Most people reading this article, have come across at least one photo in the past of a really big-ass saxophone. No, I’m not talking a contrabass. I’m talking about something much bigger.
True, J’Élle Stainer’s recently built, full size subcontrabass would qualify for that big-ass saxophone title. But what I’m thinking about, are actually old B&W or color photos that showed a saxophone so big, that it would have taken more than 1 person to play.
There is this 500 lb specimen that was mounted to the outside of a music store, which I have already featured on my blog. I really think you’d need more than 1 ladder and 1 person to play this big-ass horn. 😉
A quick trip to Google brings up a couple more images like the ones I’m referring to. There is this Conn that Dr. Jay Easton has a newspaper clipping from on his website. Apparently this poor horn became scrap metal during the Great Depression. 🙁
A French saxophone forum has this subcontrabass pic posted. More than 1 person required for this big-ass saxophone. But this horn built in 1965 can’t be real. Can it?
I must have been in a coma for the last 3½ years, because in October 2009, the son of a man who actually played the above big-ass saxophone—yes you read that right, I wrote played—posted a clip on YouTube, from the TV show I’ve Got A Secret. In this clip, 3 sax players from the Norman Paris Orchestra, actually play this horn for the panel of celebrities.
This is how the following video is described by the YouTube member:
My dad, John Peper, played in the orchestras of many CBS Television shows out of New York in the 50’s 60’s and early 70’s. In this clip from I’ve Got A Secret, he and two other members of the Norman Paris Orchestra saxophone section “have a secret” about playing the World’s Largest Saxophone. My dad even answers some questions from the panel. Can you hear his Red Hook Brooklyn accent?
https://youtu.be/NR36gRAa6Lg?si=Fc9fum3pN3FfbScU&t=321
I don’t know how I could have missed this YouTube clip for more than 40 months. I do try to stay on top of all things saxophone—especially big-ass saxophone related. 😈
The link for the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR36gRAa6Lg. At some point, YouTube disabled embedding this vid. Also, if you want to skip the intro, the horn’s introduced at about 5:40.
It looks like having three people play it is more of a gimmick than a necessity. Apparently some of the keys aren’t functioning properly (namely the low C), but it seems to otherwise be a normal one-man-playable horn. I wonder what became of it.
I hope it is in someone’s private collection somewhere, and didn’t get turned into scrap metal.
It does look an awful lot like J’Elle Stainer most recent foray into the big-ass saxophone world. It appears to roughly the size of the full size subcontrabass—or perhaps maybe a touch smaller than the modern Brazilian horn.