Lew Soloff on Choosing the Right Mouthpiece

From a masterclass in 2014

[@jad1175]

In the early 1970’s I was over Lew’s townhouse in NY. On his bedroom window sill were over 200 mouthpieces. He said And you know what I played every one of them on gigs over the years. We took lessons with Roy Stevens. That night Lew played with Thad Jones big band. He tried to get me to sit in but the band was already too cramped. On a later date I did sit on with Lew and Lloyd Michaels. The old days😢

[@powers6253]

What are the mouthpieces?

[@RandomUsername34]

The ones that feel good to you, and make you sound the way you wanna sound... Regardless of the numbers or brand ingraved on them

[@da11king]

To my ears , the only distinctive mouthpieces are the Louis Armstrong and the flugerhorn one. Otherwise, Mr Lew sounds like himself in all of them .

[@michaelfoxbrass]

The one he mentioned that sounded more like Harry James, was likely made in the style of a Parduba "Double Cup" mouthpiece. I think these are still being made by someone, but I could be wrong. The "7C" he referred to at the beginning is probably very close to, if not exactly, a 7c. Unsure what his "easy high note" piece would have been. The shape of the final mouthpiece (he says it's practically a french horn mouthpiece) would have been nearly conical (like a funnel), vs. a cup.

[@clearnitesky]

Jerome Callet was making the Superchops 3, a double cup mouthpiece that Lew loved.

[@theimp5901]

I am pretty sure it's the Parduba@@michaelfoxbrass