Bamboo Saxophones, Sugar Belly, and A Wandering Musician

As is true with most gifted musicians, their soul is inside the music that they present to the world. It doesn’t matter if they write the music or if they play another composer’s efforts, they bring the center of their own being to sound. Listen to the most famous bamboo saxophone player on a recording of “Mother’s Eyes”.

Born William Walker, Sugar Belly lived in a world of extreme poverty that offered no way out. Having only an overwhelming love for music, Sugar Belly made his own instrument and called it a bamboo saxophone. With no music lessons and no money to get any, he created his rudimentary instrument.

Some credit him with inventing it, but bamboo musical instruments were made in many cultures over centuries. They are sometimes called xaphoon, bamboo flutes, or Native American bamboo flutes. No one knows if Sugar Belly had seen an instrument like this or not. But, those who lived in Jamaica when he played on the street corners only remember the sound from his bamboo instrument.

Later he would make more elegant bamboo saxophones and sold them to fill in his income needs.

There is disputed information as when he began recording; however, his sound and talent were never questioned. Sugar Belly began playing in Jamaica sometime around the 1920s and his older recordings are from the Jazz Era where he combined Reggae sounds with Jazz music.

Sugar Belly assembled a band and got gigs at the Myrtle Bank Hotel on Kingston Street where they would play his saxophone on the veranda and locals could listen and dance for free. His Mento music with a Rumba tempo turned heads of tourists, as well. Later, he developed what was called Ska music and joined the Skalites band with other Mento musicians. Ska became better known in the U.S. as scat.

With the advent of pop rock music taking over the music scene, Sugar Belly and his band continued to play their music gaining international success against all odds. He appeared in London and in Canada and recorded albums and singles at major studios up until the 1980s.

Sugar Belly moved to St. Anne’s Parish, Jamaica in the late 1980s and after a long illness died in obscurity in the early 1990s. The sounds of the man with the bamboo saxophone remained behind to touch the soul of those who listen.

Malcolm’s Bamboo Saxophone

Malcolm learned how to make these amazing bamboo saxophones from his brother who makes bamboo clarinets in Indonesia. The one pictured below took about two weeks to make and is fashioned from various sizes and cuts of bamboo.

Malcolm has carved out a musical niche for himself in San Cristobal, Mexico, and the towns people have come to enjoy his beautiful music. Read more about Malcolm in an interview on Vagabond Journey.

Even More Bamboo Saxophones