50 Fun Facts About Saxophone

Who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s?

He was a Belgian instrument maker, flautist and clarinetist working in Paris.

Although usually made of brass, the saxophone belongs to which family of instruments?

Its sound comes from a vibrating single reed, like a clarinet.

In what year was the saxophone patented?

The 15-year patent covered 14 versions of the design, from the smallest to the largest.

The saxophone's inventor was born in which town in what is now Belgium?

He moved to Paris in 1842 to set up his instrument business.

Sax's patent covered instruments in two series of seven. Which two keys became the dominant series?

The C and F instruments never gained a foothold and were made in tiny numbers.

Which four saxophones are in widest modern use?

The sopranino and bass turn up mainly in large saxophone choirs.

What closes the tone holes of a saxophone when a key is pressed?

The octave key raises the pitch of lower notes by an octave.

What is the lowest written note on most modern saxophones?

Nearly all of the largest common size now have an extra key for a low A.

Which company patented the 1887 bell extension that took the saxophone's range down a semitone?

The upper limit stayed at high F for nearly a century until the high F-sharp key caught on.

Saxophone music for every size of the instrument is written on which staff?

Every saxophone shares the same fingerings, so players can switch sizes easily.

Most saxophone reeds are made from which plant?

Since the mid-20th century some have been made of fibreglass or composites.

A saxophone overblows at the octave. By what interval does a clarinet rise when overblown?

Sax deliberately designed his instrument to avoid the clarinet's awkward register break.

Which two instruments had Sax worked on before creating the saxophone, giving him the necessary skills?

His redesign of the bass clarinet is still used today.

Which brass instrument family also carries Sax's name and laid the groundwork for the euphonium?

Berlioz was so taken with them that he had a piece played entirely on saxhorns in 1844.

What illness did Sax survive between 1853 and 1858?

He died in poverty in Paris in 1894 and is buried at Montmartre.

How did the saxophone's inventor's life end in 1894?

He was buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

Which French military band was using eight saxophones by 1856?

It later played at Boston's World's Peace Jubilee in 1872.

Which American manufacturer began regular saxophone production in the early 1890s after consulting Edward Lefebre?

Its offshoot Buescher followed, making saxophones far more available in the US.

The C melody saxophone was sold in the early 20th century for what reason?

Production stopped during the Great Depression.

Which two men launched the modern era of classical saxophone from the late 1920s?

Mule established saxophone study at the Paris Conservatoire from the 1940s.

Which maker's Balanced Action saxophones of 1936 revolutionised the left-hand key mechanics?

Its 1948 Super Action layout became nearly universal decades later.

Coleman Hawkins made the tenor a jazz solo instrument during his 1923-34 stint with which bandleader?

His 1939 recording of Body and Soul is a landmark.

Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker became the icon of which jazz revolution in the 1940s?

He was nicknamed Bird or Yardbird.

What unusual saxophone did Charlie Parker play at the 1953 Massey Hall concert in Toronto?

The acrylic Grafton was a 1950s budget model also used by Ornette Coleman.

Where was Charlie Parker born in 1920?

His mother bought him his first alto around the time she started night shifts at Western Union.

What is the title of John Coltrane's most acclaimed album, released in 1965?

His music grew increasingly spiritual toward the end of his life.

Coltrane's 1961 album My Favorite Things was his first on which instrument?

He began practising it while still with Miles Davis.

Which saxophonist practised on the Williamsburg Bridge to avoid disturbing a pregnant neighbour?

His 1956 album Saxophone Colossus is in the National Recording Registry.

Coleman Hawkins was known by which nicknames?

Before him, tenor solos were described as mooing and rubbery belches.

Which Duke Ellington Orchestra member brought the lowest-pitched of the four common saxophones to prominence?

Johnny Hodges was the band's influential alto voice.

Which New Orleans player was known in the 1920s for a saxophone that only became common in jazz decades later?

Steve Lacy later renewed attention to the instrument in modern jazz.

Who was the best-known saxophone virtuoso leading into the 'saxophone craze' of the 1920s?

Ragtime, vaudeville and dance bands had introduced Americans to the instrument.

Who played the famous saxophone riff on Gerry Rafferty's 1978 hit Baker Street?

Rafferty wrote the riff himself.

Who played the saxophone part on Wham!'s Careless Whisper?

George Michael composed the part himself.

What Guinness World Record did Kenny G set in 1997?

Using circular breathing he held an E-flat for 45 minutes and 47 seconds.

Which US president played tenor saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show during his 1992 campaign?

Religious conservatives dubbed him the MTV president.

Which member of the saxophone family does Lisa Simpson play?

Her idol is the jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy.

Which saxophonist co-wrote and recorded Yakety Sax, later the closing theme of The Benny Hill Show?

It was released in 1963.

Which two saxophonists played with the Rolling Stones and the E Street Band respectively?

Junior Walker, King Curtis and Maceo Parker shaped soul and funk sax.

The Conn-O-Sax, made only in 1929 and 1930, was intended to imitate which instrument?

Fewer than 100 survive and collectors prize them.

What was the King Saxello of the 1920s?

Rahsaan Roland Kirk called his customised Saxello a manzello.

The soprillo, a piccolo-sized saxophone, is so small that its octave key is built into what?

It is pitched an octave above the B-flat soprano.

The tubax, developed by Benedikt Eppelsheim in 1999, covers the range of which saxophone?

Its narrower bore gives a reedier tone and it can use a smaller, more common mouthpiece.

What is the xaphoon?

Its cylindrical bore and lack of keys make it closer to a clarinet or recorder.

What is the aulochrome, invented by François Louis in 2001?

Louis is a Belgian instrument maker, like Sax himself.

What did Rahsaan Roland Kirk call his straight Buescher alto?

His manzello was a Saxello with a custom large bell.

What material are the buttons where fingers touch the keys traditionally made from?

Plastic is the modern substitute.

Which saxophonists helped define the avant-garde movement of the 1960s alongside John Coltrane?

Sheets of sound and multiphonics were among their hallmarks.

Whose orchestra featured a saxophone on a US concert tour in 1853-54?

The saxophone never became a regular orchestral instrument.

Who established classical saxophone study in the United States, at the University of Michigan?

He did so a decade after Marcel Mule set up saxophone study at the Conservatoire de Paris in the 1940s.