The Story of the Saxophone
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Brassy, smokey, melodious. There's nothing like the saxophone. This incredible work from the award-winners behind Before She was Harriet includes a poster of jazz music's greatest talents. You may think that the story of the saxophone begins with Dexter Gordon or Charlie Parker, or on a street corner in New Orleans. It really began in 1840 in Belgium with a young daydreamer named Joseph-Antoine Adolphe Sax—a boy with bad luck but great ideas. Coretta Scott King Honoree Lesa Cline-Ransome unravels the fascinating history of how Adolphe's once reviled instrument was transported across Europe and Mexico to New Orleans. Follow the saxophone's journey from Adolphe's imagination to the pawn shop window where it caught the eye of musician Sidney Bechet and became the iconic symbol of jazz music it is today. Deflty retold, this history is paired with the gorgeous artwork of James E. Ransome, including an attention-grabbing poster of iconic jazz musicians you can find inside the jacket. A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
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What a truly wild life Adolphe Sax had. Who knows if the saxophone would have been invented if his father had not left him be? But also, maybe this ten-year-old boy would have been poisoned fewer than three times. Perhaps even zero times.
Even without the assorted tribulations of Adolphe's life, this was a fascinating book about how strong negative reactions to change are, and also how quickly those attitudes can change. Culture and demand are slippery things, and this is a really well-done tribute to an instrument and its inventor, with endpapers featuring dozens of famous saxophonists to boot. As 1) an adult 2) who does not think or care about saxophones at all, I was enamored.
