was wowing audiences with his extraordinary device. Then one day a bit of spit dripped down the metal barrel, and the results were ... shocking! He retired on the spot - or, whenever he regained consciousness!


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http://www.edenny.org/kazoo.html

The Original American Kazoo Company
The Kazoo Boutique, LLC www.edenkazoo.com
8703 S. Main Street
Eden, NY 14057,
Hours: Tues - Sat
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sun. Noon to 5:00 PM
Adjacent Factory opened in 1916; world's sole producer of metal kazoos, museum tours
Contact: Karen K Smith, Owner
(716) 992-3960 (716) 992-3960 .
The original American Kazoo Company was established in 1916 and is now the only metal kazoo factory in the world. The museum highlights history, amusing trivia, and shows step by step the way kazoos are made.

This working museum continues to manufacture a complete line of kazoos. Believe it or not, kazoos are made the same way today as in 1916. The machines that make kazoos are the same die presses that were installed in 1907 when the building housed a sheet metal workshop. Over the years, demand for kazoos became so great that the other metal operations ceased. Today, as in the past, over 20 machines are run with one 10 horsepower motor connected with overhead jack shafts and leather belts. The factory is truly one of the few remaining working museums.

THE ALL-AMERICAN INSTRUMENT: Although the kazoo has its roots in Africa, it has become as American as apple pie. It is the most democratic of instruments because anyone can play.

THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN KAZOO: The kazoo was invented by an American named Alabama Vest and made to his specifications by a German clockmaster by the name of Thaddeus Von Clegg in Macon, Georgia back in the 1840's. A traveling salesman by the name of Emil Sorg brought the idea of manufacturing metal kazoos to Western New York in about 1912. He teamed up with Michael McIntyre, a Buffalo tool and die maker, and together they found a way to manufacture the first production kazoos. McIntyre moved to Eden, York where he went into partnership with Harry Richardson, the owner of a metal forming plant.

KAZOO PATENTED IN 1923: McIntyre and Richardson began producing metal kazoos in 1914. McIntyre even received a patent for the kazoo in 1923. Samuel Whetzle was the key employee who later married the boss' daughter and took over the business in 1939. After running the plant for many years, Whetzle sold the company to a group of Buffalo investors. In 1985, the company was sold to Brimms Inc., a local family business run by the father son team of Robert and David Berghash. They undertook the renovation of the buildings and the machines.

THE MUSEUM: Kazoos of all shapes and sizes are permanently displayed in the museum. Their collection chronicles the history o kazoos as well as the factory. Display cases contain several types of wooden kazoos, liquor bottle shaped kazoos that celebrated the end of prohibition, antique kazoo instruments, silver and gold kazoos, and many more. From the museum space, you can view kazoos being made on the original equipment.

VISIT THE KAZOO CAPITAL OF THE WORLD: Museum and gift shop hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 A.M. until 5 P.M. ; Sunday - Noon until 5 P.M. Open year round. Admission is free. For free group tours call for an appointment: (716) 992-3960 (716) 992-3960 .[/QUOTE]

[journeybear]

Look, Kazoo Day is over. Today is National No Kazoo Day.

Not so. EVERY day is National Kazoo Day, for those with kazoos in their hearts - and hands. Some consider today the day, as explained below; some celebrate it all week long. According to the website:

"Of course, kazoo players are not known to be perfectly precise, so feel free to celebrate National Kazoo Day on January 29, if you so desire, as some folks have the impression that the date is supposed to be the fourth Thursday in January.

In fact, most people will agree that we should consider January 24-31, 2015, National Kazoo WEEK! So celebrate all week long."

If this doesn't float your boat, best to just duck, or run.

And now, a brief history of the kazoo:



"It was easy to hear over a banjo, and cheaper than a horn section." Be grateful for that.

My band uses them a lot. There's a guy in town who will make a kazoo out of almost anything the right size, though wood is the best. He uses the air release valve from cushions for the resonator. A couple of guys in the band have them. When we do a song in which we really go at it, I introduce it as "featuring the Two-Bit Horn Section." They really cost $1.67 at Musician's Friend, but that's not as funny.

[Timbofood]

Oh good grief yes, Kalamazoo is referred to as K-zoo, Kazoo, I don't know what a Kalama is but they have their own zoo.

[journeybear]

I hope everyone interested remembered National Kazoo Day. I sure didn't. I was busy with errands most of the day, and when I got home was so tired I keeled over for a couple of hours. Then I had some stuff to do around the place. Spending some time getting caught up on my interweb doings, toward the end of which my eye landed on today's facebook memories - and there was a notice from several years ago. Good old facebook - sometimes.

So as soon as I finish this I am going to break out the mando and kazoo and whip up some jug band numbers. It's awful nice living out in the sticks where I can do this sort of thing just about any time I want and not bother anyone. Even the deer passing by son't seem to mind. And the wild peacocks - heck, they make more noise than I do, when they're of a mind to.

Some how I have the refrain of a rap or hip-hop song running in my head, which I think is about something other than kazoos: "All I want to do is zoom a zoom-zoom-zoom" or something like that. I'm totally ignoring any sort of double entendres and taking this at face value, because having a little zoom-zoom sounds like fun to me right now.

Oh good grief yes, Kalamazoo is referred to as K-zoo, Kazoo, I don't know what a Kalama is but they have their own zoo.

Thus averting Kalama-ty.

[Bill McCall]

Sad to say, but when I lived in Buffalo and played music with a fellow who had worked in the factory, I never made it to the museum. But the word was that it was a terrible place to work with that ancient, mostly unguarded equipment. Cuts and worse were not uncommon.

[journeybear]

I thought the factory was closed, the business sold to China. Oh geez! Now I gotta do research instead of having a good zoom?

[journeybear]

Well, this is interesting. The wikipedia page has been spruced up a lot since the last time I looked.

The modern kazoo—also the first one made of metal—was patented by George D. Smith of Buffalo, New York, May 27, 1902.

In 1916, the Original American Kazoo Company in Eden, New York started manufacturing kazoos for the masses in a two-room shop and factory, utilizing a couple of dozen jack presses for cutting, bending and crimping metal sheets. These machines were used for many decades. By 1994, the company produced 1.5 million kazoos per year and was the only manufacturer of metal kazoos in North America. The factory, in nearly its original configuration, is now called The Kazoo Factory and Museum. It is still operating, and it is open to the public for tours.

In 2010, The Kazoo Museum opened in Beaufort, South Carolina with exhibits on kazoo history.

[Ed. note: There's another kazoo museum? Yes, indeedy! With its own wikipedia page.]

[journeybear]

And here are photos of the machines at the old factory in Eden, NY, plus a display of the production steps. Fascinating. And yes, Bill, there look to be plenty of opportunities for injury.

[Ranald]

We played the kazoo in honour of our American cousins, and because we don't know when Canada's National Kazoo Day is. Surely every country has one!

[journeybear]

Thank you, on behalf of my American cousins! I've no idea if there are other such commemorations, nor if so, where. I imagine google, which knows all, will reveal the answer if properly approached. Over the years, I have found numerous sites which offer up this information - national AND international days, weeks, and months, even years - but haven't found one that has everything. I imagine there are a nearly infinite number of organizations which believe such a designation will help promote awareness of their cause, proclivity, or item of choice, and this activity increases constantly. I'll take a quick look, but I want to knock off this goofing around and get to some real goofing around - on mandolin and kazoo, of course!

[journeybear]

Oh, for goodness' sake! There's a website for National Kazoo Day! It looks like it's operated by Kazoobie Kazoos, the owners of the kazoo facory and museum in Beaufort SC.

This is also National Blueberry Pancake Day and International Lego Day. A very good day, indeed!

This page, the Daily Hive from Vancouver, lists it.

[allenhopkins]

Having one of my now-infrequent performances today for seniors at St. Ann's Home in Rochester -- where they set me up in the empty chapel in front of a closed-circuit camera, and pipe me to the residence floors -- I assure you that I'll be playing ukulele and kazoo on Frosty the Snowman, a winter-season fave.

Here's my recurrent salute to Rochester's own Kazoophony:

[journeybear]

Thanks for that - I think. It brings up one of my main complaints about kazoonists ("kazooers" didn't sound right, somehow) - all too often they take this humorous approach, which usually falls flat and becomes more annoying than funny. I will grant from here to eternity it is a funny-sounding instrument, particularly in the hand and lips of the everyday player. But it can be used quite effectively, even expressively, if one chooses to do so.

I don't want to go off on a rant here, but I've been in a few bands that used kazoos fairly frequently, and we took the instrument, comical as it often is, as seriously as we could. These were two jug bands and one genre-bending band that played a lot of swing, ragtime, and jug band music. This last one was the toast of the town here for a couple of years, and we were known for both fine music and fun times. We worked up some tight harmonies with kazoos on a few tunes, even though the custom is usually unison. We referred to the kazoos as the Two-Bit Horn Section - the actual price was somewhere between 79¢ and $1.29, but that lacks pizazz - and we used kazoos in the role of horns. One member even affixed a kazoo to the bell part of a trombone, which produced quite a commanding tone.

The thing is, it's even funnier to play music seriously on an admittedly serious instrument than to play for laughs. That tends to come across as smug and smarmy, even condescending. It's even disparaging to the instrument, which never has meant anyone any harm, and has suffered nearly endless abuse over the years from players, audiences, and critics alike. I say the instrument should be treated with the respect it truly deserves, not the disprespect so many see fit to lump upon it.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

PS: I'll look for recorded examples of our kazoo use. Sadly, much of our recorded output resides on my hopefully just comatose computer.

[journeybear]

Alrighty then! Here's hoping this works ... If so, not only will there be much KC, but also plenty of much-needed MC.

Dang! I thought it would open right here in the window. Sigh ... Well, enjoy!

[allenhopkins]

OK, J-Bear, some serious kazoo-ing. I saw Jesse Fuller twice in the '60's in Boston, at Club 47 and at the Unicorn, and I was honored to get the chance. This YouTube vid of his most famous song, gives a chance to see his "footdella" bass instrument in action, as well as the hi-hat cymbal, harmonica, kazoo, and Silvertone electric 12-string he played -- simultaneously!

At Club 47, he did "two sets" but never left the stage, and noodled on a guitar version of the William Tell Overture between sets, that was pretty amazing. The "Lone Cat" was one of the real geniuses of African-American folk-based music, IMHO. Forty-five years since he passed away, but I still remember his singing, harp and kazoo playing, and his unique one-man-band act. Unique and talented as hell.

[journeybear]

Well, that is the real deal right there, no doubt about it! He had a way, a style, all his own and for all and forever. As a matter of fact, this is the very song I began my Kazoo Day zooming with. Not quite on this level, mind you, but it sure was fun. Excellent choice, sir.

[journeybear]

Plenty more here. Bit of bio, then a bunch of songs. Playing an electric 12-string this time around.

[JeffD]

I have always wanted that on a resume: quality control manager at a kazoo factory.

[journeybear]

They're probably hiring, and they're near you. Kind of.

Though it looks like Kazoobie has taken over, down in SC. Probably more opportunities there. Relocation?

[journeybear]

But seriously - From the display of the 18 steps in the manufacturing process seen in Post #63, there isn't enough there to keep a brilliant mind such as yours occupied. QC manager at a kazoo factory sounds like a position custom-designed for the ne'er-do-well brother-in-law of the owner's cousin - someone like that. Doesn't seem very demanding.