SOTW new member introductions ~ July 2018-

I’m Maurice. Started playing tenor saxophone in 7th grade and was a music major in college, played in rock, jazz and community bands after college but then life got in the way and my horn got stolen. Fast forward to 2018, I’m 46 now and established in my career so this year I bought a soprano and a tenor.

I’ve rediscovered the joy of making music and my chops have come back quickly.

Current horns are:
Kessler Custom Soprano
TK Melody ipanema tenor

Thanks for the join looking forward to learning and meeting some of y’all.

Moe (madnesstenor)

Hey everyone! I played a Signet tenor sax in jr. high and high school, and then my friend sat in her case for 38 years until I saw a band playing one Saturday afternoon in St. Louis. After talking to the sax player and discovering that there was a local place to give my old friend some TLC, I took her in there and am awaiting her resurrection in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to connecting with sax players of all skill levels from all over the world. My goal is to hook up with a band and play local gigs. I'm a bit rusty and need to hone my skill set. Any suggestions on how to get up to speed and relearn all the theory and improv stuff that I've forgotten. Looking forward to hearing from those of you who never left the game and those who've jumped back in as well as the newcomers to the allure of the sax. Glad to be aboard.

Alan H, here from central California. I'm a really serious clarinet player though I make my living in IT. I have my dads 1939 Buescher Aristocrat Alto, which I played through college. I use a 1960's vintage Selmer C* Soloist mouthpiece for classical stuff on that, and a Meyer 7M for Jazz. Through college I played a totally unknown mouthpiece made my Hohner, the harmonica people of all things, for jazz. Love that horn, but don't play it enough. I partially put myself through grad school (marine biology) playing in a local pit orchestras. About 4 years ago my symphony did a pops concert with a Beatles cover band and we needed tenor saxophones for one tune. I dragged out the Conn Shooting Star (Nogales) that my dad bought used when he joined a little band in his retirement community. Right before the concert, like...3 hours before the concert I busted a post off the horn. I tore down to our local shop, but the woodwind repair woman wasn't there.They loaned me ... of all things....a Yamaha 82Z-unlacquered. I about died when I played that horn, it reminded me of how much I loved playing tenor back in high school. I'd have bought it but $3800 was a bit beyond my means. Years went by and I've just purchased a late 1962 Buescher Aristocrat SV-40...the renamed and maybe very lightly upgraded successor to the Elkhart Band Instrument Company A30, made about 3-4 months before Selmer bought Buescher.

I'm a fan of all the usual suspects, but happen to really love Zoot Sims tenor sound. On alto, I'm a Paul Desmond diehard.

here's a two samples of my clarinet playing:

1. Mozart Clarinet Quintet:
2. Klezmer in a kilt:

Hello from Nebraska!

I'm a not-yet-but-hope-to-be saxophone player. I bought a dud Selmer Bundy off of craigslist recently and was traumatized (not really, I knew it was a big risk, but it was a fun gamble) to learn that I could spend $400 to have a horn worth $100. Fortunately, I have a friend who does band instrument repairs for a living and he helped me avoid grossly overpaying for the Bundy.

To recover from the grief of my misadventure, I bought this Couesnon Monopole on eBay which should be here next week: https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/113176475223?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l10137 I hope it turns out to be a decent horn to torture my cats with while I'm picking up the basics. They already hate my guitar playing and this will give them something else to feel superior about. Nothing too good for my cats.

At any rate, hello, and does anyone have any advice for a late 50s beginner?

Thanks!

Greetings From Nebraska

Howdy from Nebraska!

I'm an extreme newbie at saxophone, but I've been playing (at playing) guitar for years and have also dabbled with harmonica, ukulele, drums and banjo.

I recently got interested in saxophones when I saw a Selmer Bundy in a Craiglist ad and ended up buying a dog. This led me to eBay where I just bought a c.1960 Couesnon Monopole alto. It arrived today and I managed to make my first pitiful sounds on a saxophone. I did accidentally play something that sounded like a note, but that was purely coincidental. I'm not sure that I'm ready for the Couesnon so I'm going to pick up a King Cleveland 613 to do my learning on.

I'm looking for beginning material and maybe trying to find a teacher to get me off on the right foot. I'm still primarily a guitarist, but sax seems like it will be really interesting and I've had a lot of fun, not to mention learned a lot, investigating old mostly American saxophones with a slight detour to France.

I've also really enjoyed looking around this forum a lot.

NOTE: Sorry about the double introduction. I originally posted in this thread a few days back, thought my post hadn't gone through and then posted essentially the same information again. I always like to start off by making a mistake. Sorry, folks.