The Bis Key Chronicles

Today is the birthday of the inventor of this instrument. Can you name him?

Here are some clues:

“His childhood was tragic. Hardly able to stand, Antoine-Joseph fell from a height of three floors, seriously bumping his head against a stone: he was believed dead. At the age of three, he swallowed a bowl of vitriolized water, and then a pin. Later, he was seriously burned in a gunpowder explosion; he fell onto a cast iron frying pan and burned himself on one side. Three times he escaped poisoning and asphyxiation in his bedroom, where varnished items were lying about during the night. Another time, he was hit on the head by a cobblestone; he fell into a river and was saved by the skin of his teeth..

"He’s a child condemned to misfortune; he won’t live," his mother said. In the district, they called him the ghost".

These initial serious incidents were, alas, but the prelude to an eventful existence such as only a few have known. In 1858, he was miraculously saved from a cancer of the lip by a black doctor who knew the properties of certain Indian plants. What would the future have been but for this intervention?” – Albert Rémy

He was the inventor of many instrument improvements as well as the inventor of what was to become a very popular instrument world-wide.

Last week the local drug dealer aka vintage instrument seller stopped by my desk a work with a little ‘something’ for me to look at. It was a gorgeous Conn F-mezzo soprano sax from the late 1920’s. Darn the temptation, but this time I went for it.

I immediately made an offer on the instrument, some what lower than what he was asking. Knowing full well that he could sell if for more, we haggled and he gave in about halfway between our best prices. Heck, I have purchased more than a couple of instruments from Matt. I then pinged Merlin who was penning ‘Santa Baby’ as a quartet for me to ask if he could include a sop replacement copy for the f-mezzo.

For those of you wanting to know more about the Conn f-mezzo soprano saxes start here. You can also view a truly well-preserved copy of an original Conn full page ad for this instrument.

Playing this I found the intonation to be very good except on the palm keys. Suzy noted the key heights were way off and something that one of my fav techs could handle rather quickly. When she held the key down to a normal key height, the intonation was immediately better. So after a minor annoyance to take it to a tech we will see how it sounds in ensemble with the rest of the sax quartet. Even more interesting will be how many people will notice it is something special. I’d be surprised if 1 person out of a thousand would think it was something other than an alto sax.