We musicians can really be a disrespectful lot. Point in fact: this little humorous tidbit from the state of Maryland. An unruly saxophone player crossed the line, and found himself on the wrong side of the law.
The year: 1947. The city: Baltimore. The crime: bringing a saxophone to a performance of the philharmonic jazz ensemble, and playing overtop of the trombone solo.
Check out the following story for yourself:
Source: Windsor Daily Star, September 26, 1947
So what do you think? Did it really require 4 police officers to deal with this unruly saxophone player? Wouldn’t 2 have sufficed?
I wonder if this unidentified sax player actually got himself arrested, or if he was just removed from the performance. I’m guessing he did see the inside of a jail cell. It was 1947 after all. It’s not like today, when the police are busy investigating more serious crimes like terrorism and mass public shootings.
Here in Canada, our national police force has been embroiled in controversy over the last few years due to a number of very public Taser deaths, and shootings of unarmed members of the public. One can only wonder how the RCMP would respond today to a call for an unruly saxophone player, who is not heeding their command to: PUT DOWN THAT SAXOPHONE!
What I find interesting is how the player was described in this story. Although I’m using the term “unruly” saxophone player, the Windsor Daily Star reported the player as “sweet”. That’s a far cry from some of the descriptions we’ve seen in other reports from the early part of the 20th century, in which saxophone players, and the instruments they play, have been described as: immoral, decadent, life threatening, as well as unruly.
Hi Helen,
Thank you for a chuckle.
I’m sure, lacking any evidence of saxophobia, the main issue here is that the “alleged interloper” was not invited.
As a cultural aside, it is interesting to me that four uniformed police officers were involved. For some time now, most states of the USA require that a police officer wear a uniform only when on-duty and never when “moon-lighting” as a security guard.
The “saxophone player” had probably auditioned for the band and they had said “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”.
At least the article, most likely having a Very limited word count, described it as sweet. I wonder if it was a very young Boots Randolph?
I shall also assume for the sake of argument that it was a tenor player, for if it had been a Bari or Bass they would have let him keep on playing! 😉
Sweet and “sax player” in the same sentence? How stilted. ;0)