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Happy Birthday ...




Booker Ervin
October 31, 1930 - July 31, 1970



Illinois Jacquet
October 31, 1922 - July 22, 2004




Sherman Ferguson
October 31, 1944 - January 22, 2006

Ron Thorne wrote:Happy Birthday ...




Sherman Ferguson
October 31, 1944 - January 22, 2006

thank you, Ron, for acknowledging my dear friend, Sherman. cannot believe he's been gone so many years.

Happy 200th Birthday ...




Adolphe Sax
November 6, 1814 - February 7, 1894

It's rare to be able to celebrate a person who invented a popular musical instrument. Mostly, from the guitar to the violin to the flute, musical instruments have evolved over time: There is no Mr. Flute or Ms. Trumpet. But there is a Mr. Sax — or, rather, a Monsieur Sax.

Adolphe Sax was born in Belgium 200 years ago Thursday. As a young man, Sax worked for his father, also an instrument maker. The younger Sax made improvements to the bass clarinet and invented a family of instruments called saxhorns before creating his eponymous "phone" in the early 1840s.

Music commentator Miles Hoffman recently spoke with NPR's Renee Montagne about the history of the saxophone and how the instrument, originally designed for military bands, became so closely associated with jazz. Hear the conversation, and the sound of some of Adolphe Sax's many saxophones, at the audio link.

Listen Now

Correction

Nov. 6, 2014 -

In some broadcasts of this report, the instrument heard when a piece of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" was played was an English Horn. We have corrected that mistake. The instrument heard in the final broadcast and in the audio player put on this on this page just after noon ET is an alto saxophone.

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/06/361776541 ... day-mr-sax