{{Use mdy dates, date=January 2020 The pogo cello is a percussion instrument in the

idiophone An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones) ...

family. This instrument can be heard in the

skiffle bands Skiffle is a genre of folk music with influences from American folk music, blues, country, bluegrass, and jazz, generally performed with a mixture of manufactured and homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a form in the United States ...

of England,

jug band A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, ...

s from the United States, as well as some

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, bluegrass,

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

and rock bands. Notable musical groups or persons using the pogo cello in their music are

Jim Kweskin's Jug Band Jim Kweskin (born July 18, 1940, Stamford, Connecticut) is an American folk, jazz, and blues musician, most notable as the founder of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, also known as Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, with Fritz Richmond, Geoff Muldaur, Bob Si ...

Mojo Nixon Mojo Nixon (born Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr.; August 2, 1957) is an American musician and actor best known for his humorous, irreverent Novelty song "Elvis Is Everywhere" which was an alternative staple on MTV. His style can generally be defined ...

Rend Collective Rend Collective (formerly known as Rend Collective Experiment) is a Northern Irish Christian folk rock worship band originating from Bangor, Northern Ireland. The current lineup consists of Gareth Gilkeson, Chris Llewellyn, Ali Gilkeson, Patr ...

, and

Redd Foxx John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. ...

, the famous comedian/singer who starred as Fred Sanford in the television show ''

Sanford and Son ''Sanford and Son'' is an American sitcom television series that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977. It was based on the British sitcom ''Steptoe and Son'', which initially aired on BBC One in the United ...

''.

Description

The pogo cello is also known as or very similar to a devil's stick,

bumbass The bladder fiddle was a folk instrument used throughout Europe and in the Americas. The instrument was originally a simple large stringed fiddle (a musical bow) made with a long stick, one or more thick gut Strings (music), strings, and a pig's b ...

, stump fiddle, stumpf fiddle, humstrum, devil's violin,

bladder and string The bladder fiddle was a folk instrument used throughout Europe and in the Americas. The instrument was originally a simple large stringed fiddle (a musical bow) made with a long stick, one or more thick gut strings, and a pig's-bladder resonato ...

stick zither Bar zither is class of musical instruments (subset of zither) within the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system for a type of simple chordophone (stringed instrument), in which the body of the instrument is shaped like a bar. In the system, bar ...

, basse de Flandre, jingling johnny, lagerphone,

Turkish crescent A Turkish crescent, (a smaller version is called a çevgen or ''çağana'' (Tr.), Turkish jingle, Jingling Johnny, ' (Ger.), ' or ''pavillon chinois'' (Fr.)), is a percussion instrument traditionally used by military bands internationally. In some ...

Chapeau Chinois A chapeau is a flat-topped hat once worn by senior clerics. In heraldry In European ecclesiastical heraldry, it is used as a mark of ecclesiastical dignity, especially that of cardinals, where it is called the ''red chapeau''. It is worn over ...

Pavillon Chinois Pavillon may refer to: * Le Pavillon Hotel, New Orleans * Le Pavillon (New York City restaurant), a former New York City restaurant * Pavillon de Flore, a section of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, France * Pavillon de Paris, a large concert sp ...

Party Fiddle A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

ugly stick The ugly stick is a traditional Newfoundland musical instrument fashioned out of household and tool shed items, typically a mop handle with bottle caps, tin cans, small bells and other noise makers. The instrument is played with a drum s ...

, pound stick. The pogo cello, being a homemade

folk instrument A folk instrument is a musical instrument that developed among common people and usually does not have a known inventor. It can be made from wood, metal or other material. Such an instrument is played in performances of folk music. Overview The ...

, has a configuration that is somewhat open to interpretation depending on the individual who creates it. A typical description of the parts that might make a pogo cello are: * A

broom A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...

handle, pole, or a six-foot 2x3 piece of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

. * A

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...

fastened to the bottom of the wood. * A cookie tin,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, or any similar resonating device. * A length of

baling wire Baling wire, otherwise known as bale wire, farm wire, haywire or soft wire, is a type of wire used in agriculture and industry for many uses such as mending fences or manually binding rectangular Hay#Small bales, bales of hay, straw bale, straw, ...

, attached to the top and bottom of the wood, stretched across the cookie tin or

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...

. * Any miscellaneous noisemakers that an individual might choose to attach anywhere on the pogo cello. The instrument is thrust to the floor to make a

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

sound, and a length of baling wire attached to a cookie tin is struck or bowed with a long threaded stick or

dowel A dowel is a cylindrical rod, usually made of wood, plastic, or metal. In its original manufactured form, a dowel is called a ''dowel rod''. Dowel rods are often cut into short lengths called dowel pins. Dowels are commonly used as structural ...

to make a

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...

sound.

History

A musical instrument that appears to be a pogo cello was invented and first patented in 1951 by a carpenter named Vincent Lyle Badkin. According to his grandson, Vincent L. Badkin, he performed with a group in New Jersey called Zimmies Zombies. The pogo cello was commercially manufactured in the 1950s in Brooklyn, New York by a chemist and musical instrument manufacturer, Mack Perry, the husband of a music educator, Sylvia Perry. Apparently Badkin had asked Perry to manufacture the instrument. It is unclear what influenced Badkin in his design, perhaps a similar instrument called a bumbass (boombas, boomba, or boom bass) also known as a stump fiddle (or stumpf fiddle). Perry manufactured pogo cellos in Brooklyn and Far Rockaway, New York and in New Jersey. The pogo cello was sold across the United States for decades as a musical instrument for children, but many adults also bought them for themselves. Pogo cellos have been seen in marching bands in Iowa and in the Mummers' parade in Philadelphia, PA on New Year's Day. Similar instruments may be found today in Australia, the Czech Republic and in Sweden (called a Devil's fiddle or Devil's stick) and in other countries, for example at Oktoberfests. They have been played in blues, soul, bluegrass and other kinds of musical groups. Television show host

Garry Moore Garry Moore (born Thomas Garrison Morfit; January 31, 1915 – November 28, 1993) was an American entertainer, comedic personality, game show host, and humorist best known for his work in television. He began a long career with the CBS network ...

played one on his show in the 1950s. Since 1975 the Gloucester Hornpipe and Clog Society, an American traditional music group which plays Celtic, maritime, and other kinds of folk music, has featured a pogo cello made by woodcarver Rita Dunipace, and pogo cello player David "Doc" Rosen.

References

Jingling Johnny
at Britannica.com
Joe Barrick's One-Man Band: A history of the piatarbajo and other one-man bands
from Musical Traditions No 8, Early 1990 (slightly updated)

External links

America's Latest: Pogo-'celloHow to Make a Pogocello
Idiophones North American percussion instruments European percussion instruments 20th-century percussion instruments Unpitched percussion instruments Percussion instruments played with specialised beaters Hand percussion

Description

History

References

Further reading

External links