Kazoo legend has it that the modern kazoo was invented in about 1850 by the fantastically named Alabama Vest, an African American from Georgia, and manufactured by a German clockmaker. It is a part of the Membranophone family – of which drums make up the bulk – because it produces sound by way of a vibrating membrane. They are basically an adaptation of a comb and paper, a lovely DIY instrument, which is just that, a comb with paper wrapped around it so that as you sing onto it, the paper vibrates, giving it that distinctive buzz.
In the 1920s, a band called the Mound City Blue Blowers used the kazoo to perhaps its greatest effect, Dick Slevin playing the metal kazoo and Red McKenzie on comb and paper. They had a number of hits where they buzzed away alongside the more traditional sounds of the trumpet and clarinet. Here’s a clip of Red McKenzie doing his thing (with the help of a megaphone):
These days the kazoo is a divisive instrument, and it seems to live it’s life mostly as a novelty toy handed out at children’s parties. But it is revered by some, and rightly so. Alabama Vest would surely approve of Jimi Hendrix (another musician who started out on the ukulele) using the comb and paper to great effect on his recording of Crosstown Traffic, to achieve that ‘blown-out’ amplifier sound. You can hear it played at the same time as the guitar riff. Listen HERE.
A few years ago, I did my bit for the kazoo with a gig at the National Portrait Gallery, where we got the audience to participate in a mass kazoo blow-out:
