Meeting with the New York alto saxophonist Dick Oatts and the New York baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. Dick Oatts plays a Selmer MVI alto saxophone with a Brilhart “Ebolin” mouthpiece.
Dick Oatts' statement after the Matador mouthpiece test:
„I have tested so many other new mouthpieces. Then I found my current mouthpiece, an old Brilhart, and knew immediately that this was what I was looking for.“
„I really like the resistance of the Matador Mouthpiece. Please send me a mouthpiece to New York that I can get to know even better.“
The company Matador Mouthpiece Project belongs to Konstantin Riebesam. Konstantin is the younger son of Tino Schucht, the owner of Schucht Sax Technology.
Research and project management: Konstantin Riebesam
Technical management, consulting and production: Tino Schucht
We have analyzed the current mouthpiece manufacturers and compared them with old, legendary mouthpiece models from Otto Link, Brilhart, Meyer, Berg Larsen and others such as the not-so-old, original Dave Guardala mouthpieces. The results astounded us and we came to a clear conclusion.
We see that these old mouthpiece models have not lost their importance for today's musicians and that the situation is similar to that of old saxophones such as those from Selmer with the Selmer MVI or Balanced Action or old saxophone models from Conn, King, Büscher and others. For example, the Selmer MVI is the unbeaten top saxophone for today's players and the old Otto Link mouthpieces, old Brilhart mouthpieces, old Meyer mouthpieces etc. are the unbeaten top mouthpieces for many jazz saxophonists today.
You can put it in a nutshell. These old mouthpieces produce very different sounds but they always have one thing in common. They provide a strong sound core that enables the player to produce a very well centered tone. This centered sound is the BASIS for a good tone that every player needs. Centering the sound enables a resonant tone. A good resonance is important: Depth of sound, warmth of sound, dynamics, carrying power, presence and response.
Die Hersteller heutiger Mundstücke lehnen sich in ihren Aussagen auf der einen Seite an diese alten Standards an und versuchen auch, Mundstücke zu kreieren, die heutigen Spielern mehr entgegenkommen sollen. Wir mussten leider feststellen, dass die alten großen BASIS Standards von nur ganz wenigen heutigen Herstellern berücksichtigt werden. Ähnlich verhält es sich mit den heutigen Saxophon Fabrikationen und Modellen. Es gibt viele unterschiedliche Fabrikate und viele unterschiedliche Modelle. Aber keine Marke, kein Modell realisiert diese alten, wichtigen, ursprünglichen BASIS Standards.
Our goal is basically the same as that of every mouthpiece manufacturer.
On the one hand, we have musicians who want to realize these old, classic and legendary saxophone sounds. On the other hand, we have musicians who want to create sounds that meet their current requirements.
But whether old sounds or new sounds, musicians always need equipment that can create a SOUND in the first place and not a NOISE.
The company Matador Mouthpiece Project develops and builds in cooperation with the company Schucht Sax Technology mouthpieces that realize these old BASIS standards, models for musicians of today and models for musicians who want to realize classical sounds.
