About Ponzol Reeds - by Peter Ponzol
1989, I was living in Germany as a freelance jazz musician, working with various European saxophone companies as a consultant and was into my 4th year as a mouthpiece maker. I had a 3 week tour coming up and had ordered a large supply of reeds for the tour. I had trouble finding enough reeds for the tour out of 100 boxes. This prompted me to investigate what was going on in the world of reeds.
After my tour, I went to the south of France, particularly the Var valley where the best cane is grown. I learned that the demand for good aged cane far exceeded the supply. This was because of many factors including weather and the tremendous increase in the amount of saxophonists around the world. Large companies were faced with either not having reeds to sell, or to use cane that was not properly aged. During my travels and investigations, I met a man who had his own cane fields and was willing to work with me to develop my own style of reed. The cane this man has is wild cane, meaning that no one planted it as a crop, it just happens to grow wild in this area. Experience has taught me that this special wild cane when aged properly produces more reeds that are playable and they play longer. I developed a cut using what I considered to be the best attributes of the reeds that I had been using, V16 and Hemke. My cut has more material at the top and less at the heart. In my opinion this produces a reed that needs to be broken in, but when properly broken in they will play for a long time. Most players tell me that they get at least 7 or 8 reeds out of ten that play and they play for a long time.
I am often asked if they work well with my mouthpieces. Obviously they should work well with all mouthpieces, but in being able to design both the mouthpiece and reed, there is a certain synergy between my mouthpiece and reeds. I offer only one cut, the one that I feel is right for the majority of players and mouthpieces. Its impossible to make a reed or mouthpiece for that matter that will work for everyone, but I believe that given a fair try, Ponzol reeds will be the solution for many of you. The production is small and we never use cane that is not ready, so they have not always been easy to find. By giving Woodwind & Brasswind an exclusive for the US market, it is my hope that Ponzol reeds will be ready available at a new lower price. Try them, they just might make your saxophone life a lot easier.