Happy 204th Saxophone Day!

Saxophone Day: Adolphe Sax could never have imagined the love

It was on this day, 204 years ago, that the man who invented the saxophone was born in the sleepy town of Dinant, Belgium. Today Dinant is decked out in more saxophones, and Adolphe Sax commemorative art, than the musician/inventor could ever have dreamed.

Photography by: Jeremy Oakley  Source: Flickr

Did Adolphe ever think he would ever get a day named after his invention?

Although I obviously have no way of knowing what a man long-dead might have thought, it’s a pretty good guess that he could never have dreamed of the fame he would receive after his demise.

All the court cases, bankruptcies, and lack of serious support the saxophone received in Adolphe Sax’s lifetime, were certainly not foreshadowing the instrument’s popularity just a few decades later. Furthermore, that that popularity has never truly waned, and that the saxophone remains one of today’s most popular instruments, is certainly something M. Sax could never have seen coming.

Why? Because most of the instrument’s current popularity is thanks to a musical style that Sax had never even heard of, and therefore never considered when he designed his creation. Jazz was still decades away.

So if you’re a saxophone player, take a moment today and say a silent “thank you” to the man who made expressing yourself musically possible.

Here’s to Adolphe Sax…..

Although we never met you, our world is a better place sonically because you persevered and never gave up on your dreams. Although I wish your life could have been an easier one, our lives are all richer because of you! Cheers!