Mark VI - Colored Lacquers

pete

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
So, over the years, I've collected pics of factory black lacquered tenors (I've seen two), a soprano and sopranino. I was pretty sure that I had seen a Selmer flyer, too, that said that the VI was available in white, "rose" and blue lacquers.

Found the blue one, today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewoodwindworkshop/4350647853/

I also theorized that this option was only offered for a brief time. The serial numbers I've got are:

Black Soprano: 1978xx
Black Sopranino: 1971xx
Black Tenor: 18542x (only have pics of one)
Blue Tenor: 178654

That's a range of appx. 1970 to appx. 1972. With how badly the Selmer serial number chart is screwed up, though, it could even be just one year.

I've heard rumors of white low A altos. Paul Coats has mentioned hearing of a red tenor in 1973, which could easily fit into my s/n ranges.

Anyone else hear of or seen any?
 
Color Lacquered Mark VI

There were a couple of photos posted several years ago on SOTW of a guy playing what appeared to be a pink Mark VI Tenor...I guess this is the 'rose' color that you have referred to. I copied the photos at the time that they were posted, but there was no identification in terms of the SN of the horn.

Do you have a copies of the pink Makr VI photos ?

If not I'll see if I still have them.
 
Oh. One of those things of, "If you know the right search terms, you can find anything. Here's a pic of the pink Mark VI. 1970 horn. It's ... 40 miles away from me, at the Musical Instruments Museum. The latter part makes me think that we now have confirmed authenticity of the finish.

tharruff, if you can find more pics, I'd still be interested!
 
Gotta love that embouchure :).

Thanks very much for the pics!

==========

I did some further research on the one color I hadn't posted about: white (which is now a rather common finish). In searching, I've seen a couple of pics of Ornette Coleman holding a low A alto -- note that he's also played Graftons. The horn looks like a Selmer design, but I can't see a bell-to-cody brace. The C/Eb look small, though, so if it's a Selmer, it's a Mark VI..

images
 
Ornette's owned that horn for years, since the early 60's...Selmer did an overhaul and applied the white lacquer while Ornette was in Paris maybe 20 years ago. It's a mk6. He told me that the Graftons were great players, but fell apart quickly, he went through a bunch. So he picked up the Selmer low A.

Back in the early '70s I toured with Patty LaBelle and the other alto player had a black mk6 he had bought new in Paris a few years earlier. Also, KIng Curtis had a killer looking electric blue with gold plate keys mk6 tenor right before he died.....I think Selmer layed it on him while he was in Paris.

So Paris might have been coloring the 6's back in the day, not so much Elkhart.
 
Thanks for the info!

I looked harder and finally found a non-black and white pic of Coleman with another low A horn. It's probably the same horn, pre-white-lacquer.

Ornette+Coleman+_.png


Personally, out of all the colored lacquers I've seen available on the VI, I think white is the nicest looking. I'd get the horn plated, tho :).
 
Yeah, I think that the picture above shows Ornette's white Selmer with it's original finish.

I've visited Ornette, who is a very gracious and charming host, and talked horns a little bit with him. He mentioned that Selmer insisted on overhauling his old horn while he was at the Paris offices picking up a new alto. He asked if they could do the white finish with the overhaul on his old horn, and they did. So I'm assuming that this is the horn he was speaking about.

Speaking of picking up free saxophones in Paris, I remember working a month in Paris at the Meridian Hotel with the Illinois Jacquet big band. Patrick Selmer came to the job one night, met all the saxophone players, who were all playing Selmer horns, and offered Jacquet a comp horn. I was standing there easedropping when Jacquet and Selmer made the appiontment for IJ to show and pick out the new horn.

Well, on the appointed morning, I just happened (ahem) to be in the hotel lobby as Jacquet was leaving, and I bummed a ride to Selmer with him. After we arrived and went through the short meeting and tour with Patrick and his head tech, Sabastian, we were escorted to a room where 5 or 6 tenors were lined up for IJ to choose from. It took about an hour for IJ to evaluate the horns, and to pick a favorite. Once this was done, Sabastian spirited the horn away, and Patrick told IJ that it would take a few days for the horn to be "prepared for delivery," and when it was ready, they would bring it to IJ.

The horn showed up a few days later, hand delivered to the gig by Patrick, and presented on stage during the first set. Sabastian had taken the horn, stripped the stock lacquer and triple gold plated it, and had ILLINOIS JACQUET engraved in capital letters in the bell flare. Man, that horn was pretty! Had a nice fat sound with a good ring to it.

I don't have computer chops, but if you go to youtube and Illinois Jacquet, Texas Tenor, there is a short black and white clip of the opening credits of Arthur Elgar's IJ documentary of that name, and IJ is playing this same horn. It's one of my favorite youtubes......Jacquet is getting a very gorgeous tone.

Sorry to be off topic, but I love this story.....

Julian
 
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