[Dixielandjazz] Bechet's Main Instrument

[David Richoux]

I will leap into this one with both feet (since it is total  
conjecture on my part...)

It would be quite easy to pop a trumpet mouthpiece into the bocal of  
a sarrusophone and play - probably would sound better than the double- 
reed! (I did the same thing to a small double-reed Chinese horn I  
picked up in Hong Kong and it plays surprisingly, well, OK  - very  
flexible tuning ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarrusophone says the fingering is about  
the same as a sax, but I cannot confirm that.

  It can go the other way as well - there is a double reed trombone  
shown here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bocal

Dave Richoux

On Nov 13, 2007, at 9:34 PM, Paul Edgerton wrote:

> Well, Robert, I wouldn't have much confidence in that third-hand bit
> of remembered hearsay. For one thing, a sarrusophone uses a double
> reed like a bassoon. It sounds to me like you might be confusing the
> sarrusophone with the ophicleide or possibly the serpent.
>
> Soprano saxophones were fairly common in the twenties, and clarinet
> players typically played one or more saxophones. Some of the stock
> orchestrations of that era even called for all three of the
> saxophonists to double on soprano.
>
> It doesn't seem too strange that Bechet might have played trumpet
> early on, at least until he discovered he could have much better
> facility on reed instruments. On the soprano, he came pretty close to
> matching the power of a cornet. So I agree with the view that
> saxophone was better suited to his personality.
>
> -- Paul Edgerton
>