[Rackety Sax]

I don't know if anyone else is into this sort of thing, but if so - have any of you been able to track down information on previous owners of your vintage horn? I have a Buescher straight soprano from the 1920's with the name "Rudy Rehrig" on the outside of the case. I was able to find a picture on the web of him playing clarinet with his Navy Band unit in Brooklyn in 1960, and in fact there are a couple of small Navy pins fastened on the inside of the case. I also found his obituary from 2005: http://articles.mcall.com/2005-10-16/news/3642828_1_costa-rica-richard-albright-wife. At one time he was a radio DJ in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania and went by the handle "Rudy of the Valley" (I guess a takeoff on Rudy Vallee and Lily of the Valley).

Do you have any stories to share?

 

[maddenma]

I know the provenance of my 1949 tenor. It was purchased new by my father and given to me in 1972 after sitting in a closet for 20 years.

2 owner horn, only driven to church on Sundays....

 

[EE NYC]

The previous owner of my 1927 Conn tenor told me it was a wedding gift from a friend who had picked it up in a pawn shop. A cloth swab was stuffed down the bell and when pulled out it was discovered that there was a ring tied to the string as a weight. It had been left in there by the previous owner and apparently no one at the pawn shop thought to look. Turned out the ring was even more expensive than the horn!

 

[VintageSaxGuy]

I really enjoy hearing stories tied to my instruments. I try to learn as much as I can about an instrument's history when I buy one...some stories are better than others . It's always neat to know where the horn came from and what it went through before coming into my hands.

Here are just a few...

I bought an old soprano from a guy on CL a few years ago (who turned out to be a gigging saxophonist!), and during our conversation about music and saxes he said he found the sax upside down in a dumpster during the time he lived/played in NYC. How such a cool sax ended up in a dumpster is beyond me.

A few feet from me is a Martin tenor that once belonged to an old friend of mine...which was also run over by another musician I know well [rolleyes]. It will never be played again, but it's a great conversation piece!

As far as provenance goes, I have a Conn sousaphone and NW I bari that were used by the same band in the 20's...and I even have a large photograph of the band from 1921 that shows both instruments.

 

[lhoffman]

I bought my Conn stencil bari from someone who had it briefly, and saved me the trouble of repadding it. He had bought it from the original owner. When that first owner sold it, he sent with it a brief history of his career, going back to his high school and military band days, and talked about all the bands and singers he had later worked with in the NY/NJ dance band circuit, where he had put my bari to work. I'll have to try to find what he wrote, I stored it someplace. If I ever sell it (though I can't imagine I'd want to), the history goes with it, maybe with my own P.S.

 

[Rackety Sax]

The previous owner of my 1927 Conn tenor told me it was a wedding gift from a friend who had picked it up in a pawn shop. A cloth swab was stuffed down the bell and when pulled out it was discovered that there was a ring tied to the string as a weight. It had been left in there by the previous owner and apparently no one at the pawn shop thought to look. Turned out the ring was even more expensive than the horn!

Good one - now that's what I call "case candy."

... If I ever sell it (though I can't imagine I'd want to), the history goes with it, maybe with my own P.S.

I guess that's what we ought to all be doing. Except for some of us the P.S. will be pretty boring - "owned by an old duffer who never took it out of the house."

 

[SaxTMan]

:tsk: It's better to me no to know i think... but i dream it might have been Dexter Gordon..or Coltrane or so...:mrgreen: it brings even more responsibility have such power in my hands :bluewink:

 

[Jaice Singer DuMars]

The horn with the best provenance that I have owned belonged to Sam Marowitz who played lead in Woody's herd for quite a while. It was an experimental balanced alto in gold plate with his name engraved on the bow. I have engraved my name on a few of my horns. I wonder if someday people will be like "who the hell was Jason DuMars?"

 

[FremontSax]

The horn with the best provenance that I have owned belonged to Sam Marowitz who played lead in Woody's herd for quite a while. It was an experimental balanced alto in gold plate with his name engraved on the bow. I have engraved my name on a few of my horns. I wonder if someday people will be like "who the hell was Jason DuMars?"

Jason,

I don't know if this helps but I am wondering right now.

 

[Rackety Sax]

The horn with the best provenance that I have owned belonged to Sam Marowitz who played lead in Woody's herd for quite a while. It was an experimental balanced alto in gold plate with his name engraved on the bow. I have engraved my name on a few of my horns. I wonder if someday people will be like "who the hell was Jason DuMars?"

...

Funny you should ask that. I had one of your named horns at a lesson and the teacher couldn't understand why the engraver - you - would put his name on the horn. I had to explain that it used to be your horn.

 

[Smokey613]

How old is considered a "vintage" horn?

 

[maddenma]

The horn with the best provenance that I have owned belonged to Sam Marowitz who played lead in Woody's herd for quite a while. It was an experimental balanced alto in gold plate with his name engraved on the bow. I have engraved my name on a few of my horns. I wonder if someday people will be like "who the hell was Jason DuMars?"

Doh! I should have had you engrave the bari bell....

 

[maddenma]

How old is considered a "vintage" horn?

Anything older than me is vintage. Anything younger than me is modern -- at least from my perspective.

 

[MyMartinTenor]

I bought my horn (1954 The Martin) from the original owner's daughter. He had been a player near Chicago. The case still has a little sticker inside with his name and address. I've googled it, but didn't find anything meaningful. I'm happy to say that I'm the second owner of my main vintage horn.

 

[JayeLID]

This is a great idea for a thread.

The saddest story I have is the SML Rev. D which clearly made the rounds of a Texas public high school system for most if not all of its life (wow...how much longer are you ever gonna see those 4 words together ?)

Lord...that horn had 1-1/2 feet in the grave when it got here.

Another cool one was an Orsi Alto which was owned by a woman player who lived in Istanbul. I know this because in the case were repair receipts from a shop in Istanbul, with her name on it...from the 70's.

The funniest thing here is...I eventually sold the horn to a guy .....in Turkey.

The last one was another Alto owned by a woman...Crystal Bxxxx (hard to read the last name). It was an old, old King form the late 20's-early 30's. In the case, besides lipstick-stained reeds.... was included her own hand-written fake book...all charts on 4x6 staff paper !

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e213/jaye86/DSCN0161.jpg

Classics, including:

Come to Baby, Do

Peg O' My Heart

Hawaiiian Wedding

Boops a' Daisy

One-zy, Two-zy, I Love You-zy

I Guess I'll Get the Papers

(Thing is...these tunes look pretty damn cool, actually).

 

[JayeLID]

:tsk: It's better to me no to know i think... but i dream it might have been Dexter Gordon......

Sssssssoooo...are you saying that you were the SOB in that airport who stole his 10M ?????????

 

[Grumps]

I have a Buescher straight soprano from the 1920's with the name "Rudy Rehrig" on the outside of the case... Do you have any stories to share?

Yeah, my dad knew Rudy back in the days of Fred Waring's old group. My dad even tells me that he lent Rudy his Buescher True Tone soprano. And oh yeah, my dad wants it back...

 

[SMF]

I once bought a conn 6m. Around the neck cork was wrapped the Palo Alto Times, 1952. 50+ years. Kind of cool. (except the horn didn't play )

 

[Silvio Martin]

I´m the first owner of my MVI tenor, 216xxx, buyed in 1973.

 

[Rackety Sax]

Yeah, my dad knew Rudy back in the days of Fred Waring's old group. My dad even tells me that he lent Rudy his Buescher True Tone soprano. And oh yeah, my dad wants it back...

I forgot to mention that it's been converted to a rather tall, thin blender - I think maybe an early prototype of the Waring Blendor. Tell your dad to stop by next time he's in the area and I'll make him a smoothie for old time's sake.