The Kazoo & Macon, GA
See the History at the Tubman Museum's Pop-Up Exhibit then Help us Break a World Record
The legend of the kazoo invention and an African American inventor named Alabama Vest remain forever tied to the city of Macon. And, this year... we are bringing it home and making some big NOISE in the process!
Friday, March 28th
TICKETS ARE ONLY $5!
All Proceeds Will Go to the Otis Redding Center for the Arts
Look Who's Joining In on the Fun!
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Brett Ambler | Rick Hubbard | Sara Mazanec |
| AKA ""The Kazoo Kid"
Brett Ambler is an actor and musician, perhaps still best known for his role as the Kazoo Kid – an enthusiastic eight-year-old boy playing the kazoo in You on Kazoo, a 1989 30-minute sing-along/play-along video. The video, which came with a kazoo for viewers to learn and play along, later resurfaced in 2016 as a meme, pushing Ambler back into the spotlight. Today, Brett resides in Colorado where he continues to perform on stage and has an entire box of kazoos, just in case the occasion to play it arises. | Rick toured nationally and internationally with several acclaimed music groups, and in 1987 he began a solo career as a family entertainer. In 1997, he founded Kazoobie Kazoos as an e-commerce business. What started as a simple web page has grown into a half million dollar business selling over a million kazoos a year. The company was recently sold to his partner in the business. kazoos.com Rick continues to juggle live performances, overseeing his businesses, being a professional boat captain, and speaking and consulting on marketing and entertainment. | 2024 Otis Music Camp Summer Songwriter Award Recipient for her song "I'm Okay" Before Otis Music Camp, you could find Sara huddled in her room, teaching herself how to play instruments like the ukulele, kalimba, guitar, piano, and even bass guitar. Though she's been making music for as long as I she's been talking, Otis Music Camp exposed her to more professional and real world experiences pertaining to music, and that opportunity has been the most wonderful, pivotal experience. |
Exploring Macon's Connection & the Origin of the Kazoo!
Legend has it that freed slave Alabama Vest created the musical instrument we know and love as the kazoo in Macon, Georgia in the 1840s. Inspired by the African horn-mirliton or onion flute, Vest brought his original prototype- made from a simple wooden tube with a piece of paper attached to it- to local clockmaker Thaddeus Von Clegg. Together they produced a design that they officially debuted at the Georgia State Fair in Macon in 1852, calling it a "Down South Submarine."
Photo: Two men play kazoos and other instruments in the late nineteenth century, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
The Tubman Museum Exhibit: January 28th (National Kazoo Day) through March, 2025!
This pop-up exhibit has been created and customized for Macon and the Tubman Museum, by the original designer/curator of the Kazoo Museum & Factory of Beaufort, SC. The exhibit celebrates more than 150 years of kazoo history featuring rare and historic kazoo/archives from around the world and colorful, interactive, made-for-selfie photo opps. The booming music city (where Little Richard, James Brown, The Allman Brothers and Otis Redding all got their starts) will feature the instrument and the musicians who ultimately became fans like The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and more.
According to the curator, "We’ll highlight how kazoos played an integral role in early blues and jazz music and how the instrument crossed paths with personalities including Questlove, Mister Rogers, Dionne Warwick, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and many others."
