[Dixielandjazz] Re: C-melody saxes

[Lily Korte]

Hmm. Why didn't the c-melody catch on post-1920s? Well, I can state that I own one (1922 Conn, silver-plated, with a straight neck), and I'm having an awful time trying to find a mouthpiece that works with it. I've got the original Conn Eagle mpc, and it's horrible! It makes the saxophone sound like it's stuffed full of cotton, or old socks. That plus the fact that, if you had altos and tenors, did you really need a third sax pitched in between those two? Whatever happened to the F mezzo soprano? The C soprano? The bass in C and the bari in F? Duplicity, probably. In a sax section, any of 'em would probably be viewed as dead weight; unneccessary.
 
Now what I  want to know is why the bass sax didn't become more popular (aside from the fact that it's expensive and enormous!) VBG :-)
 
-Lily Korte
 
p.s. Don't take my comments as a denigration of the c-mel, I love them dearly, but they just don't have a place within a large band. I think they could be very effective for combo work, though. You could get a little band together, where every instrument is in C! (For no reason at all...)