About Us | Contact | Subscribe

Home: 20's Jazz

You'll Never Go To
Heaven With Those Eyes

Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra

Allie Ross, Charlie Dixon , Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman , Elmer Chambers, Fletcher Henderson, Howard Scott, Kaiser Marshall , Teddy Nixon

Subscribe to 20's Jazz

Navigation:

Home

Back

More videos like this

Recorded in New York City on August 21st 1924 featuring Elmer Chambers and Howard Scott cornets, Teddy Nixon trombone, Don Redman clarinet, alto, & goofus sax, Coleman Hawkins clarinet, tenor, & bass sax, Allie Ross alto & tenor sax, Fletcher Henderson piano & director, Charlie Dixon banjo, and Kaiser Marshall drums.

*"You'll Never Get To Heaven With Those Eyes" was composed by James V. Monaco, with lyrics by Grant Clarke and Edgar Leslie.

The "goofus" isn't actually a saxophone but a kind of "melodica", i.e. a small keyboard instrument with a mouthpiece attached through which one simply blows air. The mouthpiece contains two interior "reeds" which vibrate when the air is blown, creating a sound similar to an accordion (where the air from the expanded and contracted bellows goes through similar reeds).

The following information comes from "Hendersonia" by Walter C. Allen, the great book about Fletcher Henderson and his bands:

The Couesnon (pronounced Queenahn) company famous for their flugelhorns manufactured the "Couesnaphone" (mis-spelled cuenophone and queenophone) their version of a melodica, which Don Redman played on at least three sides with Fletcher Henderson in mid-1924 ( "You'll Never Get to Heaven With Those Eyes", "A New Kind of Man" and "Cold Mammas"). Ed Kirkeby reportedly nicknamed a dime-store version of this instrument the "Goofus" after Adrian Rollini played it on various sessions.
-(Dan Weinstein)