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The 10 Most Important Saxophones and their Players

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
https://reverb.com/news/10-most-important-saxophone-models-and-their-players

First, I don't particularly care about players. Sorry; I like Desmond and Lenny Pickett. That's about it. However, I do have one thing to specifically say about that article: it sucks. So, in no particular order, here are my picks. These are also mostly off the top of my head:

* Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the horn. I don't see how you could write an article about "important saxophones" and not include the inventor.
* Buffet-Crampon. One of the first, if not the first, Sax licensees. Additionally, Pierre Goumas Buffet-Crampon's "president," received a bunch of patents from 1875 to 1887 to improve the saxophone keywork. That eventually ended up (along with a couple other improvements) as the Buffet Apogee model.
* Lecomte. Inventor of the automatic octave key.
* CG Conn ... sort-of. August Buescher built the first saxophone in the US.
* CG Conn and Buescher, again. This is for popularizing the saxophone in the US under the New Wonder and True Tone model names, respectively.
* Conn and Buescher, a third time. While they're probably not the first companies to make stencils, they sure made a lot of them.
* Oscar Adler. The first German saxophone maker. Max Keilwerth apprenticed here.
* Julius Keilwerth. One of the extremely few Germanic companies to make it out of WWII without being amalgamated into Amati. I also list them because they made a bazillion stencils.
* Bundy, especially the Bundy II. Everyone's heard of Bundy. Selmer USA produced a bazillion of them. They're not going to impress you with tone or ergonomics, but they do impress with ruggedness and an inexpensive price.
* Yamaha 23 model. If you want to dethrone Bundy as the de-facto student instrument, you have to make a better horn and sell it cheap. The 21 model was probably the first alarm bell to Selmer USA. The 23 was a 5-alarm fire.

That's a list of 10, depending on whether you count duplicates or not. Some other horns that should be on the list:
* Selmer Balanced Action. The Mark VI's great grandfather. You could argue that the SBA was the first horn in the "Mark VI Style" and the VI is just an evolutionary improvement over that design.
* Grafton Acrylic Alto. First plastic saxophone -- and the plastic saxophone idea has never gone away.
* Yamaha 61 model. The first pro model out of Japan that could compete on even footing with all the other pro horns.

There could be a special award inclusion for the first saxophone designed with a computer. I think that was one of the Selmer S80 models. I'd also want to include the first Taiwanese saxophone selling worldwide. I don't know who could be considered the first. LA Sax? I understand the folks in the Reverb.com article choosing P. Mauriat just because they don't know which Taiwanese horn came first.

You'll note that I didn't include the Super 20 and/or Silver-Sonic. While I know a lot of folks love them and they can command Selmer Mark VI-level prices, that horn doesn't strike me as that big of a deal. Yes, the Silver-Sonic had a sterling bell and were the first mass-market horn that did. Does that mean I should include the first copper horn? Bronze? I could probably name at least 10 other horns just with that.

I also would love to include Jim Schmidt and Benedikt Eppelsheim in my list because I do think their horns deserve recognition. Unfortunately, I don't think their work is going to make it into mainstream sax manufacturing anytime soon.
 
Thx. I kinda just threw it together.

I could go into extreme depth on each of those points and add a whole bunch more. I didn't even mention folks like Allen Loomis. I could also make a strong case for Couesnon et Cie., in all its incarnations, even though it was an A. Sax rival. They definitely pushed the design of the saxophone by trying to outdo everyone else. There are just so many other good points and Reverb took maybe one of them.

I don't know if I can or should mention Peter Jessen, Benedikt Eppelsheim, Inderbinen, J'Elle Stainer, Jim Schmidt, or any of the other "boutique" manufacturers (no offense to any of them) because, while they may have come up with new saxophones or sax-like instruments, reinvented the fingering chart, or are just all-around great folks, I don't see other folks picking up those designs and running with them -- obviously patents are a part of it, too. Hey, I can get behind saying that the automatic octave key revolutionized the saxophone. Inventing a G mezzo-soprano might not be in that league.

I also didn't mention the first Chinese sax, too. That's the start of a revolution. How about the first mass-production bari with a low a, the Selmer Super (Balanced) Action? Front F? Rollers? There's an awful lot of stuff!
 
I didn't think the article was necessarily that bad. I disagreed with a number of the author's choices, but if I were to pick only 10, I suspect lots of people would disagree with my choices too. It all depends upon one's frame of reference.

I think that's the problem when you try and lump modern and vintage as well as antique brands/models together and pick only 10.

Furthermore, under the category of modern, you have a lot of conflicting issues as well: I would make the argument that Benedikt Eppelsheim's revolutionary reworking of the bass is more important than a P. Mauriat, but then that's my bias, isn't it?

And really, that's what this whole thing comes down to: bias and frame of reference.

No 10 sax players are going to agree on anything of a subjective nature anyway. To paraphrase an old joke: How many sax players does it take to change a light bulb? One. But hundreds will stand around talking about how Sanborn would have changed it. :p
 
Well, the idea is to generate discussion ...

My opinion on Eppelsheim's horns definitely isn't that they're bad -- I, myself, have never played any of his instruments and I've never read anything negative about any of them -- but I don't know if they're even going to be discussed in 63 years, like the Mark VI is.

It really is a topic I'd like to both research and discuss further, but where to find the time ...
 
Well, the idea is to generate discussion ...

My opinion on Eppelsheim's horns definitely isn't that they're bad -- I, myself, have never played any of his instruments and I've never read anything negative about any of them -- but I don't know if they're even going to be discussed in 63 years, like the Mark VI is.

It really is a topic I'd like to both research and discuss further, but where to find the time ...
I've played one! I played a contrabass clarinet of his at Clarinetfest.
While it was with someone else's mouthpiece, it still was a very nice instrument. Ergonomics felt kinda wierd to me though.
(I don't want to know how much that contra cost even...)
 
I'm sure you could buy one for the price of an upscale new car. Servicing expenses might be a little less for the contra, but the car is more comfortable to sit in.
 
Weather Benedikt's horns will be discussed in 50+ years will in part depend on whether or not he has a succession plan.

I do believe his horns are revolutionary enough to warrant the kind of attention lavished on say the F-mezzo soprano and the Conn-O-Sax. Those instruments were revolutionary for their time, but of course due to their unfortunate timing, never rose to their full potential. Because they were branded Conn however, the name gave them staying power.

If Benedikt has put in place a solid succession plan that keeps the company going; new and innovative ideas coming; and maintains the high quality, hand-craftsmanship that his instruments are known for, then I see no reason why Benedikt Eppelsheim instruments wouldn't be discussed in 50+ years.

While true, Benedikt's instruments are tools to do a job, they are also so much more. Each is a piece of art in the shape of musical instrument.
 
Benedikt Eppelsheim's most profound effect on the history of musical instruments may not be an instrument he makes, or even a saxophone.
The contraforte, designed by Eppelsheim and produced by Guntram Wolfe, may become the replacement for the contrabassoon in modern symphony orchestras. Several top contra players in top orchestras have made the switch and their conductors support this decision.
As for saxophones, Eppelsheim's Eb contrabass is the obvious #1 contra. Nothing else comes close, and the Tubax provides the best contrabass woodwind for those who need to play in that register without previous experience. Time will tell.
 
Yeah, I'm going to have to go more towards Pete's list. Half the he Reverb author's is filled out with much of the best of what's recent, the rest of it is simply grabbing the most desirable of the popular vintage brands.

He was trying to mix in artists to match the horns, but though he did hit on a lot of the important ones there are a few very notable players left out. Where is Wiedoeft and Mule and the horns they played?

It's like he formulated this all from his personal playlist or something, though I really don't want to criticize. This was a good read and I enjoyed it.
 
Thank you Randy. Well said. I am obviously sax-biased. ;)
 
Eppelsheim's got a lot of great horns. Improved contrabass clarinet. Reed contrabass. Other custom horns.

I do believe his horns are revolutionary enough to warrant the kind of attention lavished on say the F-mezzo soprano and the Conn-O-Sax. Those instruments were revolutionary for their time, but of course due to their unfortunate timing, never rose to their full potential. Because they were branded Conn however, the name gave them staying power.
I do get your points.

IMO, the only reason we talk about either of the Conn F horns at all is because they're now rare and are worth quite a bit. As you'd tell me, Helen, there were a lot of manufacturers out in Germany/Czech that were making F instruments around the same time as Conn -- or decided to copy Conn at that time. Adolphe Sax also made at least two F altos. I'd think that, say, an Adler F alto would be worth more than the Conn because it's more rare. Hey, I've seen dozens of Conn F mezzos over the years and one Sax F alto. F horns from other companies, other than that Asian one a few years ago? I think I've seen one.

If you want to go with "Top 10 most important" designs I think you could argue that about the Conn-O-Sax, but not with the keyed range: I don't think that Sax had any horns keyed from low A altissimo G, but I know Couesnon did. The globular bell was interesting, but that wasn't ever used on another saxophone and it was copied from the Heckelphone.

I guess, to me, if you want to be on a list of the "Top 10 most important," you need to have staying power and your innovation has to trickle down to horns from other companies, not just an interesting design. I'm also not sure that the Conn-O-Sax would make it on the list of "Top 10 most interesting designs." I think I would put Eppelsheim and Schmidt on that list.
 
I have one on my website. I've never come across another. That's a great find, Chris. I'm also a sucker for take-aparts and reassembly.
 
It kind of reminds me of a low C bass clarinet, only more complicated. Lot's of thumb keys on both hands. It must take a while to remember which ones to press. Five different ways to play C - that's a bit nuts.
 
I am very, very positive that some of the rarest, most interesting horns are ones I haven't even seen yet. That's something that makes the hobby of collecting pics quite worthwhile!
 
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