I picked up a Vintage Bari Sax today (vintage is just too cool!!)

[71TXman]

Nice Ops!!    Hope it is in tune, them there can get outta hand! Fun as heck to play tho 

Bilbo, did we by chance have the same instructor! I had to hold the Bari the same way you held the Tenor, out in front and straight!! When in march and not playing, had to hold it perfectly horizontal, and about 3 inches away from our body! Our instructor was also in full uniform with us, up front, off to the side, marching right with us. He got so ticked off though one year when we took 2nd place in a huge parade (2-3 miles long), because the band that took first was dancing and doing zig-zag lines, and had water people wearing t-shirts and shorts....unprofessional looking to him! And today when I watch parades, I know exactly why he despised that!!

Same story as you, our instructor retired (after I graduated), the band dwindled down to nearly nothing....but now it is coming back many years later, which is too bad yours did not.

Paul, that is awesome you did that with your daughter!!!! Talk about tons of practice in a short amount of time, holy crap! Very cool you did that though, something she will always remember, so cool! So now you will just have to keep on playing!

Kawidave, I hear you! Rock bands that have a good horn section are awesome to just crank that volume to! I felt like I was in a rock band tonight (at a Church tho!) some friends invited me to play sax at their Church. They have a lead guitar, bass guitar, drummer, keyboard, and singers! First time I have played the Bari standing (since marching band), and I pounded the keys on that thing and was playing louder than I ever have....it was seriously awesome to play the crap out of this thing tonight! Crazy part was, I never once ran out of breath! At our Church I play much more timid & quiet, sitting down and sometimes I feel like I am out of breath....its strange... 

[Vintagesleds.com]

[TZR]

Pretty much any style of saxaphone is cool in my book.

I remember hearing CTA as a kid on WLS Chitown.  It impressed me even then a a pre teen !   



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAoSZ2y1cw&t=1183s

[kawidave]

Chicago Transit Authority. Only us old farts can remember Chicago as CTA! Not to mention WLS AM!!!

[Sledded]

How about BS and T.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04rClGsbWp4

[Paul]

CTA and WLS.......... Here in western PA..... way back when........ we could only pick up WLS at night. Used to put my headphones on laying in bed, and fall asleep listening to it. Neat memories.

CTA.......... vividly remember them, and still listen to their music. (The group didn't even know they had their first hit song until one of the guys heard it on the car radio while he was driving around Chicago.)

Guess Who....... shortened to The Who. Still listen to them too. I guess I have vintage ears!!!!!

[71TXman]

It's so cool to hear those kinds of stories such as the CTA/WLS you guys are talking about. More often than not, you hear references like that a lot. Some great old stations that played awesome music in their time! I hear my parents mentioning things like that too...all it takes is 1 song they hear and it clicks a memory!

TZR, that's a cool video! I like all saxes too, I just really dig the big growling Bari Sax! That concert in that video would have been a fun one to be at!

Sledded, I have heard a LOT of songs from BS & T...but not this one! Awesome!

[TZR]

Dubble You Ellllll Ess  CHICAGO !    I can still here that little jingle crackling outta the 3 inch speakers our rural bus driver had hung all around the ceiling in our school bus !

Think Otto from the Simpsons, with kinda a afro and wild paisley shirts !  He would crank the AM radio whenever he liked a song, it was really a hoot.  He also was the only bus driver I had the pleaseure of bein a terrified passenger to crap my pants when in mid winter we hit some seriously greasy snow and he tank slapped a full size Bluebird bus from full lock one way to full lock the other and we stayed on the rural road the whole time !!      


I dig Baritone sax too, but seems alto gets all the attention.  Kinda like guitars

I find it real cool how sax fits right into alot of rock music.  Super wide variety of rock too, from bluesy to jazzy to even jam band.

I allways get chills when the sax kicks in with this old Great White  song.  When they did this one live years ago, they had some big black guy as a guest sax player.......man his tone went right through your chest !!   

I like how the sax can trade with the lead guitar and piano back and forth.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKmXHfzDJVs

[Sledded]

Wasn't John Landecker the night time DJ on WLS? Up in northern MN we could get it at night. Also KAAY in Little Rock played an underground segment late at night called Beaker Street. They would play the longer version of In-A-Ga-Da-Da-Vida.

[TZR]

John Landecker and Bob Serat........  Wow !  Have not heard those names in over 30 years !   

[Mario]

Ashclown, how come I picture you playing it in a red sweater?

[bilbo]

Bilbo, did we by chance have the same instructor! I had to hold the Bari the same way you held the Tenor, out in front and straight!! When in march and not playing, had to hold it perfectly horizontal, and about 3 inches away from our body! Our instructor was also in full uniform with us, up front, off to the side, marching right with us. He got so ticked off though one year when we took 2nd place in a huge parade (2-3 miles long), because the band that took first was dancing and doing zig-zag lines, and had water people wearing t-shirts and shorts....unprofessional looking to him! And today when I watch parades, I know exactly why he despised that!!

Same story as you, our instructor retired (after I graduated), the band dwindled down to nearly nothing....but now it is coming back many years later, which is too bad yours did not.

Maybe! I grew up by Becker, MN and went to high school there.  I honestly don't know if the band has started back up at this point; I haven't been back there much and my parents have retired and moved elsewhere.  My brother and sister were a few years behind me and they had said it really fell off after the original instructor left.  It seems here in ND marching bands aren't as popular and definitely not as serious as I remember.  Parades would have dozens of bands when I was a kid, and we traveled fairly far to be in parades.  Now I'm lucky to see one or two and usually they are just that town's school band.  I still get goosebumps when I get to see one play, especially the drumline cadences. But it drives my wife nuts when I comment on step, line straightness, sloppy marching, etc. 

[71TXman]

Ashclown, how come I picture you playing it in a red sweater?

Well, red don't look all that purrdy on me, so I tend not to do that   

I like how the sax can trade with the lead guitar and piano back and forth.

Interesting you say that....I typically play the bass clef line of piano music on my Bari (pretend its treble clef, play notes as written, change key signature)...however last night the guy forgot to get me one of the songs they did! So he told me what chords they play, and the lead guitarist confirmed, so I wrote down their notes, transposed (2 whole notes down I believe), and played that song with those 4 chords in different styles depending on what part of the song it was...that was fun!

Bilbo, I was in Zumbrota MN Band, and I hear ya, many bands years back in every parade there were a LOT of bands! Kinda funny, my wife also gets upset with me because I point out how crappy stuff looks (lines not straight, not marching in step, water people running around throughout the band…etc.)..not sure what it is, I just don’t think some take it very serious, and they should considering they are representing their schools. Still fun to hear them though as you said, and glad to see bands still performing in parades.

[Bob Vehring]

No mention of a C Melody sax, I know it was not common, have one around here somewhere along with a few Altos. Kid played in HS, always wondered how rare a C Melody was

[71TXman]

No mention of a C Melody sax, I know it was not common, have one around here somewhere along with a few Altos. Kid played in HS, always wondered how rare a C Melody was

You see them pop up on craigslist a few different times, or e-bay. They are very similar looking to a Tenor with the curved style neck. They are a neat sax for sure.

[kawidave]

John Landecker and Bob Serat........  Wow !  Have not heard those names in over 30 years !   

As long as we are name dropping don't forget Lujack and Little Tommy, Fred Winston. Don't forget even farther back, Dick Biondi!

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