Sidney Bechet, one of the early jazz greats, made his name on the clarinet, not the cornet or trumpet.

Listen to This First 1920s Recording By One of the Kings of Jazz

Sidney Bechet was one of the first big jazz soloists, and brought the soprano saxophone into the jazz fold

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

Frescoes inside the Brömserhof, the building where Siegfried's Mechanical Musical Instrument Museum is housed.

Europe

This Medieval Knight’s Manor Houses Over 350 Mechanical Musical Instruments

From tiny music boxes to the bus-sized Orchestrion, Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Cabinet in Germany’s Rhineland is the perfect musical detour

Interior of Historic RCA Studio B today.

Play Paul Simon’s Piano or Croon Into Elvis’ Mic at These Seven Historic Recording Studios

Take a tour through Americana music history

This Strad's wood is different from modern-day maple.

New Research

Mineral Baths May Have Given Stradivari Their Signature Sound

Turns out the famous violins really are different from modern instruments

Al Capone's criminal record in 1932. Despite a litany of charges, he ended up being nabbed for tax evasion.

Cool Finds

This Letter Tells What Al Capone Was Up to in Alcatraz

Two words: prison band

New Research

Playing the Bagpipes Can Literally Kill You

Known as “Bagpipe Lung,” the reaction can wreak havoc on your respiratory system

Cool Finds

Photographer Captures the Enduring Grandeur of the Steinway Piano Factory

Christopher Payne’s new book strikes a chord

Louis Armstrong's historic trumpet was a "great playing" instrument, says Wynton Marsalis, after his performance last Fall at the Smithsonian.

Breaking Ground

To Really Appreciate Louis Armstrong’s Trumpet, You Gotta Play it. Just Ask Wynton Marsalis

It’s not always the white-glove treatment; some artifacts live on through performance

Johnny Gandelsman (violin), Colin Jacobsen (violin), and Nicholas Cords (viola) performing with fellow Silk Road Ensemble musicians

Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble Celebrates Our Differences Through Song

“Sing Me Home” is a multicultural feast for the ears

Cool Finds

Today’s Google Doodle Celebrates Electronic Music Pioneer Clara Rockmore

The theremin virtuosa would have been 105 years old today

Cool Finds

This Machine Makes Music With Marbles

The absurd-looking device is a marble-powered, one-man band

A trumpet recovered from the USS Houston undergoes treatment at the Naval History and Heritage Command's Underwater Archaeology Branch laboratory on the Washington Navy Yard, Dec. 31, 2013.

Cool Finds

A Trumpet Retrieved From a World War II Shipwreck Could Still Hold Its Owner’s DNA

Conservators are trying to identify the sailor who once played it

Cool Finds

How a Piano Dropped from a Helicopter Paved the Way For Woodstock

The Piano Drop set the stage for the outdoor rock festival

Chuck Brown (1936-2012), the Godfather of Go-Go, owned this six-string Gibson guitar, now in the collections of the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum.

Chuck Brown’s Guitar Drove the Musician’s Persuasive “Wind Me Up” Rhythm

The Godfather of Go-Go’s family recall how the musician crafted the innovative sound that would define a local tradition

Eddie Van Halen, 1985

The Electric Guitar’s Long (And Louder), Strange Trip

From its gentle 16th-century acoustic origins to the souped-up ‘Frankenstein,’ a Smithsonian scholar strums the historic chords of the guitar

Artist Yoshi Sodeoka envisions musical instruments carried in satellites orbiting the Earth that would be able to “neutralize nations at war."

How Will We Make Music in 200 Years?

A group of innovators were asked to imagine what music will be like in 2214. If they’re right, it could be pretty bizarre

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