Bass, Sopranino, C-Melody....

[Cameron Wigmore]

While it would be fun to have any of these horns, I myself try to stick to one sax. That way I actually get better at blowing on that horn. I've played many horns and "misc" instruments for months at a time but I always come back to MY MAIN SAX. It's like the old saying, "jack of all trades, master of nothing..."

Having said that, I should also say that I think these are cool horns and although a bit unpracticall in a jazz setting, can be fun to play.

[paulwl]

Bass and C melody impractical in jazz? I guess that explains the great progress in jazz after 1930, when both of them disappeared. The wrong saxophones were holding jazz back!

[Dave Dolson]

Let's see . . . Adrian Rollini, Joe Rushton, Frankie Trumbauer, Stomp Evans . . . impractical in jazz . . . DAVE

[Cameron Wigmore]

I suppose the word I was looking for was "uncommon".

[max]

All the same, I'd trade my bari for a bass in a heartbeat!

(of course, I've never met anyone willing to trade a bass for a bari...)

[Roger Aldridge]

Happily, these horns are taking their rightful place back among jazz players as more people are rediscovering them. I'll add a few modern c-melody players to Dave's list: Joe Lovano, Dave Pietro, Anthony Braxton, Scott Robinson....

It's helpful to remember how very few jazz people were playing the soprano sax in the middle 50's. It certainly made a huge comeback!

[Dave Dolson]

Roger: You are right about soprano in the mid-'50's, but I saw George Probert and Joe Darensbourg both play soprano at a concert in 1956 and that's what did it for me. That same year, I owned and was learning on a Conn C-soprano. DAVE