Ed Svoboda said:
As much as I can't stand his soprano playing the re-popularization of soprano credit goes to Coltrane.
I had heard of Mr. Gorelick before I had heard of Coltrane. I bet a lot of other folks would say the same, too. And I literally didn't know Coltrane played the soprano until my teacher asked me to transcribe "Giant Steps" from the original onion-skins and saw that the SUNY Buffalo music library had other CDs by Coltrane.
Coltrane died in 1967 and
My Favorite Things came out in 1961. Arguably, there were still some jazz "things" going on, even in the late 1960's -- but by the time I took up the sax, in the 1980's, people were treating the soprano as some brand-new instrument. And I don't remember any big "reemergence" of Coltrane music.
Let's look at it another way.
Conn, Buescher, Martin and King (HN White) -- the American big 4 -- all discontinued their soprano models
well before WWII. If you asked them for a soprano, they'd essentially re-engrave a 1920's horn and sell it to you.
A lot of European manufacturers (Couesnon, Kohlert, etc.) also stopped producing sopranos, completely, either right before or right after 1939. Yes, companies like Keilwerth, Buffet and SML would make a soprano for you, but it was kind of a custom make and really didn't track with the other models that a company had available -- plus SML's and Buffet's sax production was so low, that you can argue ALL their horns are custom.
What about Selmer? Remember: there wasn't officially a Selmer Mark VII (which was introduced in the early 1970's) soprano. I also think ... you ... mentioned that there really wasn't too much change in the Mark VI vs. the Modele 22.
The Selmer S80 soprano was released in 1981. I also remember Keilwerths (custom order), Yamahas and Yanagisawas sopranos, too -- and only pro line, no student line. And that's about it. The
flood of CHEAP Chinese/Taiwanese/Vietnamese horns was in the LATE 1980's/1990's.
And Kenny G's first album came out in 1982. "Songbird" was 1986 on his
Duotones release, provided that
Wikipedia isn't lying. And I remember it being played every 5 minutes on the radio. I also remember seeing Kenny G on "The Tonight Show" and playing. I thought the dude sounded pretty decent for not putting the mouthpiece in his mouth right. However, after that, people would ask me what I played. I'd say "sax" and they'd INSTANTLY say, "You play that thing like Kenny G? I like that sound! Can you play 'Songbird'?" (Answer: I don't think you want to hear it on my bari.)
You COULD argue that the reason why Selmer USA, Martin and others in the 1960's started listing the Yanagisawa soprano for sale was because of the success of Coltrane, but your Yani page says those didn't come out until 1968 -- and they didn't overhaul the model until 10 years later.
True, I don't know of any significant soprano players until Coltrane ... but I don't know of that many significant soprano players, period. Sidney Bechet and ... Coltrane? Some other guy that mainly played something else? Hey Google, "Famous Soprano Saxophone Players". You get one entry.
I'm defending Kenny G and now I feel ... syrupy (reason to loathe Kenny G: what he did to Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World"). Darn you, Ed! Darn you to Heck!