Only One Handmade Saxophone Brand Remains: Rampone & Cazzani

From Italy, the finest example of the art of “handmade,” in the last saxophone manufacturing company on the planet.

The mission of Rampone & Cazzani makes it very clear that they specialize in handmade saxophones, and this is no small thing—it is something that defines 100% the company of Quarna Sotto in Upper Piedmont. Since its beginnings, they have applied their craft and passion to making musical instruments by hand that, in addition to functionality, convey “soul.”

The company’s origins date back to the early 1800s, when Egidio Forni and his uncle Francesco Bonaventura Rampone moved from Quarna Sotto to Milan, where they learned the trade of turning/shaping musical instruments.
After several years working in Milan, uncle and nephew partnered with their employee to continue working together until, in 1847, the latter decided to leave the company to them.

In the following years, the company passed into the hands of the Rampone family—first to Teodoro, then to his son Agostino Rampone, the true artistic and entrepreneurial mind behind the company and its excellent reputation.
Agostino Rampone was a talented flutist in the Scala di Milano Orchestra; highly technical and innovative, he earned the company numerous awards in Milan, Vienna, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Harvard, New York, and more. It is suspected that during this period, on one of his many trips, Agostino met Adolphe Sax, making it likely that the first Italian saxophones were manufactured in Quarna by Agostino Rampone around 1875.

As for manufacturing methods, in the mid-19th century, Forni and Rampone moved part of the production back to their birthplace, Quarna Sotto. There, they set up small woodworking shops in the homes of friends and relatives located near small streams that powered the machinery. Initially, that machinery consisted mainly of simple lathes, hand saws, and foot-operated drills, which allowed them to work with the natural woods found in the area: pear, cherry, laburnum, and boxwood.
Some of the knowledge from those years is still present today in the way these manual methods have been transferred to modern instruments at Rampone & Cazzani.

In 1910, the marriage of Egidio Rampone to Giuseppina Cazzani, daughter of Giovanbattista Cazzani—a Milanese watchmaker who also made and repaired brass instruments—gave birth to the firm Rampone & Cazzani, known under the name “Ditte Riunite A. Rampone & G.B. Cazzani.” Under this name, the company reached its peak in the early 20th century.

By mid-century, a drop in sales led to near bankruptcy in 1957, when the company was acquired by Fernando Saltamerenda.
Today, Rampone & Cazzani has resurged under the stewardship of the Zolla family, descendants of the Rampone family, who maintain what is likely the last factory in the world making 100% handcrafted saxophones.

Their vocation for well-made work—handcrafted saxophones with soul—has once again become the center of the brand, as can be seen in models such as the Two Voices.
The name of the Two Voices models, launched five years ago, comes from a painting by an artist born in Quarna. According to Claudio Zolla, this name “describes the unique combination of metals,” and that combination, along with the instrument’s geometry, makes it one of the saxophones with the most original sound being made today.

A collection of historic saxophones from Rampone & Cazzani can be found at their headquarters in Quarna.