the Turcophone: Ali Ben Sou Alle alias Charles Jean-Baptiste Soualle

Ali Ben Sou Alle alias Charles Jean-Baptiste Soualle

the artist whom may have introduced the saxophone to the Eastern world , he travelled extensively in the Far East and Australia, and created a mysterious atmosphere around himself and the instrument which he played. He claimed that the Turcophone or turkophone was his invention and not some modification of the Saxophone. He certainly applied many modifications to the Sax design and presented a patent application for this instrument as , his own.

Apparently one Turcophone ( reportedly one which belonged to A.Sax) unfinished, was bought by Leo van Oostrom a Dutch musician and famous collector.

https://search.proquest.com/openvie...f5e037093383/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=34458







Quite by chance I came across pictures of this rather picturesque player and I had to look up the name to find out more about him

He was a very famous player, born French and then adopted an " arabic or turkish-like" image in his time and he is depicted with what appears to be a straight alto in few pictures.

He played and adapter version of the saxophone ( which had been practically just invented) called at the time a Turkophone

here a comprehensive article

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161123357.pdf

and hier another one

https://scroll.in/magazine/849413/h...to-indian-classical-music-in-the-19th-century

and one in French

http://www.jazzbank.com/saxophone/Soualle.html



this is a list of his compositions

http://composers-classical-music.com/s/SouAlleAliBen.htm

this is a performance of one of his pieces (on recorder)