Hot fountain pen
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(Single reed with cylindrical bore and fingerholes)
| Woodwind instrument | |
|---|---|
| Classification | |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 422.211.2 (Single reed with cylindrical bore and fingerholes) |
| Developed | 1920s |
| Related instruments | |
| Musicians | |
| |
| Builders | |
| Keith Prowse & Co. | |
The hot fountain pen, or red-hot fountain pen, is a small keyless single-reed woodwind instrument similar to a xaphoon, popularised in the 1920s and 30s by the jazz saxophonist Adrian Rollini.[1] It was first introduced by the saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey in his jazz band The California Ramblers in the mid-1920s, where Rollini, a fellow band member, encountered and adopted it.[2] Rollini, who introduced several other instruments to jazz including the bass saxophone, couesnophone ("goofus"), and vibraphone, named it from his friendship with Neil Waterman, a musician from the wealthy New York family that owned the Waterman Pen Company.[3]
The instrument Rollini performed on was pitched in E♭ and about 27 centimetres (10½ inches) in length. He made at least two models for sale, in original E♭ and a slightly larger model in C.[4] These were made in ebonite by the London instrument manufacturer Keith, Prowse & Co. and first advertised c. 1928 in Melody Maker, a British weekly music magazine.[5]
Only a small number of instruments were made up until the mid-20th century, featuring mainly on recordings by Rollini and the jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Its only other significant proponent was the English musician Laurie Payne.[6] In museums, one instrument survives in the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Oxford.[7]