Kwintet Goed Koper

The roots of the Jazzophon lie in the area of Graslitz and Markneukirchen in the Saxionian Vogtland, an area that acted for years as the world's musicstore. This region was called the Musikwinkel. Refugees from the nearby Graslitz-region started producing musical instruments in the 17th century after they were forced to leave the recatholicising Bohemia. They started with violins, then gitars and cithers, woodwinds, harmonicas until almost every orchestral instrument was made in this region. At the start of the 20th century the instruments from the Musikwinkel-region had a 80 percent share of the worldwide market. From 1893 untill 1916 there even was a U.S. Consulate General in Markneukirchen. At that time Markneukirchen was about the wealthiest city of Germany, the wholesalers being the millionaires rather than the instrument makers.

The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841. He wanted to create an instrument that would both be the loudest of the woodwinds and the most versatile of the brass, and would fill the then vacant middle ground between the two sections. In the Roaring Twenties the saxophone became extremely popular as being the ultimate jazz-instrument. By the mid-twenties there was undoubtedly a saxophone boom, fuelled by a post-war demand for novelty. Production of saxophones in America reached a peak in 1924, when 100,000 instruments were produced. Five hundred thousand saxophones were sold in seven years, until the Wall Street crash signalled an end to this boost to the saxophone's popularity.

In the 1920s, jazz in Germany was a fad. Eager to look ahead after the crushing defeat of World War I, the part of Weimar Germany that embraced the modernism that swept through Europe was crazy about jazz. The "Salonorchester" turned to the new style, because dancers wanted it so. Radio also played a role in the popularization of jazz. In 1926, it began to regularly play jazz music, and by 1930 artists such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and others became popular to German audiences. People saw jazz as the "essence of the era's modernism," a strong surge toward greater equality and emancipation, posing as a perfect advocate for a democracy in Germany.

A shortage of cheap saxophones and good saxophone players triggered the design of the Jazzophon and the also sax-shaped Normaphon, invented by Richard Oskar Heber. Many non-standard instruments were introduced during this period. These included the Slide Saxophone, the Swanee-sax of 1922, the keyless Saxie of 1924, the Saxello of 1925 and the Conn-o-sax of 1928.

'Tanzkapelle' from Immenstadt in the Allgäu in 1930

The first advertisement for the Jazzophon appeared on September 15th, 1926 in the 'Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau' from Leipzig, the trade magazine for makers of and dealers in musical instruments. It was an ad from Musikwarenfabrik Hans Rölz from the Czech Graslitz (now Kraslice). Rölz showed the Jazzophon as a novelty at the Leipzig-autumn fair. The editorial columns in the Zeitschrift paid attention to the instrument. The ad shows a sax shaped Jazzophon and also one in the form of a lyre. In March 1927, just before the Leipzig spring fair, Rölz advertised again, the lyre shaped Jazzophon had by then disappeared form the ad. The magazine had an extra jazz catalog from Rölz attached. In April 1927 he advertised once again, this time with a trumpet-shaped Jazzophon and that was it.

Marked Jazzophon D.G.R.M. 995305 on the mute and C.A.Wunderlich Siebenbrunn Vogtland Germany on the open bell. Ca 1930. Coll. Scott Robinson, US

At the time, for wholesalers such as Wunderlich, it was common practice to engrave their own name on the instruments, instead of the name of the instrument's inventor and/or maker. In Markneukirchen and the surrounding areas there were a few hundred instrument builders of all kind, and approximately twenty wholesalers. The wholesalers were able to dictate prices and conditions; thus, most of the instruments are not labeled by the builders but by the wholesalers.

In a catalog from around 1928 Wunderlich offers besides the soprano Jazzophon (priced at 90 Reichsmark) an alto and a tenor Jazzophon. Wunderlich also offers the Jazzophon in the form of a lyre and a trumpet shaped one.

The Normaphon was a saxophone shaped trumpet with only one bell, invented by Richard Oskar Heber (1872-1938) from Markneukirchen. Between 1900 and 1935 he produced brass instruments under the Norma-brand. Heber advertised the Normaphon as very appropriate for  'Jazz-Band und sonstige Effekt-Kapellen'. Roughly 100 Normaphons were built from approximately 1924/25 until 1930, and were distributed through wholesalers such as C.A. Wunderlich in Siebenbrunn, R.O. Adler and C.G Glier in Markneukirchen, Ammon Gläser in Erlbach and M. J. Kalashen in New York. The Gebrüder Schuster in Markneukirchen, 'Fabrik und Export von Musikinstrumenten und Saiten', from 1854, had the Normaphon in their Katalog Nr. 70, (ca. 1929).

Alto Normaphon in Eb, originally nickel plated, serial number 0104. On the bell: C.A. Wunderlich Siebenbrunn Vogtl. coll. Gerard Westerhof

Normaphones  can be found amongst others at the National Music Museum of the University of South Dakota, the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments , the MIM in Phoenix, the HJM Brass Collection in Turku, Finland and the Trompetenmuseum in Bad Säckingen.

In 1957 Nat King Cole performed 'Rosetta' in one of his shows together with Billy Eckstine, Eckstine playing a tenor Normaphone (from 2.12").

William 'Hicky' Kelley played a tenor Normaphone in 1959 with the Modern Jazz Disciples (track 4 onwards).

Multi instrumentalist Scott Robinson from Teaneck, New Jersey, played a tenor Normaphon on his first LP Multiple Instruments from 1984 and in later years with Hazmat Modine on their CD Bahamut.

And yet another multi instrumentalist, Eric Budd from Melbourne, Australia showing his tenor Normaphon (serial number 0164).

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1. soprano Normaphon D.R.G.M. Germany sold in 1998 through Butterfield & Butterfield

2. alto Normaphon, D.R.G.M. serial number 0344, acquired in 2010, coll. Han Savelkoel, Nederland

3. alto Normaphon  serial number 0441, coll. Heikki Moisio Turku, Finland

4. tenor Normaphon coll. NMM, Vermillion South Dakota VS, acquired in 1977, on permanent display at the Meredith Willson Museum in Mason City, Iowa

5. tenor Normaphon serial number 0315 coll. Edinburgh University, UK

6. alto Normaphon, serial number 150 and tenor Normaphon, serial number 350, coll. Scott Robinson, Teaneck New Jersey, VS

7. tenor Normaphon D.R.G.M. coll. MIM, Phoenix VS., until 2011 Fiske Museum, Claremont, VS

8. tenor Normaphon, D.R.G.M. Germany, restauration with new mouthpipe in 2012 by Robb Stewart, coll. Rick Schwartz

Leopold Renz

The Jazzophon  Background of the Jazzophon  Other sax shaped trumpets    Other double-bell trumpets Other sax shaped instruments  Sources,  links and contact

In the 1930s  jazz in Germany began to see its downturn. Despite the liberal attitudes of the Weimar democracy, the public and private sentiment toward blacks, including African Americans, was an ambivalent. In 1932, all the conservative musicians and critics were denigrating jazz as a product of 'nigger' culture, which provided the government the fodder to forbid hiring of colored musicians. One critic even went so far as to call jazz a mere 'nigger noise', having only one purpose: "to introduce obscenities into society."

For the Nazis, jazz was a threatening form of expression and the saxophone was jazz. The Nazi regime pursued and banned the broadcasting of jazz on German radio, partly because of its African roots and because many of the active jazz musicians were of Jewish origin; and partly due to the music's certain themes of individuality and freedom. The jazz studies in Frankfurt were closed by the Nazis in 1933. Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, had hoped to convince and persuade the public via anti-jazz propaganda before 1935, rather than prohibit jazz. However, jazz was officially banned in 1935. In 1935, the Nazi government did not allow German musicians of Jewish origin to perform any longer. Listening to foreign stations, which regularly played jazz, was penalized from 1939 on.

Stated to be made around 1955 in Klingenthal, about 5km from Graslitz on the German side of the border, this instrument was offered on Ebay in 2005.

Left a sax shaped trumpet with rotary valves. Probably German. The Trompetenmuseum in Bad Säckingen has another sax-shaped trumpet with rotary valves. Their catalog says: "Anonymous. Germany, late 20's or 30's. Related to, but not identical to the Normaphon.'

The Trompetenmuseum also has a sax-shaped trumpet in low-F, from Germany or Austria, around 1925:

Keilwerth