[Dixielandjazz] Early Sop Saxes - Was Bechet's Vibrato

[Steve Barbone]

"Dick Sleeman" <dick at sleeman.nl>

> Steve Barbone wrote a.o:
> 
>> Other reason Bechet may have preferred vibrato, especially on Sop Sax, is
>> that the early sop saxes were quite out of tune. Some had the lower register
>> in tune and the upper register sharp, while others had the lower register
>> flat with the upper register in tune.
> 
> Isn't that the same thing? If the lower register is flat then you just tune
> the 
> instrument a little higher - and then the upper register will be sharp!
> 
> Picky, picky,


Dear Dick:

Perhaps I explained it poorly in an effort to make it understandable to
non-musicians on the list. Here is what I mean in musicians terms.

When Bechet bought his first Bb Sop Sax in England, circa 1920 there were
two choices.

1) Low Pitch,  A = 435 Hz. tuned at manufacturer specs,  OR

2) High Pitch  A = 454 Hz. tuned at manufacturer specs.

Jazzers like Bechet, or Dance band musicians favored the low pitch version
or # 1 above. However they found that when you pushed the mouthpiece in to
get the A tuned to piano 440, the entire upper register was now quite sharp.

I believe that if you bought a high pitch model, #2 above, and you pulled
the mouthpiece out to get to A at 440 then the upper register was now in
tune, but the lower register quite flat.

I suspect that had the manufacturers tried to factory tune a model to A  at
440Hz, then both registers would have been off, the farther you got up or
down the scale from that A.

As they say in NYC, "you pays your money and takes your choice". The two
horns were decidedly not the same. And, they were not very popular members
of the Saxophone family 100 years ago because of this tuning deficiency with
both straight and curved models. You had to have both strong chops and a
wide vibrato to cover up the sins of an instrument that wasn't in tune with
itself. Bechet was that kind of player.

Many of those who criticize his sop sax vibrato probably don't realize the
true scope of his genius in being able to play such a dog of a fish horn at
all. I love his sop sax playing and think that on clarinet, his vibrato
while different, was even more beautiful.

Back in the 1950s, I owned and played a low pitch Buescher Sop Sax from the
1920s and it sucked big time as far as it's tuning was concerned. I tuned it
slightly flat figuring I could lip it up in the lower register and lip it
down in the upper register, since I did not use a wide vibrato, but I never
could get it to where it sounded in tune to me so I gave up on it.
Made me a very big Bechet fan if only for the reason that he played a
similar Buescher to perfection.

You know, like don't criticize a man till you've walked in his shoes. <grin>

Cheers,
Steve Barbone