Do You Know Who Brought The First Saxophone Into Canada, Or What Country It Came From?

I found an interesting little tidbit of Canadian saxophonia, in the October 10, 1938 edition of The Meriden Daily Journal. In an article simply titled, Introduced Saxophone (it is actually immediately below the very disturbing passport story that Google News links to), the man who brought the saxophone onto Canadian soil, laments what the instrument has been used for.

Now remember, this is only 1938… He ain’t seen nothing yet… 😯

INTRODUCED SAXOPHONE

Montreal — Swing orchestras and jam sessions just don’t seem to fit in well with memories of concerts before Sir John A MacDonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, which may explain why the man who brought the first saxophone to Canada wishes he hadn’t.

Edmond Hardy is nearing his eight-fourth birthday. He has retired from orchestra work and lives quietly in his suburban home. But he still sees red when the boys get in the groove and cats and alligators alike go out of the world.

“If I had known what they were going to do with it I would never have introduced the saxophone to Canada,” he avers with a bit of a shudder.

For sixty years after he had founded it, Hardy led the Harmonie Montreal, a band that performed at all kinds of important functions not only in Quebec but throughout Eastern Canada and the United States. His bulky scrapbook is a chronology of social events for the half century from 1874 onward.

Some Googling of the name Edmond Hardy brought up this interesting article in the September 23, 1938 edition of The Montreal Gazette. In the article by Tracy S. Ludington, it says:

Veteran Band Leader Had ‘Honor’ Of Introducing Saxophone Here

Edmond Hardy, Conductor of Harmonie Montreal for 60 Years, Regrets Way Jazz Bands Have Murdered the Instrument

…In speaking of his distinction of bringing the first saxophone to Canada he says that he had the instrument made to his order in France. Shortly after he brought it to this side of the water he seized an opportunity to sell it and several others he imported were also disposed of in this manner. Mr. Hardy was in the music business in Montreal for over forty years, selling instruments and manuscripts.

He is severe in his castigation of the manner in which the saxophone is played today by performers in so-called swing orchestras. “If I had known what they were going to do with it, I would never have introduced it to Canada.” the veteran band-leader averred….

OK then Mr. Hardy, tell us how you really feel… Jeez… I suspect he was also a member of the ban swing music from the air waves posse..

I did find this minorly-interesting biography of the man in The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Note that Hardy’s being the first to bring a saxophone onto Canadian soil is not mentioned in this encyclopedia entry. You would think that such an important fact, would be at least worth of a sentence in The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. :wtf:

So if you have ever wondered who imported the first saxophone into Canada, now you know. Personally, I’m more interested in who bought the first saxophone in Canada, and what French brand it was. What kind of music did the player perform on it? Those are the kinds of questions I have rattling around in my head after reading these pieces about Mr. Edmond Hardy.