[JodyJazz booth at the 2023 NAMM Show in Anaheim California - Jody Espina (JodyJazz), Edward Cranfield (Zenith Music), & Colin Schofield (VP of Sales & Marketing at JodyJazz)]
A new mouthpiece can open up the sound of your instrument, leading to new ideas while you play. JodyJazz is a mouthpiece manufacturer based in Georgia, USA. They are known for making some of the world’s finest saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces.
History of JodyJazz
Jody Espina is the founder, president, owner, and designer of JodyJazz. He originally worked as a saxophone, clarinet and flute professor in Barcelona and directed the Big Band at the L'aula de Musica i Moderna Jazz. In 2000, Espina decided to stop teaching and founded JodyJazz to pursue designing mouthpieces.
While in New York, Espina tried the vintage mouthpieces of many great saxophone players. He found that the best free-blowing mouthpieces were designed with thin tip rails. Espina then combined this knowledge with his experience as an educator to create the ideal mouthpiece for both professionals and students.
In 2018 JodyJazz acquired Chedeville and redesigned their line of clarinet and saxophone Mouthpieces. JodyJazz combine the best elements of Chedeville’s past mouthpieces with their manufacturing techniques. JodyJazz also acquired Rousseau in 2020. Originally designed by Dr. Eugene Rousseau, their classical and jazz mouthpieces are now made at the JodyJazz Factory.
The Quality of JodyJazz
The JodyJazz Factory use both hand filing and machinery to manufacture their mouthpieces. The two main components of a mouthpiece are the facing curve and the baffle. JodyJazz uses a computer-controlled lathe machine to cut the facing curve precisely. They then hand-file the mouthpiece baffle as Espina found a hand-filed baffle had a better sound than a machine-cut one. Every mouthpiece is then play-tested to meet JodyJazz’s quality standards.