{"id":19978,"date":"2010-07-10T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2010-07-10T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=19978"},"modified":"2011-01-25T10:02:18","modified_gmt":"2011-01-25T18:02:18","slug":"king-super-20-silver-sonic-alto-once-owned-by-chester-hazlett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2010\/king-super-20-silver-sonic-alto-once-owned-by-chester-hazlett\/","title":{"rendered":"King Super 20 Silver-Sonic Alto Once Owned By Chester Hazlett"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have always thought it was a real shame that our vintage horns couldn’t tell us about their pasts. It would be fascinating to know who they belonged to; or what kind of music they played; or for that matter, what kind of bands they were played in.<\/p>\n

Well, a few weeks ago an auction ended on the UK eBay site<\/a>, for a horn whose once-owner had a fascinating history.<\/p>\n

The sax that I’m referring to is a King Super 20 Silver-Sonic alto, that\u00a0at\u00a0one time\u00a0belonged to the legendary Chester Hazlett. Hazlett was\u00a0a saxophonist\/clarinetist for arguably the most popular dance band leader in the US during the 1920s: Paul Whiteman.<\/p>\n

Whiteman was\u00a0often referred to\u00a0by the press as the King of Jazz. <\/em>However, when the 1930s swing band era came in, Whiteman apparently was not able, or willing, to switch to that style of music, and found his popularity fading. By the 1940s he was semi-retired from music.<\/p>\n

Since this Super 20 was clearly built post 1920s\u2014it is circa 1947\u2014Chester Hazlett would have owned it after his busy playing days with the King of Jazz<\/em>. Nonetheless, the fact that it was once owned by such a well known musician makes this an interesting piece of saxophonic history.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: ebay.co.uk<\/h6>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: ebay.co.uk<\/h6>\n

The seller of this King Super 20 Silver-Sonic, described the sax like this:<\/p>\n

This King Super 20 alto saxophone is being sold on behalf of my wife’s grandfather, George Nuttall, who will be 90 next year and would like the saxophone to go to a good home. He was a semi-professional saxophonist for approximately 60 years and bought the saxophone from a London shop called La Fleur in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, he can’t find the receipt, but knows that it was the most expensive saxophone in the shop at the time.<\/p>\n

The saxophone has the name of Chester Hazlett inscribed on it, and it once belonged to Hazlett, who was a member of the famous American Paul Whiteman Orchestra. We believe, based on the dates involved, that George was the second owner (after Chester Hazlett), but that is not certain.<\/p>\n

The saxophone is numbered 295197, has its original gold lacquer with mother of pearl buttons, silver crook and bell. The hardwood case was supplied with the saxophone when it was bought. It has the name Buescher Elkhart, Ind on the outside and is covered in black rexseen with blue velvet and has a two compartment interior.<\/p>\n

The saxophone was last serviced ten years ago, when it was repadded and the springs checked.<\/p>\n

We would be prepared to put anyone with serious interest in purchasing the instrument in contact with George, if they would like to discuss the details of the instrument in further detail.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Source: ebay.co.uk<\/h6>\n

Based on the description, Hazlett only owned this sax for a few short years. Regardless, Chester Hazlett is a name from the early days of American jazz music that is worthy of note.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, although there are a great many references to Hazlett on-line, I was not able to find a biography of the man, or any real concrete information. If anyone would like to chime in with some background on this early jazz saxophone icon, that would very much appreciated.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, let’s have a listen to some music Chester Hazlett performed with\u00a0Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra<\/em>. My Blue Heaven<\/em> was recorded on July 6, 1927, in New York.<\/p>\n

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I’d like to thank Liu Wing Chung, for bringing this interesting horn and the man who once owned it, to my attention.<\/h6>\n
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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span>\n<\/div>\n
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I have always thought it was a real shame that our vintage horns couldn’t tell us about their pasts. It would be fascinating to know …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[625,150,660,653,324,35,644,300,661,135,662,643,31,26],"class_list":["post-19978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alto-saxophone","tag-alto-saxophone","tag-american-saxophones","tag-ebay","tag-famous-not-so-famous-sax-players","tag-h-n-white","tag-king","tag-photos","tag-silver-sonic","tag-styles-of-saxophone-playing","tag-super-20","tag-video","tag-vintage-horns","tag-vintage-sax","tag-youtube"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t