Selmer Mark VI

In 1955 I was given a clarinet. Pa arranged for me to have lessons with a guy called Brian Jarman who played clarinet and alto in a local dance band.

At some stage the guy mentioned "doubling another instrument" and that's when I got a 1937/8 Buescher Aristocrat tenor that one of his friends was selling because he was too ill to play any more. I still have it today.

When I wasn't blowing or carting the Buescher around, I read about saxophones or listened to sax players on record or live when they were on tour in the area: Johnny Hodges, Paul Desmond, Paul Gonsalves, John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, Gerry Mulligan, Tubby Hayes, Jimmy Skidmore, Tony Coe. These guys' technical ability was often downright intimidating - I couldn't even think that fast. I couldn't even get close and as most of them seemed to play Selmers I always blamed it on the Buescher.

The one exception was Johnny Hodges who didn't need to show how many notes he could get into a bar and he played Buescher. I should have realised it was me and not the instrument and I suppose I did, but it's nice to have an excuse to fall back on.

I had a lesson the day Brian Jarman's brand new Selmer Balanced Action Alto arrived. He let me hold it once but I never got to blow it and that's when my fascination with Selmer began. Trouble was that new Selmers cost too much for me and weren't readily available where I lived. For the next 40 years of pedestrian playing, the desire to own a Selmer remained with me.

One night I spoke to Alan Skidmore after he'd played a Georgie Fame gig. I told him about my Buescher Aristocrat and he said, "Great tone on those, but you'll never play it fast". Selmer Mark VI came up in the conversation and that was it. I had to get one.

New York was full of saxophone shops but I kept getting sidetracked into guitar and bass emporiums, until someone sent me off to Doctor Rick's old shop in Greenwich Village (unfortunately that visit is the only thing I've got in common with Joshua Redman) where I spent a couple of hours feeling totally inadequate.

Then at the top of a flight of stairs I found Roberto's just off Times Square, where you could take a dozen Mark VI's, one after the other into the practice rooms until you found one that got on with you. Hey Joshua Redman has been in there too. Things really are looking up.

I'd spent 40 years dreaming about Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophones and in one day I'd handled and blown more Selmers than I'd ever seen. Bottom notes had always been a problem for me on the Buescher, but not on these Selmers. Having said that, there was no magical transformation - I certainly didn't turn into a sax giant.

I don't think I'll buy another saxophone now... unless it's a soprano... or an alto and I've always hankered after ... a baritone. And another mouthpiece would be good...

Off for a blow, if you know what I mean.

Here's a link to a page that covers lots of sax related points.

Selmer Paris Mark VI page.