He’s virtually unknown today, but back in the day he was
quite well known as a saxophone virtuoso. He also used to play a C melody
saxophone, which I would love to own today (no more transposing!) but sadly
isn’t that popular anymore. Supposedly there were two families of saxophone, the
C and F for orchestras and the E-flat and B-flat for bands. Now there’s only
the E-flat and B-flat, but they have expanded to soprano, alto, tenor, bari,
bass, you name it.
His style is characterized by legato sections and more jazzy
articulated notes. His sound reminds me a lot of “An American in Paris” and
other Gershwin tunes. I like it, it’s old-fashioned jazz sounding. He also used
effects like slap tonguing and laughing or bending notes quite frequently. It’s
interesting that he’s so early that he is actually considered a “pre-jazz”
musician.
Of course, he had marriage issues and even nearly died when
his wife stabbed him in 1937. They somehow made up after that (I have no idea
why he would want to). Eventually he died in 1940 from cirrhosis in his liver.
(Which I’m guessing is from all that booze but I’m not too interested in that,
I’d rather care about his music.)
He has had quite the lasting impression on the American
public. He turned a new instrument into a craze both in America and in Europe,
and as a result it’s basically cemented into our culture and our history. It’s
too bad that not that many people know about the impact he had and the
difference that he made to saxophonists everywhere.
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