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WF New People Introductions

Well, one thing that I'm insanely happy about is that now there's someone else here that can tell me more about Sarrusophones ....

GK, it's like the dam burst this month. I had three people asking to buy your 16V and four others with different horns.

Did you record any Sarrusophone stuff while you had yours that you can post?
 
No, I never recorded with my sarrusophone while I had it. The horn had an interesting story:

I found a rare Conn single reed sarrusophone mouthpiece, and I was curious to try it on a Conn sarrusophone, so I started looking for one. I though it would be a long time before I found a playable Conn Eb contrabass sarrusophone, but by sheer luck, I came across one in only a week or two.

So I satisfied my curiosity, but I never was crazy about the sound of the instrument. When I got my Tubax, there was really no reson to keep the sarrusophone, so that's why I sold it. Whenever I played the sarrusophone, it was more for an "amaze your friends" situation than anything else.

When I sold it, I got twice what I paid for the sarrusophone, so I never regretted buying it. It helped pay for the Tubax.
 
How would you describe the sound of sarrusophone?

I've never heard one played myself let along come across one.
 
Thanks for the clip.

It sounds a bit like a cross between a Bassoon and a Contra Bass Sax to my ears. Granted it's an old recording.
 
Yah. I just happened to know of that clip off the top of my head. I'll Google more, later ... unless Mr. GK's got a couple sound clips of him playing.
 
Good looking site. Thanks, Ed, for directing me to it.

Age 67, played since I was 16 (1956) starting on C-soprano. Play exclusively 1920's jazz, although while in the Army in Germany (1959-61) played soprano in a rock-a-billy band.

Retired law enforcement. Now play soprano, alto, and clarinet with Golden Eagle Jazz Band in southern California (Steamers Cafe in Fullerton two Sundays each month) + casuals.

I'm glad that Pete named the Bechet recording with Clarence Williams' Blue Five for a sarrusophone example. He plays it the whole tune - the soprano on that recording was Buster Bailey.

Good luck with this.

DAVE
 
Dave,

Great to see you here. Sorry I didn't mention it earlier.


Ed
 
Dave Dolson said:
Good looking site. Thanks, Ed, for directing me to it.

Age 67, played since I was 16 (1956) starting on C-soprano. Play exclusively 1920's jazz, although while in the Army in Germany (1959-61) played soprano in a rock-a-billy band.

Retired law enforcement. Now play soprano, alto, and clarinet with Golden Eagle Jazz Band in southern California (Steamers Cafe in Fullerton two Sundays each month) + casuals.

I'm glad that Pete named the Bechet recording with Clarence Williams' Blue Five for a sarrusophone example. He plays it the whole tune - the soprano on that recording was Buster Bailey.

Good luck with this.

DAVE
Hey, Dave!

And the gentleman playing trumpet in that clip is Louis Armstrong. I haven't read that full article I linked to, but I got that far.

From that same website, there are dozens more recordings (in RealAudio format) from the Clarence Willams' Blue Five, along with biographies and pictures, linked at http://www.redhotjazz.com/williamsb5.html. It's really quite a kewl website.

I had that clip kinda-sorta bookmarked. If I ever get time, I've got more Eb contra Sarrusophone stuff I can post.
 
Pete: Yes, Armstrong, but I think it was cornet, not that it matters all that much, except to purists. Armstrong's work with the BLUE FIVE followed his time with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. Before Armstrong joined the BLUE FIVE, the band was good. When Louis joined up, it was dynamite . . . a marvelous improvement over and already good recording group.

In listening to Bechet without Armstrong, then after Armstrong came on board, one gets the impression that Bechet may have met is match - at least his equal in a young Louis Armstrong.

The vocal on MANDY, MAKE UP YOUR MIND was by Clarence Williams' wife, Eva Taylor, who was a wonderful vocalist and could sing styles other than blues (not that MANDY, MAKE UP YOUR MIND is a blues).

There's a riff Armstrong and the band plays in the out-chorus that is repeated in Disney's animated movie, JUNGLE BOOK. Not surprising when you realize that JUNGLE BOOK's music was done by George Bruns, who played trombone and tuba in many trad bands in the 1940's and '50's, including Turk Murphy's San Fransico Jazz Band and the Firehouse Five plus Two.

Another recording from the Blue Five, CAKEWALKING BABIES FROM HOME features some of the hottest breaks and choruses from Bechet and Armstrong recorded by anyone in that era - one of my all-time favorite recordings. They did another version within a two-week period where the band was called the RED ONION JAZZ BABIES, but the ROJB version wasn't as hot as the BLUE FIVE's version.

Speaking of http://www.redhotjazz.com, I have spent a lot of time on it, but there is another version from that site that lists all the recordings by song-title, alphabetically, and saves the surfer a lot of time by not having to plow through the text (but the text is interesting if one wants to learn more about the music and its players). http://www.mainely-jazz.com/rhsongs/song_title.html DAVE
 
Hi there,

I'm Brent, an alto sax player (hopefully will broaden that "alto" bit down the road) from TN. I linked over here from SOTW and recognize quite a few names/faces/avatars. I lurked here for a few days then saw a post (which I'm about to reply to) which voiced a thought of mine I've had concerning horns (which I'm also about to post about) and knew this has the makings of an excellent forum. I was also an early adopter of a headphone off-shoot forum which has become head and shoulders better/different than the beast from which it came. (I'm a gear head, if you haven't noticed).

I started playing piano at age 7, sax at ages 11-20 then took a break til I was 25. I started playing in a community band in the Chattanooga, TN area and the passion and love of the horn came back in a flood of emotion/desire/drive. I've since started back taking lessons with a teacher who's first name is "Doctor" (degrees from Univ of Miami for BM and Univ of Arizona for MM, DM). I just put my horn, a 1945 Conn 6M-VIII in silverplate (96%+) in the shop for a mini-overhaul, and look to get it back this week.

I try to get in an hour or two of practice at least 5 days a week, but sometimes tough with two kids who may or may not decide to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. I also spend WAY too much time on forums (like this one), but I dig that whole "absorbing knowledge" thing... time will tell if I've wasted this much of my life...

So, that's a sliver of my life for you guys/gals to take note of (musical puns are great, no?) I look forward to being part of this community, and staying up even later at night waiting for those new posts to come!

**BRENT**
 
Now THAT'S a name from the past. Saxtroll.

Drop me a PM. We'll chat. Enjoy the Forum. Kick back. It's too bad that we don't have virtual chips and beverages. Well, other than the cookie in your browser.
 
saxtroll said:
yeah, that was fun. I thought of it as "Standards Studies." Where else would you get a chance to hear Caravan played by a trio of mandolins?
Did you ever compile any comments from those studies? I just used them to try to steal vocabulary for my tenor sax stylings. And not too successfully if truth be known.
 
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