Saxophones & Dental Issues In The Early 20th Century: A Snippet From The Life Of Tom Brown

Here is a piece of trivia that might be interesting to drop whenever you next get together with your group of sax buds. Tom Brown, of The Six Brown Brothers fame, had some severe dental issues which he directly attributed to his saxophone playing.

In a November 25, 1929 article in The Spokesman-Review, Brown discussed his dental problems and the band’s history. Both are very interesting:

GIVES UP TEETH FOR ART’S SAKE

But Tom Brown, Saxophone Star, Says It’s Just as Hard on the the Horn.

If you have any grievance against a saxophone, now is the time to seek your revenge. Tom Brown, the man who discovered saxophones, is at the Orpheum—Tom Brown and his brothers in “The Six Brown Brothers.”

Until 1905 there was peace in the world. Saxophones were buried in orchestras. They played their soprano, alto and bass unobtrusively in brass and reed ensembles and then Tom Brown and all the Brown brothers came along—that was in 1905. They gave the saxophone its  place in the sun—you know the rest; the whole world tied a saxophone under its chin and has been blowing with vim, vigor and vitality ever since.

But the trouble was, all the saxophone players were not Brown brothers—Mrs. Brown only raised six saxophone players and there is where the trouble began.

Playing With Circus

The Brown brother were doing a musical act in Ringling Brothers’ circus with all sort of instruments when Tom Brown conceived the idea of herding a flock of pint, quart and gallon sized saxophones into one act. Nobody had ever thought of segregating saxophones into one chorus before and the result was a world-wide sensation.

The brothers practiced on their new instruments shut up inside the circus wagons for a year—circus people would not let them practice in the tent and when the act was ready they became a sensation.

They graduated to vaudeville. Then they became a part of a burlesque show that took them into New York. And then—Keith’s and the Orpheum. And in finale—they became a part of the Montgomery-Stone enterprises and were with them for nine years. They were in “Chin Chin,” “Tip Top” “Jack o’ Lantern” and other shows.

Has Hard Time With Face

This bid of history was related in Tom Brown’s dressing room yesterday afternoon after he came out from under blackface. He and his face are having a hard time in Spokane what with the hard water but eventually he came in his own face.

“I can’t keep this up much longer—see my teeth are wearing out,” and he showed his teeth—but perfectly friendly like. He has to chew the end of his horn to make it talk and it has worn a scallop in his upper teeth and pulled out four lower teeth which are now bridged in. All that for art but the compensation is the riotous laughter out front.

Now if this doesn’t convince you of the need to take lessons, I don’t know what will. Yes, Tom Brown lived 100 years ago, and our knowledge of dentistry and dental care has come a long way since then.

However, there is no reason that a sax player should have worn his/her teeth into scallop shapes, or caused any kind of tooth damage. Period. It doesn’t matter what kind of effects they were doing, or for how many hours a day they were doing them.

Here’s a tip for you, if you want to learn how to make laughing hyena noises with your sax, or whatever, learn from a good teacher or a pro. This will allow you to get feedback on what you’re doing, and ensure that you’re doing it right. Do you really want create dental problems for yourself? I didn’t think so.

Dental issues aside, I thought the history of The Six Brown Brothers that is provided in the article is very interesting. It lines up quite well with the abbreviated history by Dr. Bruce Vermazen, that The Royal City Saxophone Quartet provides on their website.

Dr. Bruce Vermazen is the author of, That moaning saxophone: the Six Brown Brothers and the dawning of a musical craze.

Google Books offers up the following overview/review for That moaning saxophone:

Today, the saxophone is an emblem of “cool” and the instrument most closely associated with jazz. Yet not long ago it was derided as the “Siren of Satan,” and it was largely ignored in the United States for well over half a century after its invention. When it was first widely heard, it was often viewed as a novelty noisemaker, not a real musical instrument. In only a few short years, however, saxophones appeared in music shops across America and became one of the most important instrumental voices. How did the saxophone get from comic to cool?

Bandleader Tom Brown claimed that it was his saxophone sextet, the Six Brown Brothers, who inaugurated the craze. While this boast was perhaps more myth than reality, the group was indisputably one of the most famous musical acts on stage in the early twentieth century. Starting in traveling circuses, small-time vaudeville, and minstrel shows, the group trekked across the United States and Europe, bringing this new sound to the American public. Through their live performances and groundbreaking recordings–the first discs of a saxophone ensemble in general circulation–the Six Brown Brothers played a crucial role in making this new instrument familiar to and loved by a wide audience.

In That Moaning Saxophone, author and cornet player Bruce Vermazen sifts fact from legend in this craze and tells the remarkable story of these six musical brothers–William, Tom, Alec, Percy, Vern, and Fred. Vermazen traces the brothers’ path through minstrelsy, the circus, burlesque, vaudeville, and Broadway musical comedy. Cleverly weaving together biographical details and the context of the burgeoning entertainment business, the author draws fascinating portraits of the pre-jazz world of American popular music, the theatrical climate of the period, and the long, slow death of vaudeville…

If you’d like to order a copy of That moaning saxophone: the Six Brown Brothers and the dawning of a musical craze, online shops like Amazon have it in stock at the time of writing.