CHRONOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Fred was an amateur saxophonist, working hard in his family business.
He was working in his father's compagny, as a metal worker tool maker.
He was really found of jazz music, and begun to play quite well. The day he
decided to buy a new mouthpiece, he realized that it was quite expensive, and
probably a bit too much for him. He was 27 years old.
He decided to make his mouthpiece
himself, in his father workshop, and taht mouthpiece became the first Lebayle
mouthpiece. Fred was looking for the same
mouthpiece as Charle Parker, so he made a metal mouthpiece, white hand painted.
That is beginning of the story of Lebayle mouthpieces brand.
For five years , fred worked on
the way to make his mouthpieces sound better, and finally decided to market
the first mouthpiece range, that was composed
of tree different models: Soprano, Alto, Tenor ... Studio for all of them.
At that time, Fred worked on the mouthpieces, after his own job, and on the
week-ends.
Little by little, Fred made himself conscious , that fusion
jazz was coming down, everybody was
looking for an old Otto link, and other mouthpieces of that kind. Jazzmen wanted
an older sound, and the studio chamber didn't fit very well with that wishes.
that's why he begun to make the jazz chamber.
Fred decided to make mouthpieces
and accessories, as his main activity.
The first catalog contained 2 straps/ 2 harness/3 mouthpieces already.
The jazz chamber was coming out at that time, but Fred still marketed the
studio chamber.
The mouthpieces were still under his father's company brand name.
The first wooden mouthpieces comes out at that time, and Fred decided to
develop it quite fast, because of the lack of that kind of products that
musicians were suffering from.
He put the wooden mouthpieces on the huge mouthpieces market, in order to
make something different, that could offer to the musicians new sounds and
smoother colors.
Looking at the evolution of music
styles, Fred decided to stop the studio chamber making, and worked almost
on the new jazz chamber, that was launched on
the market with the hard
rubber models that hasn't been before.
This is during the 1996 year that the activity begun to grow little by little.
Between 1996 and 2003, the production increased slowly, the studio chamber came
back, with her sister, the LR chamber.
This is most important year in the
company evolution, some great saxophonists, like Branford Marsalis or Wayne
Shorter, begun to play on the mouthpieces, and the production increased faster.
The company begun to make mainly metal mouthpieces, due to the image that
Branford and Wayne communicate to their public about the products.
The metal was around 70% of the merchandise coming out from the workshop
Fred worked on the mouthpieces alone
with his father, but the increasing production( 2000 mouthpieces in 2003
and 5000 in 2006) obliged Fred to look for somebody else to help him.
The mouthpieces were at that time well known in Europe, and begun to go across
the Atlantic ocean.
Nico comes to Fred to have a look
at that quite uncommon job. He was at that time a repairman in his father's
music shop, and decided to be the one that would help Fred.
He left his job, and is now working at Fred's workshop, and go on his classical
music studies.
A new chamber is born in New york, January 2007, the new metal LR2 is lauched on the market, and offer to the Lebayle mouthpieces range model, made with a new metal alloy, white gold plated, and high quality hand finish.
Fred Lebayle worked hard during twenty years, and it gace him e 30 models catalog, and a brand name that begin to be internationally known.