Festival de l'anche

10 years ago when organizers announced that a music festival celebrating the use of reed cane, known locally as "canne de Provence" would be held in the small Mediteranean town of Hyeres, everyone said it couldn't be done. However the Festival de l'anche (Cane Festival) did happen and has grown considerably from its humble beginnings to a lively and exciting event.

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Festival de l'anche and Rico is proud to once again be a sponsor of the events. The 3-day festival takes place May 29th through May 31st in Hyeres, France (about 140km west of Nice).

Concerts are held at several concert venues including the Casino de Hyeres, the Théâtre Denis, the Olbia Archeological Site, and Rico's own Roso France plantation. Featured guest artists include top name acts like The Benny Golson Quartet, Manu Dibango, and many other exciting concerts. The final concert on Sunday evening is held outdoors in Rico's cane fields and is a beautiful setting to hear one jazz music's greats - Benny Golson.

An exhibt of woodwind and reed companies is complemented by workshops and other displays of crafts and products that make use of cane. These include calligraphy, paper making, and even the manufacture of the calameau, a wind instrument made from cane!

A highlight of the festival is the weekend tours of Roso France, Rico's cane plantations. These tours are guided by Mr. Jean Francois Rico who helped build Rico's plantations starting in the mid 1970s. Tours take place Saturday and Sunday morning and a free shuttle leaves from the Casino to Roso France.

Applications For Rico Plasticover

Applications for Rico Plasticover

By Mike Zucek-North Central Regional Sales Manager

My blog this month gets away from packaging and instead presents the Rico Plasticover reed and its uses.

Plasticover has been around for decades, having been developed by a Hollywood musician named Herman Hansen, as early as the mid-to-late 1930’s. Herman was experiencing the usual problem for “doublers” in that the reed on his alto sax tended to dry out and wrinkle while he was playing his clarinet. As a result, it was not ready to play when he needed to switch back. He gave lots of thought to this problem and came up with the idea of spraying a very thin coat of a safe-to-use “plastic” on a natural cane reed. This tended to keep the reed “wet” while it was not being played; thus ready to play no matter how long his double instruments sat on their stands. This coating worked so well that the “plasticover “application was adopted by Rico, who quickly brought the Rico Plasticover to the market, and also provided a full time job for Herman at the Rico factory until his retirement in the late 80’s!

But Plasticover benefits more than just the woodwind “doubler”. The same properties that keep Plasticover ready to play also make it less susceptible to changes in humidity and temperature, making it a terrific outdoors reed and perfect for concerts in the park. And because the Plasticover coating provides greater projection, it’s a miracle worker for the marching band director who needs to help the woodwinds balance the brass! This same projection has also endeared Plasticover to many Jazz saxophonists; just ask Dave Koz!

Remember that the Plasticover reed is a real cane reed that plays with the response and sound that you’d expect from cane. You owe it to yourself to give Plasticover a try.

Reedvitalizer Break-In

Break-in Procedures Using the Reed-Vitalizer System

In my last installment I talked about the importance of the humidification of reeds. In this blog I would like to discuss how to use the Reedvitalizer system to help speed up the process.

A typical break-in can take a very extended amount of time, but using the Reedvitalizer system can help speed up the process.

Here is a suggested setup for the efficient break-in of brand new reeds.

1. Take a brand new box of reeds and put the reeds in their reed holders in to a 73% Reedvitalizer bag for 12 hours.

2. Play your reeds for 30 seconds to 1 minute then wipe the extra moisture with your fingers, put them back into the Reedvitalizer bag.

3. Repeat twice.

4. At this point, it is a good idea to move the reeds in to the Rico Reed Case. The reed case is air-tight and humidity controlled with our 2 way patented humidity control system.

Your reeds should be very consistent and have better longevity!

C Melody Sax reeds

A frequent question we get at Rico from players relates to what type of reed to use on C Melody Sax. As many of you know, the C Melody sax is pitched in C instead of Bb for Tenor or Eb for Alto. While there is limited ensemble use for C Melody Sax (wind and military band), the fact that it doesn't transpose makes it a versitle horn for reading music written for C instruments.

The C Melody sax is larger than the alto sax and smaller than the tenor sax. With regards to mouthpieces, a true C Melody mouthpiece is similar to a tenor sax mouthpiece. With this type of C Melody Sax mouthpiece, bass clarinet like Rico Royal or Grand Concert Select reeds work well.

However many people simply use an alto sax mouthpiece on C Melody Sax. If you are using an alto sax mouthpiece then alto sax reeds should be used such as Rico Royal or Rico reeds. You can also try the Reserve Alto or Reserve Tenor reeds.

Special Reed Boxes I have Known...

Special Reed Boxes I Have Known…

By Mike Zucek-North Central Regional Sales Manager

Last month, I left you with a teaser…regarding the old brown Rico “wood grain” boxes. Well, would you believe that the original Rico boxes were actually constructed of real California redwood! They were beautifully made, with dovetailed corners and a paper “cigarette pack” seal. They had a full length fabric hinge and to top it all off, were wrapped in orange/yellow cellophane. (These are now real “finds” for the collector!) After WWII, redwood was getting expensive and a change was in order to help keep down the cost of the reeds. Why not eliminate the wood, but keep the wood appearance! The “wood-grain” box was the logical result. This package continued in use until the early 1980’s, when the now ubiquitous “orange box” came on the scene.

In 1983, the Rico Company decided to produce a new package that eliminated all the layers of tissue that were used to separate the reeds. The Dispensapak was the result and was an immediate…….FAILURE! We knew right away that something was wrong as many customers promptly spilled the reeds on the floor while trying to figure out how to operate this new “trick” package! We immediately performed a costly re-design based on the time proven “Novapak reed holder” and learned a valuable lesson about the “KISS” principal in the process. Our quick about face, while not totally avoiding some embarrassment, allowed us to finally arrive at the right package and, more importantly, avoid forcing our mistake on the customer.

In 1987, Rico produced a special “sampler pack” for its line of Mitchell Lurie and Frederick L. Hemke Premium reeds. These packages held 8 reeds in Novapaks with an assortment of strengths from 2 ½ through 4 ½. They were in attractive, three inch square, “shrink-wrapped” boxes that were clearly marked S A M P L E R on one end flap.

Likewise, a few years later, when Rico introduced the ground-breaking Grand Concert clarinet reeds in ¼ strengths, another sampler pack was made available. These were based on the same package that the GC reeds were normally available in, but with the addition of a gold band seal that covered three sides of the box. On this seal was printed “Compliments of Rico International” and “Reed Strengths 3, 3 ¼, 3 ½, 3 ¾, 4” and finally “Complimentary Sample”. The white box held “standard blank” models and the dark blue box held “thick blank”.

Finally, perhaps the most unique reed package ever produced by Rico….the “Inaugural Reed Sampler”… “In Commemoration of President Bill Clinton, Music Enthusiast January 20, 1993”. These reeds were actually presented to president Clinton at the White House, but also made available in limited numbers to attendees at the 1993 Winter NAMM show. Each sampler consisted of an assortment of 4 reeds (2 Rico Plasticover, 1 La Voz and 1 Rico Royal in a Reedgard IV) for soprano, alto, tenor or baritone sax. The box was white with a blue banded overwrap, and had a picture of the White House at the top front. The Rico logo was in red and each reed, rather than being stamped with a brand name, was instead marked “1993 Inaugural Reed”. The Plasticover reeds had white lettering and one each of the remaining reeds was in red and blue.

In some future postings, I’ll get into the packaging history of Rico family brands that for many years never bore the Rico name!!!

Filed vs. Unfiled?

A lot of people ask about the difference between filed and unfiled reeds. Here's a brief explanation:

An option to fine-tune the sound, the file is often preferred by players who use traditional, moderately resistant, dark-sounding mouthpieces– the file helps such mouthpieces blow more freely.

For those who play relatively easy-blowing, moderate-to-bright mouthpieces (especially jazz or pop sax mouthpieces with a high baffle), an unfiled reed is usually preferred.

The French File (or “file”) is the area behind the vamp (or cut portion) where the bark is sanded

off in a straight line.

The File-

• Provides ease of response, especially in the low register… …making soft attacks easier.
• Also makes the tone slightly brighter… …for use with resistant mouthpieces.

An unfiled reed provides a darker tone and more resistance; a filed reed provides a brighter tone and is more free-blowing.

Recommended use of filed or unfiled reeds for common sax mouthpieces:

Filed
• Meyer
• Otto Link
• Selmer rubber

Unfiled
• Dukoff
• Beechler
• Selmer metal
• Guardala
• Berg Larsen

Rico offers the following filed reeds: Rico Royal, Reserve (saxophone) Rico Select Jazz, Hemke, and Grand Concert Select

The following reeds are unfiled: La Voz, Rico, Rico Rico Select Jazz

The Changing Seasons and Reeds

As we approach summer it is important to remember how the seasons and humidity affect our reeds.

Depending on your specific location summer can mean many different things in relation to reeds and RH (Relative Humidity). But, the most important point to remember is that the less change that happens to the reed, the better!

In other words, when the reed is not in use it is best to have it stored in a humidity-controlled case. The new Rico Reed case is ideal for keeping the reeds in a constant state of humidification. What this means to players is that the reeds will not be as prone to warpage on the table and at the tip. 

When you wet the reed and get those wavy tips, it can be due to the reed drying out un-evenly. This not only makes it take longer to warm-up the reed, but it also decreases the longevity or life of the reed as it is going through more changes.

The Rico Reedvitalizer system utilizes a Two-Way humidity control system that can both add moisture to the reed or take moisture out of the reed if it is too wet.  

The system comes in three different RH levels:

58% - Stable, long-term storage

73% - Requires minimal wetting

84% - Ready to play

In my next installment, we will explore how different people use the different Humidity levels for the break-in process... Stay Tuned.....