Rudy Wiedoeft and the Popularity of the Saxophone

 

When one thinks of jazz, the instrument that readily comes to mind for most people is the saxophone.  The iconic silhouette of the soulful saxophonist is practically synonymous with jazz, and from Charlie Parker to faux-jazz artists like Kenny G, the saxophone has impacted popular music in a significant way.  The question here is how did the saxophone become the prominent instrument in jazz?  The answer is one individual – Rudy Wiedoeft.  As will be seen in studying his legacy, Wiedoeft single-handedly brought the popularity of the saxophone to American popular music, and therefore he is worth further examination including from an economic dimension. 

Rudy Wiedoeft (1893 – 1940)

As Ted Hegvik wrote in 1989, Wiedoeft is all but forgotten in the modern age as most who are “Baby Boomers” or younger know little about his legacy if anything at all, but he is an important figure in the history of modern jazz nonetheless[1].   The saxophone, which was invented and patented in 1846 by Belgian musical instrument designer Adolphe Sax (after whom it was named), was not widely known prior to at least 1920, but it did make occasional appearances on earlier recordings by Sigurd Rascher as well as early popular performers (and early dance band pioneers) such as the Six Brown Brothers, who made prolific recordings in the 1910s, and the first uses by minstrel troupes began in the 1890s with ensembles such as Gorten’s Golden Band Minstrels, but at that stage it was largely still a novelty[2].  Many early dance bands of the 1910s, however (James Reese Europe’s Society Orchestra and others) did not incorporate saxophones.  It truly was not until Rudy Wiedoeft popularized the instrument that it took off, and the height of that new craze was during the “Jazz Age” of the early 1920s.  

The question however was how this impacted the economic situation of the time?  Along with the phonograph, which was invented by Thomas Edison in 1878, the accessibility of entertainment began to be a luxury that many average homes could afford, and the availability of records – first in cylinder form and later in disc form – created a whole new entertainment industry.  Later still, motion pictures and radio would capitalize on this as well.  However, in Wiedoeft’s case, these were means to an end, as his real asset was marketing the saxophone.  The saxophone at the time came in several pitches, from sopranino to subcontrabass, but a special type of saxophone was the choice of Wiedoeft in his recordings, that being the C-melody saxophone, which was in pitch somewhere between an alto and a tenor with a distinct sound of its own.  However, Wiedoeft’s popularizing of the saxophone extended to all members of the instrument family, and young musicians in the 1920s began switching from clarinets, which they had normally played to this point, to the new saxophones.  And, with the popularity of recordings readily available, a musical craze was created that facilitated a brisk sales trade of the instrument that would burgeon further in time.  While the Six Brown Brothers and other such groups had been using the saxophone as more of a novelty instrument to this point, in 1917 Wiedoeft began to record, and many of these early recordings were his own compositions which led to a capitalization on the new jazz market that had been instigated by a New Orleans-based group, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, who had recorded what many believed to be the first official jazz recording, “Livery Stable Blues,” in the same year[3].  This instant success brought to Wiedoeft financial success as well, which he invested wisely.

While many of Wiedoeft’s ventures – investments in building and mining – did not pan out quite like he wanted them to, he did have success at marketing, including the endorsement of a saxophone named after him that was manufactured by the Holton Company[4].  This special Wiedoeft model was marketed to a wider audience, and the successful marketing campaign of the Holton Company led to Wiedoeft achieving wider fame, at least until the 1930s when the Depression hit and he began to decline in health and prestige due to a flood of newer players of the instrument.  Wiedoeft would eventually fall ill to complications brought on by his heavy drinking habit, and he would die of cirrhosis in 1940.

An ad from the 1920s promoting the Wiedoeft model of saxophone manufactured by the Holton Company

Beginning in the 1920s however, a new generation of saxophonists would themselves become legends, many tracing their influences to Wiedoeft.  Among them was a young Yale alumnus named Hubert Pryor Vallee, who in the late 1920s achieved fame as a bandleader and singer better known as Rudy Vallee – Vallee took Wiedoeft’s first name as his stage name due to his early idolization of Wiedoeft.  Others who benefitted from Wiedoeft’s legacy included Frankie Trumbauer, who was one of the premiere jazz saxophonists of the 1920s, as well as Jimmy Dorsey, who would later become a successful big bandleader in his own right along with his trombonist younger brother Tommy.  The popularity of the saxophone continued well into the rock and roll era, and its place in jazz was immortalized later by such artists as Charlie Parker and Stan Getz, among many others.  A combination of masterful talent and effective corporate marketing made Rudy Wiedoeft the catalyst for the later success of many other saxophonists in successive generations.

Wiedoeft’s recordings should be briefly discussed.  He had a body of recorded music that was of two types.  The first were his jazz recordings, which he made with his own group called the Californians.  It was with this group that his most famous recordings, “Saxophobia” and “Sheikh of Araby,” were made.  He also had a body of more serious work he recorded with a concert trio, many of which were his own compositions – one of particular note was made in 1921 entitled “Valse Erica.”  In recent years, some of this material has been reissued on LP and CD, but the vast majority of original Wiedoeft recordings are of his concert group, as no current reissued collection exists of his jazz band.  His jazz band was later taken over by his brother Herb, and was renamed the Cinderella Roof Orchestra – this group does have an extensive number of reissued works, many featuring trombonist Jess Stafford. 

Much more could be said of Wiedoeft’s personal legacy, but he has been immortalized as the man who brought the saxophone into popularity, and a formula made up of successful marketing campaigns on the part of musical instrument manufacturers as well as the proliferation of recorded sound via the invention of the phonograph is what makes his legacy significant.

Early sheet music publication of Wiedoeft’s saxophone compositions

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[1] Ted Hegvik, “How Rudy Wiedoeft’s Saxophobia Launched the Saxual Revolution,” Essays of an Information Scientist 12, no. 10 (1989): 68. 

[2] Bruce Vermazen, That Moaning Saxophone: The Six Brown Brothers and the Dawning of a Musical Craze.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 7.

[3] Vermazen, 120.

[4] Jaap Kastelein, ed. Rudy Wiedoeft: Spirit of the Saxophone. Heerenveen, Netherlands: de Haske, 2012. 4.