WEBVTT - Invention Playlist II: The Saxophone 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:12.000 Hey, welcome to invention. My name is Robert Lamb, and 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.880 I'm Joe McCormick. Robert, were you in a band when 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.119 you were in school? Not not like not like a 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.400 rock band, I mean like a school band. School band 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.000 is the only thing I was in. Uh. Yeah, I 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:23.800 played trumpet for a while, then I played French war 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:25.480 and then I played just a little more trumpet, and 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.680 uh that was it. Did you ever get good at 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.920 your instruments? No? No, not really the same here. Yeah, 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:33.199 I played trumpet when I was in school, and I 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.320 was like, I think I was probably a source of 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.520 great amusement for like my band, teachers and stuff. They'd 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.800 probably play my tapes at home for their friends at parties. 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.360 I was probably much in the same territory. I will 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.760 say that towards towards the very end I was, I 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.560 ended up being in like a like the school jazz band. 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.080 I guess it was. I don't know. We played different 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:58.720 like some types of music. We played Chicago and stuff, 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:01.880 and that was pretty fun. Like for just a brief 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.640 period of time, I saw the potential of playing music, 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.400 playing an instrument and enjoying it at the same time. 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.360 It wasn't later until I picked up the guitar that 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.880 I realized the thing about music is you don't have 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.200 to be really good at your instrument to have fun playing, 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.560 but you have to be good enough to play to 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:23.959 have fun playing. And I think when I played trumpet, 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.400 I never got there. I never even got to where 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.800 I could really do it. But anyway, when I was 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.119 in school bands, I remember being there with the kids 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.760 in the room who played saxophones, and they'd have to, 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:39.120 you know, like learn all the fingerings and mess with 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.400 the reads and everything. And I remember thinking looking at 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:44.360 these instruments with you know, my my trump I had 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:47.680 three valve buttons on it and keys whatever you call. 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.280 And the saxophone had so many. It had all these 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:54.160 like lumps and wires and keys and stuff. And I thought, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.760 how could you ever learn all that? And how why 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.920 why would you put this like brass alien paris I 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:03.040 it up against your body. It's so lumpy. Ye. At 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.800 the same time, though, I always thought the saxophone, the clarinet, 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:11.040 various other woodwinds, they looked more organic, especially the saxophone really, 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:13.440 because it as this it's like it's coiling like some 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.160 sort of a beast and and it makes sense that 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.200 you would utilize all of your fingers in playing an instrument, 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.920 as opposed to our use of the trumpet, where you're 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.080 just using the three or in the case of the 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.359 french horn, you have one hand just sort of shoved 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.480 up there for good measure. That is right, you please? Yeah, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:32.639 So when you played french horn, what is that for? 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.120 What happens if you take your hand out of the hole, Well, 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.359 it helps you support the horn, but also you can 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:40.639 sort of shape the sound a little bit with it. Oh, 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.639 I see. But of course, my view of the saxophone 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:46.040 changed greatly when I grew up, and I think that 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.200 largely had to do with me learning to appreciate jazz 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.400 like that. I'd never really listened to jazz when I 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.000 was a little kid, and you know, once I heard 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.079 actual jazz music or you know, the stuff from the 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:02.560 middle of the twin a century, then the saxophone kind 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.640 of made sense to me. I agree on Once you 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.840 hear somebody that is a true master the saxophone, as 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.280 with any musical instrument, you you you see what the 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.720 deal is, you see why you hear, why it exists, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.720 You know why it exists, why it was invented, you 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.440 know what, what sort of a whole. It's filling in 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.520 the human experience, as you will. At the same time, 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:27.840 there's nothing like hearing a terrible saxophone or there's also 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.440 the saxophone, I feel can be a difficult instrument if 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.960 it's um playing in a genre that you have a 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.280 little exposure to. For instance, the more the spacier, more 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:44.440 chaotic versions of jazz. I know, recently, you and I 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:46.160 were in a work trip and we had an early 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:50.640 morning lift ride to the airport and the lift ride 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.680 driver was playing some very free form jazz and it's 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.440 it's not something that like I I am acclimatized to 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.280 so as it orna Coleman or something. Maybe, Oh, I 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.600 don't know, it's just very free form. Okay, it was. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.320 It was kind of a psychedelic freak out uh saxophone performance. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:10.880 But still at the same time, I can appreciate that 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.640 there is there's great skill going into the performance. Yeah, 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.040 and at least to me, while saxophone sounds very like 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.240 muscular and natural and real, and the genius of it 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.440 is realized in jazz of the don't I don't mean 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.800 to sound pretentious, start talking about the genius of music. Um, 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.480 there's also a way in which it's always been kind 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.880 of funny to me, especially like it's they're like the 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.800 saxophone solo and like a rock ballad is always the 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.880 funniest part. But people are into that. Like do you 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:42.760 remember in the recent stuff to Pull Your Mind episode 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.080 where we talked about the Russian born artists and comedians 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.880 Coomar and Melamed and they they did this thing where 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.039 they used market research to determine all of the elements 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.720 that people like the most and the least in music, 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:58.080 and then they made a most hated song and a 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.280 most wanted song. And the most wanted song had things 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.320 like it sounded kind of like a combination of like 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.719 like an eighties or nineties R and B song, but 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.680 also kind of spring steeny. It had like a you know, 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.440 like working class people with humble ambition and dreams and 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:17.719 like saxophone and the saxophone was what people wanted. That's 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.440 that's that's wonderful. I mean, it does make me think 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.800 now that you mentioned the nineteen eighties, like two kind 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:28.480 of extremes of of of saxophone player. On one hand, Um, 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.200 I think of Bruce Springstein in the in the EA 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:35.880 Street Band, and the original sax player Clarence Clemens, who 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.560 lived passed away in two thousand and eleven. He was 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.839 like really tall, and oh yeah it was a I 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.120 mean I think it was like six five. But I 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.719 seem to recall Bruce Springstein himself is maybe a shorter gentleman, 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.000 so you know, he seemed even more gigantic up there 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.040 on the stage playing the sacks. But then I also 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.880 think to the nineteen eighties seven film The Lost Boys. Okay, 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.680 I knew you were going here. Yeah, you know which 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.839 thing I'm talking about. Yeah, there's a scene where they 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.279 characters just go out to what it's a big party 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:08.000 by the beach or something, and there's a band playing 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.520 and there is just the most intense, oiled up muscle 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.440 wrestle guy ever playing a saxophone solo. Yeah, And it's 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:19.240 one of these things that for the longest I just 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:22.000 without researching, and I just assumed this is just some 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.359 bodybuilder and they said, hey, gyrate with the saxophone and 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:27.680 we'll put we'll play something over it. But as it 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:32.799 turns out, that gentleman in The Lost Boys is Tim Cappello, 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.839 who was and still is an actual saxophonist in addition 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.560 to a bodybuilder. And I don't mean that he could 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.440 just play it well enough to sort of, you know, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.440 do the scene. No, he played on Peter Gabriel's second 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.640 album and toured with him, particularly the tracks Perspective and 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.200 Home Sweet Home. He played with various other people, played 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:56.320 with uh Tina Turner. I believe so this was this 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.159 guy was a legit saxophone player who just happened to 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:01.880 be a bodybuilder as well. His agent must have like 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.400 choked on his coffee when he saw the casting call 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.520 go out for that, like need need oiled up bodybuilder 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.520 who is expert at saxophone. He's your man. He's apparently 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:12.960 still your man. He's still active today. And on the 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.840 other another example is sort of like the ridiculousness of 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.560 the Sacks. I would say, I can't help but think 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:22.160 of Bill Clinton's Sacks solo on the Arsenio Hall Show. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.000 Oh yeah, that was I don't remember that from the time, 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:27.080 but I know that's the thing people talk about now, 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:31.440 like Bill Clinton and the Sacks. Yeah it, you know it. Um, 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.240 I didn't show he was cool that that was the 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:37.840 intended message. He was a presidential candidate at the time, 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.520 and yeah, he goes in there and he's he's, you know, 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.840 ripping it out on the sacks. The crazy thing about it, though, 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:46.360 is it's kind of embedded in my mind from just 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.120 being on TV when I was a kid. But it 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:52.920 also seems to have become just a just a part 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:59.000 of the American saxophone image abroad. Even um. A couple 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.440 of years ago, I was with and into this. This 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.960 this interesting scenario where when you look at representations of 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.480 Santa Claus in China, Santa Claus will often have a saxophone. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.320 And uh, this was I believe the first person to 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.960 really get into this was journalist Max Fisher, who at 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.080 the time he was writing for the Washington Post. This 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.760 was and Um, and he was saying, hey, what he 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.160 looked into this situation, Why are there all these Santa 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.160 Clauses with saxophones? What does it mean? And he would 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:29.720 ask people about it and they would say, I don't know, 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:34.000 Santa just has a saxophone. Um. And so I looked 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.280 into a little bit. I I ended up chatting with 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:41.680 Beijing based journalist Helen gal And and and this was 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.800 in and the short version the short explanation that most 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.640 people tend to gravitate toward here is that American Santa 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.600 Um kind of took up this American instrument in a 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.800 fusion of American symbols during the nineteen eighties. This was 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.720 the time when Santa Claus was introduced as a Western 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.920 concept uh into Chinese popular culture, and he ended up 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.920 just bringing the saxophone as well. Okay, so it's kind 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:08.520 of like putting a McDonald's takeout bag in his hand. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.360 It's just like, this is part of American culture. Let's 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.760 give him an American instrument. And so it might lead 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.079 some people to think like I kind of, without looking 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.679 into it, I kind of just thought of the saxophone. Yes, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:22.800 it is a very American instrument. It's a part totally. 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.760 It's a part of jazz, it's a part of part 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.360 of the you know, the blues, is a part of 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.720 Bruce Springsteen. What could be more American than these examples 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.680 of our musical heritage. And yet it is not an 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:37.160 American invention, not at all. No, Rather, it is an 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.520 eighteen forties or maybe as early as eighteen thirties creation 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:48.720 by the Belgian born French inventor and musician Adolf Sacks. Right, 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.320 and and it's not even necessarily one instrument. We keep 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.160 talking about the saxophone, and we'll keep talking about the saxophone. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:02.040 But on June eighty six, Uh, Adolph Sacks applied for 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.280 patents on fourteen different types of saxophone. And that's just 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.560 the day of the patent, as we'll discuss. He you know, 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.760 he developed and invented it earlier than that. Yeah. Now, 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.679 despite how many he applied for patents for this, at 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.000 this time, there are really only a few varieties of 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.240 saxophone that are in common use today. If you just 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:25.160 think of a saxophone, what you're probably thinking of is 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:29.040 like an alto saxophone or maybe a tenor saxophone. But 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.440 then they are also soprano saxophones, is baritone saxophone, and 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.600 then there are a lot of later riff riffs on 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.959 the saxophone concept. There are other experimental saxophones, and we'll 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.600 get into some of these as we continue the episode. 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.560 All right, well, maybe first of all we should look 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:50.600 at what came before the saxophone. Yeah, so obviously there 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:52.240 was there were, there were there was a lot of 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.520 history before the saxophone. And before the saxophone, we we 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.480 had woodwind instruments and we had brass instruments. The saxophone 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.960 is in singing that it's kind of a hybrid that 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.240 bridges these two families. Now, not to get too bogged 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.280 down in ancient history here, though, I'd love to come 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:11.120 back and discuss more musical instruments in the future, but horns, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.160 you know, we've had a shell and bone instruments of 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.199 this type for a very long time. Some of our 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:22.079 earliest models of musical instrument technology involved blowing a horn 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.320 of some kind, usually adapted from something you know that 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.960 occurs naturally. And uh and in them we see, you know, 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:33.520 the basic technologies that would evolve into woodwind and brass 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.000 as well. So it's it's all an evolution of materials, 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:42.199 of design and engineering. As for brass itself as a 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.160 as a as the material for this instrument. I've read 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.720 that the trumpet is the oldest brass instrument, dating back 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:52.840 to roughly c oh. I think that's where the trumpet 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:57.400 that I used in in my school days came from. Yes, yeah, yes, 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.760 it was quite elderly and it uh you know, I 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.360 I often wondered, Okay, so I'm like breathing through this thing. 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.160 There's an inevitable amount of when you're blowing through and 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.720 taking a breath, you're gonna suck sort of some air 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.520 through the trumpet as well. And they just had to 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:18.640 be amazing undiscovered cultures of mold and some stuff in there. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.520 Sometimes you'd open the spit valves and oh, I don't 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.600 want to gross everybody out too bad. But even if 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.400 you're touching on it, I can kind of, you know, 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:29.440 the way that you interact with with with scent memories, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.520 I can sort of recall that that funky brass odor. Yes, 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.520 this this combination of like the smell of the metal. 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:38.200 I don't know if that's really the metal or if 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.240 it's just imagined, but also of the oil you would 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.199 use to oil the keys on the valves, so some 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.640 kind of gross oil and when you got it in 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.800 your mouth that was not pleasant. And also just the 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.480 smell of life that dwells in moist shadow, the taint 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.319 of the unwashed corn. So to be clear here, the 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:01.000 saxophone is a woodwind and f mint that is just 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.680 made of brass. It takes the easy to play, single 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.880 read mouthpiece that you would find in a clarinet, for example, 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.400 and it melds it with the easy fingering of large 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.600 woodwinds and an event of course, it is made of brass. 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:18.920 That's material. It depends on oscillating read for its sound, 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.800 not buzzing lips, which you would find in a in 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.120 a brass mouthpiece such as with the trumpet or than chorn. 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.400 With those you kind of have to go, yeah, it's 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:33.520 a buzzing I hope you enjoyed that, folks. So, yes, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.760 this is a this is a pure woodwind. In this regard, however, 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.240 it's worth noting that the very first saxophone was was 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.679 all Would but he was only later than he made 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.560 the switch to brass um. And we'll come back to 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:51.440 kind some of the curious trivia about this as we proceed. Well, 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.600 let's take a look at all Adolf Sacks himself. So 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.280 I've been reading a book called The Cambridge Companion to 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.760 the Saxophone, edited by Richard Ingham from Cambridge University Press 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:06.880 n and it has some excellent chapters, especially about the 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.320 the inventor of the saxophone himself, chapter by an author 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:14.480 named Thomas Lily, but also the book starts with a 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.480 quote from a poem from the Scottish poet Douglas Dunn 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.680 called an Address to Adolph Sas in Heaven and it's 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:23.600 too good not to read this here here he goes 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:28.080 so from saxophone quartets by Strauss on days off from 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.960 the opera House, or works by mil Hoode and Ravel 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.280 or Villa Lobos in Brazil to Lester leaping and possessed 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.200 by his brass belled iconoclast. The sound we hear is yours, 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:44.240 Adolph Posterity. It's howling wolf times, salivating on a read 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.280 and fingering at breakneck speed. I like that. It almost 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.480 has kind of a beat quality to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.360 So who is this guy who's being addressed in heaven here? 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.840 Obviously you can tell from the poem that he's dead, 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.800 and you can probably guess that since he invented the saxophone, 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.280 he pretty much have to be dead, unless I don't know, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:05.560 he's a multi centenarian, right, he know he lives on 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.560 in the instrument. But yes, he died in eight He 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:12.680 was born in eighteen fourteen. He was the first of 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:18.320 eleven children born in to musical instrument maker in denn 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.280 in what is now Belgium. His parents were not only 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.720 instrument makers, but they were also innovators of in their 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.840 own right, altering designs and uh and of course just 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.080 playing music. So he was born into a family that 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.080 was not only musically literate, but but very versed in 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.200 the technology of musical instruments. Yeah, Adolf's father, Charles Sacks, 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.840 was at one point made the official instrument maker to 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.680 the Court of the Netherlands. And so Charles created an 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:49.360 alternative design of the horn, the core Omni Tonique, which 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:51.360 I have an image of here I went and fetched 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.560 from an image of the met Museum, ain't she Abut 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:57.160 this is good? Now, Robert, you played the French horn, 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.440 but this is not what you played. No, this is 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.440 this his French horn esque in its overall design. But 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:07.640 there there, there's there are different additional whorls in there. 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.000 It looks like the entrails of a brass angel. Yeah. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:12.960 I think it's got a valve that you can sort 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:15.120 of pump in and out, maybe sort of like a 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.160 trombone handle. I think, yeah, this was no rough horn. 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:19.760 You can look at this and tell like this, this 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.680 is something that was created by a true craftsman. Beautiful, 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:27.280 beautiful metal guts and uh and so Sacks. Uh. Adolf 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.920 Sacks grew up amid these these these brass guts. According 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:36.280 to a text I was reading Leon Kaczynski's Adolf Sacks 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.320 and his Saxophone. Uh. Sacks could drill a clarinets holes 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.000 and bend a horn by the age of six. So 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.400 he simply just grew up in the world of instrument 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.560 crafting and music. And he learned to play a clarinet 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:49.920 and flute and was quite skilled at this as well, 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:54.560 like like no mere amateur as a musician at all. Yeah. 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.920 It was said that he could have been a renowned 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.400 clarinetist if he wanted, like if he pursued that path instead. 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.760 But when he when he would play his instruments, he 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.639 would keep noticing chances for improvements to the design of 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.959 the instrument itself and then returned to the workshop. And 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.400 so he began to become known for his skill at 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.119 instrument making. With his father Charles, according to the chapter 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:20.000 by Thomas Lillay, Uh, with his father Charles primarily churning 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.800 out the known instruments for the family to sell, and 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.680 Adolf focusing more and more on experimenting with new forms 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:30.480 and designs. Yeah, he entered his own handcrafted flutes and 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:33.439 clarinets and contests by the age of fifteen, and he 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.400 created his own take on the bat at the base 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.399 of clarinet at age twenty. Yeah. Lila's chapter tells the 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.720 story of Sax's entry at the Brussels Exhibition of eighteen 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:46.240 forty one. Uh. And so this was this instrument show 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.639 and contest that Sachs entered with a handful of clarinets. 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:54.080 And according to Sax's friend George Kassner, an early model 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.680 of the saxophone was there. So, according to Kassner's version 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.040 of the story, this would have been the public a 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.679 view of the saxophone, except for the unfortunate twist of 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.239 fate that the new instrument quote was sent flying with 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.040 a kick by an unknown person at a time when 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:14.840 the inventor, Atolf Sacks, was away, so already making enemies 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:19.280 even one. Somebody just punts your saxophone. Uh. And according 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.680 to Lila, the judges at this contest recommended Sacks for 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:26.880 the gold medal, but the central jury rejected their recommendation 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.239 because they said Sacks was too young to win the 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.120 top prize. And Sacks reportedly commented on this quote if 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.120 I am too young for the gold medal, I am 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.000 too old for the silver. Oh man, this is already 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.560 just a great snapshot of of Sacks. Yeah. You know, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.000 in reading his from his biographies, he becomes pretty clear 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:48.080 like that he's one of these these individuals who creates 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.760 something that's going to live on after he's gone, but 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.840 he himself is is not really going to have a 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.560 real bite of that success. Yeah, he clearly was a 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.000 very talented, very smart person, but also just he had 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.280 a lot of troubles. Yeah, and some of these were 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.719 outside of his control, but then a number of them 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.399 also seemed to be kind of self inflicted. And and 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.040 this is he's very much a study and like what 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:16.360 kind of like what kind of determination is sometimes involved 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.600 in an inventor's mindset? You know? Uh? And and how 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.280 might that determination uh run at odds with polite society. 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:26.639 But what were all the stories about how he like 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.560 almost perished repeatedly as a child. Oh yeah, according to 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:35.200 Adolf sax and his saxophone, Um, his mother referred to 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:38.919 him as quote little Sacks of the ghost based on 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.640 the number of times he almost died. So he managed 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.880 to survive a three story fall Uh, an incident where 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:49.160 he swallowed virtualized water and a pin at age three, 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:54.720 gunpowder explosion, burns, a fall into a cast iron frying pan. 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:57.920 How do you fall into one? He's very small at 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.439 the time. Maybe small at the time, yeah, or you know, 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:05.080 it's unclear, like maybe just part of him. Uh. Also 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:09.919 poisonings and phyxiations due to varnished items left lying in 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:13.520 his bedroom at night. What I'm unclear of that is, 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.439 you know, due to ongoing projects that his parents were 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.480 working on or stuff that he was working on, because 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.280 clearly from a very early age he was engaging in 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.080 these sort of in this sort of activity. Well, I 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.479 think before his parents worked on musical instruments, they worked 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.800 on furniture, like cabinets. They were cabinet makers, and so 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.719 it could be varnishing of cabinet parts. There you go. 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:34.960 And once he was hit in the hit on the 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.320 head by a cobblestone and fell into a river. Dang. Yeah. 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.080 So it's kind of a minor miracle that he even 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:46.359 lived to adulthood based on these stories, and then his 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.200 life in Paris as an adult seems just consumed by 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:54.560 rivalries with various enemies. At least one of which culminated 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.080 in a musical duel. Uh. And then there were all 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:02.560 these various betrayals as well. So Kochynsky wrote that he 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.440 quote had exceptional gifts for the gentle art of making enemies. 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.040 So you're left with this, this vision of a difficult 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.720 of very difficult but determined and talented man um And 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.239 he did find some key patrons and supporters, you know, 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.240 sometimes in very high places. Yeah, like he there was 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:21.680 almost like when he did make friends, he could make 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:26.679 really influential friends. But even in his successes, such as 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.040 with the saxophone, he still had to fight ceaseless battles 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.600 against those who would imitate and and or outright steal 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.160 his craft. Yeah, so we should get to more on that, 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:39.679 because after this Brussels exhibition in eighteen forty one, Sachs 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.000 moved to Paris and he continued his work there. This 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.359 was around eighteen forty two, and at the time a 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:49.479 writer named Hector Barelos wrote an article about Sax's arrival, 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:53.040 which included the following. This is sited in Lila's chapter quote. 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.720 He is a man of penetrating mind, lucid, tenacious, with 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.720 a perseverance against all trials and great skill. He is 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.680 at the same time a calculator, accoustician and as necessary 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.879 also a smelter, turner and engraver. He can think and act, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:14.360 He invents and accomplishes. So obviously Sax made he found it. Uh, 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.359