| Hot fountain pen | |
| Background: | woodwind |
| Hornbostel Sachs: | 422.211.2 |
| Hornbostel Sachs Desc: | Single reed with cylindrical bore and fingerholes |
| Developed: | 1920s |
| Builders: | Keith Prowse & Co. |
The hot fountain pen, or red-hot fountain pen, is a small keyless single-reed woodwind instrument similar to a xaphoon, popularised in the 1920s and 30s by jazz saxophonist Adrian Rollini.[1] It was first introduced in jazz band The California Ramblers by saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey in the mid-1920s, where Rollini, a fellow band member, encountered and adopted it. Rollini, who introduced several other instruments to jazz including the bass saxophone, couesnophone ("goofus") and vibraphone, named it from his friendship with Neil Waterman, a musician from the wealthy New York family that owned the Waterman Pen Company.
The instrument Rollini performed on was pitched in E♭ and about 27 centimetres (10½ inches) in length. He made at least two models for sale, in original E♭ and a larger model in C. These were made in ebonite by London instrument manufacturer Keith, Prowse & Co. and first advertised in British Melody Maker magazine.[2]
Only a small number of instruments were made up until the mid-20th century, featuring mainly on recordings by Rollini and jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Its only other significant proponent was English musician Laurie Payne.[3] In museums, one instrument survives in the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, Oxford.[4]