Buzz Bin: A Proper Look At Where Kazoos Come From
In case it's not marked on your calendar, Wednesday, Jan. 28, is National Kazoo Day.
Kazoos are the instrument everyone can play, practically no skill required — but only two places in the U.S. make them. The metal ones are made in western New York state, while the plastic ones hail from Beaufort, S.C. That's the home of Kazoobie Kazoos, where President and CEO Stephen Murray presides like an elementary-school teacher, ready to share his knowledge of the kazoo's broad influence in popular music.
"There are a lot of rock greats that have used the kazoo," Murray says. "Pink Floyd used the kazoo; Jimi Hendrix, if you're familiar with his song 'Crosstown Traffic' ... what we've been told is that he used the wax paper and comb, which, a lot of folks have used ... as a kazoo before. In new music, Carolina Chocolate Drops used our kazoos; the band Weezer has used kazoos."
Murray keeps a custom-made Weezer kazoo on a shelf near his desk. It's green, embossed in white, with the words "Weezer Hash Pipe." He says the company also makes accessories.
"We have an attachment: We call it the 'wazoo,' because it's the excessively loud kazoo," he says. "Think of a gramophone horn on steroids that you pop right in the top of your kazoo, so it fits in the tower right over the resonator and it amplifies the sound."
Murray started working at Kazoobie Kazoos 15 years ago. He says it took a little while for him to realize that some people actually need instruction on how to play the instrument.
"Most folks want to blow into the kazoo," he says. "We actually put instructions in all of our orders because we would have folks call and say, 'I just got my kazoos and they don't work; I'm blowing as hard as I can!' You have to hum — don't blow. When we give lessons, we tell people to say the word 'who' into the big end."
There are actual instruction booklets and CDs and DVDs for sale at Kazoobie's gift shop, alongside T-shirts proclaiming the wearer a kazoo hero. Just past the shop, in an alcove, there's The Kazoo Museum, where vitrines display some of the earliest kazoos — manufactured in Georgia in the mid-1800s, back when they were called "down south submarines."
Kazoos very likely originated in Africa, made from cow horns and spider-egg membranes. None of those are in the museum, but there is plenty of early sheet music. Duck through a doorway — under a banner proclaiming, "Build it and they will hum" — and you'll step into Kazoobie's small factory.
"We sort everything by color," Murray says. "We keep somewhere around a quarter-million kazoos in stock at all times. We're probably the largest concentration of kazoos anywhere on the planet at any given time."
Sorting the instruments is easy enough. Assembling them, Murray says, is a bit more labor intensive.
"You got three pieces to our basic kazoo: the body of the kazoo, the resonator — which is the little disc that goes in top — and then the cap. So the first stop is the capping station, and all of our kazoos are assembled by hand. Cappers can do anywhere from 500 to 900 kazoos an hour," he says.
At the end of the factory tour, you can assemble your own kazoo. Somehow, people have found out about the place: Three generations of the Schultz family are here, and grandmother Dorothy knows a thing or two about the instrument.
"I was with an entertainment group out of Beaver Dam, Wis.," she says, "and we did songs with tambourines, kazoos and anything that made noise."
Unfortunately, the group broke up, so there's a vacuum to be filled. All you have to do is put your lips together and hum.
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Transcript
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And, in case you forgot to mark it on your calendar, today is National Kazoo Day. Anybody can play the kazoo - practically no skill required. But only two places in the U.S. make them. The metal ones are made in northern New York State, and the plastic ones hail from Beaufort, SC, where Karen Michel got a tour of the factory.
KAREN MICHEL, BYLINE: Stephen Murray, president and CEO of Kazoobie Kazoos, used to play trumpet.
STEPHEN MURRAY: Here you go, I'll do a little "Smoke On The Water," so (playing kazoo).
MICHEL: Murray worked in theater. Now he looks like an elementary school teacher, ready to share his knowledge of the kazoo's broad influence in popular music.
MURRAY: There are a lot of rock greats that have used kazoo. Pink Floyd used kazoo. Jimi Hendrix used a kazoo. If you're familiar with his song, "Crosstown Traffic," if you listen closely, you'll hear a kazoo.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CROSSTOWN TRAFFIC")
MURRAY: He actually used - what we we've been told is that he used the wax paper and cone, which a lot of folks have used that as a kazoo before. In new music, Carolina Chocolate Drops use our kazoos. The band Weezer has used kazoos.
MICHEL: Murray keeps one of the custom-made Weezer kazoos on a shelf near his desk. It's green, embossed in white with the words Weezer "Hash Pipe." Kazoobie makes a lot of different kazoos and attachments.
MURRAY: We have and attachment. We call it the wazoo because it's the excessively loud kazoo. It's a horn. If you think of a - like, a kind of a gramophone horn on steroids that you pop right in the top of your kazoo. So it fits in the tower right over the resonator, and it amplifies the sound of the kazoo, so (playing kazoo).
MICHEL: Murray started working at Kazoobie Kazoos 15 years ago without realizing that some people actually need instruction on how to play the instrument.
MURRAY: You have to talk. You have to make a noise - you have to hum (playing kazoo). Most folks want to blow into the kazoo and we actually put instructions in all of our orders because we would have folks call and say, I just got my kazoos and they don't work. I'm blowing as hard as I can. You have to hum, don't blow. When we give lessons, we tell people to say the word who into the big end. So you say (playing kazoo). Like that.
MICHEL: There are actual instruction booklets and CDs and DVDs for sale in the gift shop, alongside kazoos, of course, and T-shirts proclaiming the wearer a kazoo hero. Just past the shop, in an alcove, there's the Kazoo Museum, where vitrines display some of the earliest kazoos manufactured in GA in the mid-1800s, back when they were called down-south submarines. Kazoos likely originated in Africa, made from cow horns and spider egg membranes. None of those are in the museum, but there is sheet music, including Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES")
MICHEL: Duck through a doorway, under a banner proclaiming, build it and they will hum, there's Kazoobie's small factory.
MURRAY: We sort everything by color. We keep - we keep somewhere around a quarter-million kazoos in stock at all times. We probably have the largest concentration of kazoos anywhere on the planet at any given time.
MICHEL: It's a labor-intensive process.
MURRAY: You've got three pieces to our basic kazoo - the body of the kazoo, the resonator, which is the little desk that goes on top, and then the cap. So the first stop is the capping station. And all of our kazoos are assembled by hand. Cappers can do anywhere from 500 to 900 kazoos an hour.
MICHEL: At the end of the factory tour, you can assemble your own kazoo. And, somehow, people have found out about the place. Three generations of the Schultz family are here, and grandmother Dorothy knows a thing or two about the instrument.
DOROTHY SCHULTZ: I was with an entertainment group out of Beaverdam, WI, and we did songs with a tambourines, kazoos and anything that made noise.
MICHEL: Unfortunately, the group broke up, so there's a vacuum to be filled. All you have to do is put your lips together and hum. For NPR News, I'm Karen Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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