Anyone played a C melody sax

[burning dog]

Is Bruce still around? Tenor player?

Pretty sure BN is an alto player. (Jackie Mclean!)

I've never played one, only alto - and tenor once or twice

[Serial_Apologist]

Is Bruce still around? Tenor player?

Pretty sure BN is an alto player. (Jackie Mclean!)

I've never played one, only alto - and tenor once or twice

Paul Dunmall occasionally brings one out: its the one midway in size between the tenor and alto, with the first part of the plumbing from the mouthpiece projecting straight out, like the alto, without first curving upwards, as does the tenor. It's often said the C melody has a sweeter tone than the tenor, which if so might explain why it had its peak of popularity in 1930s dance bands.

[burning dog]

Paul Dunmall occasionally brings one out: its the one midway in size between the tenor and alto, with the first part of the plumbing from the mouthpiece projecting straight out, like the alto, without first curving upwards, as does the tenor. It's often said the C melody has a sweeter tone than the tenor, which if so might explain why it had its peak of popularity in 1930s dance bands.

I've heard frankie trumbauer play it with Bix , Wondered if was naturally that sweet or that Frankie T managed to get a special tone, like Hodges did on the alto. Braxton plays it as well

[Ian Thumwood]

I've heard frankie trumbauer play it with Bix , Wondered if was naturally that sweet or that Frankie T managed to get a special tone, like Hodges did on the alto. Braxton plays it as well

Wicki information :-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_melody_saxophone

I am not aware of anyone other than Trumbauer playing this instrument but was not surprised to see the Scott Robinson is a modern player given his vast collection of unusual wind instruments. Trumbauer is a musician who has always intrigued me because he seemed so dominant for a matter of years before he retreated to Paul Whiteman's orchestra well after it's heyday and then got involved in aviation after leaving music. The bandleader Roger Wolfe Kahn similarly quit music to pursue a career with aircraft. Trumbauer always seems weird to my ears. He was "cool" before Lester Young but not really modern enough to have the kind of influence of someone like Coleman Hawkins. A bit like players such as Eddie Lang and Adrian Rollini, he offered an alternative to much of the black jazz of the time yet it seemed that he was overtaken by the developments in the music. I sometimes think if I was a "new jazz" fan in the 1920s whether these musicians would seem to be the individuals who might shape the future of jazz or whether I could have second guessed the way jazz would develop after 1930. I like this jazz as it is an alternative to what Armstrong and other more famous names were doing but I think it was his style of phrasing which did for him as opposed for the obsolescence of his instrument. The is a massive gulf between his sense of swing and someone like Benny Goodman. By the time he died in 1955, he has been out of music for 15 years. Ninety -odd years later, Trumbauer just seems "quaint" in a way that is not too dissimilar to Paul Desmond's playing thirty or so years later.

[burning dog]

I think this proves it doesn't just lend itself to "sweet" playing

Similar to alto and tenor as I should have guessed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb8nZQ2z8p0

[Tenor Freak]

Is Bruce still around? Tenor player?

Pretty sure BN is an alto player. (Jackie Mclean!)

I've never played one, only alto - and tenor once or twice

Yes I am! Right here, in fact.

The C melody saxophone is a bit of a curiosity nowadays. It was sold in large numbers during the 1920s saxophone boom in the US, to allow home musicians to play concert-pitch written music. They keep turning up on Ebay, sometimes as mislabled tenors. Depending on the manufacturer, they could have either straight crooks (like alto) or curved (like tenor). Buescher, for example, used curved crooks. Conn seems to have made both types!

Some modern players have used them because they were very cheap, as nobody writes music for them any more. Apart from Braxton, Hal Russell and Jan Garbarek spring to mind. Garbarek has used one in some of his publicity shots. For example:



You can tell it's not a tenor because the size of the crook is out of proportion to the body, and the bell is very high up on teh body; it's level with the left hand keys. On a tenor the bell is lower down.

Incidentally Jan is holding an old Buescher True Tone C-Melody saxophone made in the 1920s.

[burning dog]

Yes I am! Right here, in fact.

The C melody saxophone is a bit of a curiosity nowadays. It was sold in large numbers during the 1920s saxophone boom in the US, to allow home musicians to play concert-pitch written music. They keep turning up on Ebay, sometimes as mislabled tenors. Depending on the manufacturer, they could have either straight crooks (like alto) or curved (like tenor). Buescher, for example, used curved crooks. Conn seems to have made both types!

Some modern players have used them because they were very cheap, as nobody writes music for them any more. Apart from Braxton, Hal Russell and Jan Garbarek spring to mind. Garbarek has used one in some of his publicity shots. For example:



You can tell it's not a tenor because the size of the crook is out of proportion to the body, and the bell is very high up on teh body; it's level with the left hand keys. On a tenor the bell is lower down.

Incidentally Jan is holding an old Buescher True Tone C-Melody saxophone made in the 1920s.

Thanks TF. I have been offered one, the guys restored it up to a point (my old sax/clarinet teacher) it's associated with sweet playing but I'm guessing that's mostly because of Trumbauer. He ( teacher not Trumb!) never gets any call for it, as you say no music written,but ok for basic "blues with horns" band possibly.

PS. it's one with the alto crook