On a rainy Saturday in 1975 I visited a local flea market. I was in sixth grade and had just started playing the saxophone that year. The only saxophone record I owned at that point was Boots Randolph’s Yakety Sax. Among the stacks of old records was a blue label Columbia 78. Two things on that label enticed me to blow my allowance on it: the word “saxophone” and the title “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles,” which I had heard as a child when my mom played the soundtrack of Doris Day’s “Moonlight Bay”. I put it on my room as soon as I got home and was spellbound by the ghostly sounds coming from that worn-out old record. Wonderful saxophones, and two Irish tenors singing that melancholy melody. To my 13 year old mind, the record seemed like it was hundreds of years old. Voices from history. Wow.
Then I turned the record over. This side was so worn I couldn’t even make out the title. Beautiful… something… Blues. What was that middle word? Oh well, let’s give it a spin. No gilded age parlor music this time! A lively one-step – a twisty, spritely polka in a minor key. Then major, then minor again, then a happy trio, bouncy from beginning to end. This was my new favorite song. I played it first thing every morning (along with Yakety Sax) for at least a year. As soon as I learned to write music and pick apart harmonies, I transcribed it for my sax quartet and we won the talent contest at summer band camp. But I still didn’t know what that middle word was.
So I decided to call the record company. I found out that the Columbia archives now belonged to Sony, and after a few phone calls I was connected to the archivist. I wish I could remember his name, but I remember it sounded ancient and appropriate for someone in charge of old 78 archives (Rufus? Emmitt?). He read off to me all the “matrix numbers” recording by the group, and I found out the middle word… “Ohio”. I still had no idea it was related to the waltz Beautiful Ohio, but at least I had my middle word.
In subsequent years I found Collectors Records in Dallas (now gone) which had a couple more by my beloved Columbia Saxophone Sextette. Then finally, when eBay hit the big time, I began picking up the rest of the collection. I have two copies of many of the sides, and single copies of the rest (some in bad shape). I believe I have everything that was actually issued now, although I still dream that those lost matrix numbers might still live on a master somewhere. If anyone knows how to check that out, please let me know.
Anyway, that’s my personal story. I plan to populate the rest of this site with details about the players, groups and songs that jump-started the saxophone craze of the 1920′s. The Six Brown Brothers were the true pioneers here of course, but the work of many others enriched the saxophone ensemble repertoire, and it all dovetails nicely into the super stardom of Rudy Wiedoeft and the woodwinds of the Paul Whiteman band a few years later. Hope you enjoy!
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