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[James Hale]

Zen and the Art of Saxophone Maintenance


by Mike Zwerin

Copyright (c) 2006 Mike Zwerin

Francois Louis, the inventor of a double-barreled soprano saxophone called the Aulochrome, is a kind of 21st-century version of Adolphe Sax, a fellow Belgian.

Joe Lovano plays a prototype Aulochrome on his excellent new CD, Streams of Expression (Blue Note). Building his new instrument, it had never occurred to Louis that the biggest problem would be getting it across the Atlantic.

He had been planning to fly to New York and give it to Lovano personally, but then came the August terrorist scare in London, and he decided not to risk a broken arm by trying to get it on an airplane as hand baggage. He finally delivered it last week in Amsterdam. Lovano is touring Europe.

The name Aulochrome is a combination of Aulos, the ancient Greek double-reed pipe meaning "the instrument of all instruments" and "chromatic." It resembles two soprano saxophones joined, as it were, at the hip. The keys are located between the two, the fingering system is new, and Louis also designed twin mouthpieces to go with it.

The two separate tone chambers aren't identical, and they can be played in harmony, unison, or in counterpoint with each other.

In a sense, the Aulochrome is a post-modern version of the instrument Rahsaan Roland Kirk invented - it has been called a Kirkophone - when he blew two reed instruments at the same time. Lovano says: "It's what Rahsaan was hearing in his sleep." It's a bit of a change from the instrument Sax (1814-94) invented.

As a boy, Louis, 52, loved to play hockey, but he had to give up after injuring a knee. He applied his love of speed to motorcycles, and taught himself how to repair his own. During school holidays, he repaired other people's motorcycles. "I'm self-taught in everything," he says, with quiet pride.

Small Forest
Louis, who resembles a kindly absent-minded professor, was in the spick-and-span little kitchen he designed and constructed in the still unfinished small house he is building on a lush green clearing in a small forest in the village of Ciplet, in Belgian farm country. As he talked about having taught himself the saxophone, he was cooking what he laughingly described as "the ratatouille of the year."

Being a garage mechanic was "boring" and, since he seemed to be good with his hands, he thought about becoming a sculptor. Meanwhile, he built a radio, and started listening to jazz. He was seduced hearing Sonny Rollins's The Bridge. When he bought the same model Selmer that Rollins played, he didn't even know he needed a reed.

It's a struggle now to live from his patents, but he had no money at all back then. "I was living in a squat in Brussels," he said. "I practised 10 hours a day. For a couple of years, it was the only thing I did."

Teen Spirit?
Looking to improve sound quality, he took his mouthpiece apart and experimented with changing the architecture of the chamber. He cut his own reeds to allow for more dexterity and volume. It was another form of engineering, not that different from repairing motorcycle engines. Instead of gasoline, he was dealing with human breath.

He replaced the metal mouthpieces used by most players with one built out of boxwood. He invented the "Ultimate Ligature" (a ligature attaches the reed to the mouthpiece) made of tiny silver or gold-plated brass tubes placed horizontally in the direction of the sound to project it better. More than just a trendy accessory, the tubed ligature generates a subtle range of sympathetic vibrations.

Now, he subcontracts manufacture. The cane for Louis's "Excellence" reeds is grown by a small farmer who also fabricates them to strict specifications in his workshop in Cogolin, on the French Riviera. Louis stopped hand-making his boxwood mouthpieces after building about 500 of them. They have become collector's items. He recently heard that a shop in Brussels sold one for 1,200 euros ($1,545).

Sounds Beautiful
In addition to improving the sound, the Ultimate Ligature is beautiful to look at, as is the streamlined "Smart Cap" he designed to protect it when not in play. The Aulochrome is a work of art on more than one level. In a strange kind of roundabout way, it has turned out that Louis is, in fact, a sculptor.

Mike Zwerin lives in Paris and is the jazz columnist for Bloomberg News, which originally distributed this piece. You can find him on the Web at www.mikezwerin.com.