Comic Bands – Kazoo, Zobo and Bigophone

During the 1890s and early parts of the 20th century a type of band arose using kazoo-type instruments as an alternative to the more expensive (and harder to play) brass instruments. Zobo instruments, based on kazoo principles, were invented and developed in the USA in the early 1890s, rapidly becoming a new craze for a while. When the instruments spread to the UK the bands that were formed using them, and home-made equivalents, were largely "comic" bands, created ad hoc for galas and festivals, and occasionally having a more long-term existence, to entertain the public and raise money for charity. A kazoo band trend in France, also during this time, was supported by the invention of the Bigotphone, a similar type of instrument to the Zobo. More than 300 images of these bands of over 100 years ago are presented in this paper.