JazzNation Talks With: Geoff Lawton

4.6.2001

JN: How long have you been making mouthpieces?
GL: I've been making them virtually since I played the saxophone, which was when I was about 15. I was training to be a toolmaker, and I was playing and I thought, well, this isn't very good (this mouthpiece I was playing at the time), so I sort of made one and it worked well. And then friends wanted them, and then different bands in the Manchester area and the London area, and it sort of developed like that. Without really any advertising, just word-of-mouth. It's amazing really, and I've been making them ever since. You're talking forty-odd years.

JN: Who have you supplied over the years?
GL: I'm a bit lax in that I don't keep a real diary of people, but people like Johnny Dankworth and Frank Foster, Sonny Rollins, John Williams, who's played with the Count Basie Band for the last thirty years and he's never used anything else in all the time he's played with him. James Carter is a new guy, great tenor player who came up a few weeks ago. He was in England and he rang me up, and said 'can I come and see you? I love your mouthpieces, I've got boxes of them'. Tim Price is another excellent American player. Of course, Dave Bishop. He's used mine for years, and Gary Barnacle. They're English. Don Braden's another terrific player. But then again there's lots of semi-professional players use them, even young people who are just starting.

JN: Who is your best customer?
GL: There's very few who've gone on them and then wanted to change onto something else. At the time I was mainly making mouthpieces, lots of bands were coming over. Woody Herman's band, Stan Kenton's, all the bands came over. In fact Kenton's whole band played on my mouthpieces at one time. Duke Ellington's band, when they were at their absolute height.

JN: Do you ever think about retirement?
GL: Well no, not really. Because having done something like this for so long, retirement's a bit of a dirty word. I don't dislike making mouthpieces, even though I've made them all these years. I like the fact that people appreciate them, and they ring me up and say how wonderful it's playing for them, so I suppose from that point of view, you couldn't have a better job really. But there again, I don't think there's any doubt that my mouthpieces are probably the best made mouthpieces that you can buy because there aren't many that are made in this way, made from a solid piece of material. Whereas mouthpieces like Links, which is clever the way he's done them, because he can knock mouthpieces out ten times quicker than I can. But he's only ever made one chamber. Well I make three chambers and fifteen different lays in everyone.

JN: Who are your favourite musicians?
GL: I like everybody. I can listen to anybody playing a saxophone, going right back. I like Parker obviously. I have phases where I'm really into say, Stan Getz, and then I'll go onto somebody prior to Stan Getz, and than I'll go to a more modern player, Brecker, or somebody like that.

JN: What was the last album you bought?
GL: Some I get given me. Quite a few are different players who've used my mouthpiece and given me the CD. I like Cannonball Adderley, but then again I like Paul Desmond. I've got Michael Brecker, but I like this guy as well, Eddie Harris. Super player. I really like his playing. I've got the latest Count Basie Band. John Williams sent them for me.

JN: How has Jazz music changed in the UK over the years?
GL: I don't think it's really changed all that much. But then again, if you're comparing it with America, 'cos it's a much bigger place, they sort of invented it, and there seems to be thousands of them who can play really good. If you talk about people like Tubby Hayes, well I mean he was world class anyway. But there aren't many like Tubby Hayes. But in America there are. The thing I notice is that English musicians don't seem to get the same breadth of sound in a lot of cases like American musicians get. It was very noticeable when I used to spend quite a bit of time with Johnny Hodges, and Russell Procope was the second alto player, and Harry Carney. When you stand next to them, the sound you get is unbelievable. I thinks that's probably the biggest difference I find between good Americans and good English. I think they need a bit more time spent on sound.

JN: Has Jazz FM helped?
GL: Well that's been a help. But the thing with Jazz FM is they've sort of capitulated. When it started off it was absolutely fantastic. Now, you just have to find a little bit of jazz here and there

-JN-