The Surprisingly Badass Life of the Inventor of the Saxophone
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2019
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In this video:
The favoured instrument of the likes of Lisa Simpsons, former President Bill Clinton, and the co-author of this article and founder of TodayIFoundOut, the saxophone has variously been described as everything from “the most moving and heart-gripping wind instrument” to the “Devil’s horn”. Rather fittingly then the instrument’s inventor, Adolphe Sax, was a similarly polarising figure and led a life many would qualify as fulfilling all of the necessary specifications to be classified as being “all kinds of badass”.
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Sources:
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books.google.co.uk/books?id=R...
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books.google.co.uk/books?id=D...
time.com/4101405/adolphe-sax-s...
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www.pri.org/stories/2013-12-0...
heavy.com/news/2015/11/adolph...
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Thank you for broadening my world. How about doing one on whether or not Simon Birch would be able to kill someone with a baseball, as portrayed in the movie?
@Luis Alberto Pérez Nájera Nah papa sueno, I'd prefer watchin' us sing some Wisin y Yandel whilst singing "ja je" in a mini golf tournament.
@Luis Alberto Pérez Nájera Nah sweetloaf entails using cheerios instead of whack bread crumbs. Iight, well take care pa.
Misspelling "Surprise" on the splash screen?
Starts at 0:50
Some inept time traveller really didn't want this guy to invent the saxophone...
faithfullyfaithless omg what a great thought 😂👍🏼 made me chuckle! Wicked comment!
@@Elganleap was just off by over 100 years 😂
@@Elganleap "why do they keep shooting at me im just a homeless artist"
faithfullyfaithless or an adept one did
heh
I'd love to see an "Amadeus" style movie based on this dude's life.
That would be awesome!
I concur.
RIGHT????!!!!
Great idea!
If you've ever played the game DOOM you already know how the part of his childhood goes lol
Holy crap, I can not believe what this guy had to go through. I will play my saxophone from now on with nothing but pride for such a strong inventor who went through constant hell to provide the world with some of the best instruments known to man
" I will play my saxophone"
Please don't...
Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was Belgian
Young Sax grew up trolling the Grim Reaper.
you think after so many close call Death just gave up
Hmmm I wonder if the song "devil went down to Georgia" is actually about Sax. It makes sense
They need to make him the star of his own historical drama.
Or you may mean "the grim reaper was trolling young Sax"?
all this bears the question: Why is it Murphy's Law, instead of Sax's Law?
Because Murphy's law is younger as a matter of fact, Simon and the team actually did a show on it.
Am I the only one wondering if his parents were trying to kill him? 🤷♀️
Now that you mention it... Makes perfect sense!
Today, the parents of any child that had that many "accidents" would definitely investigated.
They couldn't take the random instrument noises any more 😂😂😂
It definitely seems like he was being severely abused and his parents were covering it up.
Was there a life insurance policy on him?
Yeah, Adolph Sax was a genius. It's probably fair to include him as one of the great engineering minds of the 19th century. Somewhat akin to how Tesla was later doing similar things with electricity.
This guy had his guardian angel working double shift and extra hours
Aziraphale on coke. For 79 years.
Probably a whole team
He was blessed with Genius. He was persecuted by life.
Was he one of the luckiest or, one of the unluckiest man of his time?
His enemies would call it "the devil's own luck"!
*Angels boss..* you're supposed to keep him safe!
*Guardian angel..* he's alive... You do better.
Wow, this mans life is a perfect symbol for what jealousy is. I just don't get how a whole organization can be formed only fueled by the hatred for a single man. It must have been so infuriating for him. And just imagine what other great inventions he could have made if it were not for the wasted time he spent in legal battles
Looks like narcissists have always been around
This story legit made me mad. To know that mankind's progress can and is commonly halted by jealous people who literally just don't want to see someone succeed....
Agreed. I found myself getting annoyed at Sax's rivals. A bunch of haters.
Jealousy and/or greed.
@@jonathanwatson268
Then be average. Any excuse to be lazy hmm?
@@evanray8413 cringe.
@@karenamyx2205 says one of many whom associates with the unremarkable.
Musical duels were rap battles for 19th century Frenchmen.
More like the Battle Of The Bands back in the 1970s and 1980s!!! Rap music doesn't play instruments then just steal a sample of a more popular song (oddly enough from a 1970s or 1980s rock band) then turn that into so called "music"!
@@gregbenwell6173
What a generalization. I doubt you have dived into hip hop music at all. You prolly hear the songs on the radio (which many rap fans also find annoying) and heard a few songs with samples, and generalize the WHOLE genre.
Here's a generalization, all dudes named Greg Benwell are old, lame, idiots.
Go put on some hair spray and skin tight snake skin leggings, weirdo.
yes, but not as primitive
I like to picture them happening like that video of the Alto and Bari Sax players on the subway
@@gregbenwell6173 wow…. What a douche bag…. You have CLEARLY displayed your lack of knowledge about rap or hip hop in general…. You are obviously just shitting on your keyboard and posting the resulting mess… Let me guess, the Civil War was about “State’s Rights” too, huh?
Honestly Sax’s determination to keep the saxophone as an instrument led me to keep playing it. Going on 8 years now of playing sax.
Imagine the task of building something as delicate and complicated as a saxophone from scratch in the 1800s.
And soldering/brazing
They kept knocking him down but, he kept on bringing saxy back!🎷😜
The most grudging like I've given.
When music experts were asked what Bill Clinton could do to improve his saxophone playing skills,they quickly answered..."Inhale"!...(Following his famous performance on the Arsenio Hall show back in the day...)😁
Monica's performance with the skin flute was tremendous!
An epic performance in the Oral Office😀
😂
I knew who the inventor was but never until now what he as both a musician as well as an inventor. Imagine music without the Saxophone. What a sad story of a Man who was persecuted by a group of Ungifted people.
Like Simon Birch, right papa Humphrey?
"imagine music without sax" sure, that's most classical music, rock and pop. Sax is great, but in no way necessary for music.
@@davidgustavsson4000 You got dat Grumpy Ol' Men surname n shit.
@@davidgustavsson4000 there are plenty of rock and pop songs that have used the sax. It may not be as popular today, but a lot of awesome 80s pop and rock (not heavy metal) wouldnt exist without it
@@jessicaavery1080 I said "most"
Moral of the story, "your hard childhood and youth, is to prepare you to counter your adulthood problems including an assassination LOL."
What is the history of media control buttons like the pause button being to parallel lines and the play button as a triangle etc ?
That is a damn good question...damn you
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_control_symbols
Still want to see the video on it though.
here you go: czcams.com/video/VKCFDBPvJ74/video.html
I'm not sure about the play symbol, but the pause button is based on the caesura symbol from sheet music. The symbol means to break or pause the music, with the length of the pause being up to the performer or conductor.
So... they had Anti-saxxers in the 19th century...
THIS is what I'm talking about in regards to your long videos; who invented the sax? 'Who cares', says I! Then I listen while I'm washing dishes, and my 'who cares?' turns to 'I do! I care!'
Just fascinating and I'd have never learned about Sax, had it not been for all your hard work.
Thanks again!
Quick correction: for the Bass Clarinet in the Opera story, the composer was Donizetti, not Dom Sebastien (which was the opera itself)
This guy does indeed, sound like he was epic.
Thank you very much for this one. This stuff wasn't covered in music school.
mhh, at my music school it was kind of covered - we(pupils who learned sax) were getting notion that - "we are not as good palyers(if we are talking about exact level) because it is harder to play clarinet or trumpet" or the fact that saxaphones are not the part of volc-orchester or cameric-orchester though clarinet and trumpet is :D Not
So, you are saying that a group of French men were absolute pricks towards someone they saw as not French, or having something that wasn't seen being a proper piece of French culture?
Unheard of!!
@mxt mxt Then or now?Now most Americans are accepting of foreign culture and people(except for the KKK,neo-Nazis,and White Nationalists).
mxt mxt uncool and untrue
@mxt mxt Yes it is.
@mxt mxt Most Americans aren't xenophobic.You just think they're are.
@mxt mxt Give me a example.
The Anti-Sax club literally sounds like a teen drama antagonist.
You mean he was an...EPIC SAX GUY?
Tax* guy; the flapjack would happily complete taxes for acquaintances
First porn i got was a penthouse forum called hot sax
@@spencerellis83 I guess it didn't contain any sax, did it?
A Tesla of the musical instrument world.
OMG. i got so fucking offended when i saw tesla because of how much of a fuck Elon musk is....then i realized im a fucking moron and feel insulted on behalf of tesla that those cars are called that.
We owe this man so much, I mean Careless Whisper ALONE.
As a Saxophonist & Clarinetist, I throughly LOVED this video! Thank you soooooooo much for doing it ❤🎷
I don't want to sound like I'm showing off or something, but people put bricks through my windows...
just so they can hear me practicing my saxophone louder.
You stay gassin' it up makin a flapjack expand ya comments n joint. How about considering the toll on arthritis shorty doo-wops?
Way to toot your own horn.
@@Jallge The only way I know is blowing air through it. That's it, papa freedom
Sure they weren't trying to send the opposite message?
Ken Fulton- I hope you're practicing safe sax.
Thanks for inventing the sax instrument. It truly is one of life's most awesome pleasures ;-)
They could make a movie or TV series out of his life if they haven't already
Simon's vocal delivery reminds me of a saxophone performance.
Can't unhear... and there's nothing wrong with that. 8)
That proves God wants us to have a saxophone since the young man has been miraculously saved over and over again.
Wow... should we change the expression to "curiosity killed the sax"?
Also oh no anti-saxxers! XD
Practically cartoon villains too, aren't they?
It is like he LITTERALLY put his soul in his invention and that is why the Saxophone is an element of "Soul" music.
"Saxamaphoooone. Saxamaphooooone" - Homer Simpson
Best comment here.
He loved it when he was on medicinal marijuana, saw that episode yesterday
He’s up in heaven now, listening to Kenny G.
Will you please talk about how documentary shows get in touch with people in the witness protection program or are in hiding to interview them? I've always wondered.
This ^
Sorry Mr. Gotti that's classified information.
What an incredible life/story! I just started learning saxophone - will try to channel the inventor’s determination!! 🎶🎷
Thank you for inventing the Saxophone, Sax!
Thank you M. Sax!!! Without the sax 70s music just wouldn't have been the same!!
Or 20's or 30's. Id say any music that has a saxophone(s) in it wouldn't be the same or ever created
@@lealtosaxist1117 totally agree! In fact that was the golden age of sax!
The 70s sax thing was a joke with us...don't get me wrong..we loved it! It's just that it always seemed like the same guy playing that same set of 70s riffs! Was it Carli Simon that did Jaz Man!? Perfect example
@@lealtosaxist1117 correction...it was Carole King
Sax's enemies obviously never used Skillshare.
7:54 I think you mean Gaetano Donizetti composed the opera Dom Sébastien, not the other way around :)
Exactly!
What a story, thank you. I forwarded this to my friend who plays the Saxophone 🎷.
This guy was definitely ADHD lol! Actually most inventors, artist's, musicians, writer's, politician's & other's have been forensicically diagnosed as having ADHD, which is a little known fact.
Australia & the U.S. have the highest rates of ADHD in the world. They say it has something to do with the fact that our gene pool's are filled with our ancestors who were the bad ass kid's of their day lol!
I can attest to that, being ADHD myself. I was the most accident prone kid growing up. We have a tendency to not think before we leap, so to say & we're stubborn as hell lol!
You should do a segment regarding this. It would be a really interesting subject, that a lot of people could associate with.
Thank you for all your wonderful program's, I really enjoy them.
Bump
Yay! You have your neon on! Lol, it's honestly pretty sweet that you have an awesome neon sign with your initials. 👍 you should have it on in more videos!
In his office tour video he said that the reason he doesn't turn it on very often in videos is because it causes overexposure and washes him out to a ghostly Simon. But he seems to have figured out a work-around. Bravo, sir!
As a sax player, I can dig it!
ColonelSanders17 As a piano player (and frustrated sax player) i can dig it too👍🏽
I must say I truly enjoyed this account of badassery! It was quite the inspirational tale and one I can relate to being a walking disaster myself. I also own an entertainment company in Japan which, being a foreigner, proves to be quite tedious due to the archaic ways things are done here. Thank you, Simon, for this video!!
Typo in the thumbnail, it says: "Suprise Badass", i'm sure you're aware of it now, and know it needs an extra R in there. Just saying :) Now i will commence watching this video
His life would make for a pretty cool and interesting film or mini series. I'll have to look up rather or not one already exists or not.
I can't tell if this guy was extremely lucky or extremely unlucky
Sounds like one followed by the other, repeatedly
I have an antique silver alto saxophone that I still play and have since middleschool.
Glad to know that we're the coolest of the instrument players because our instrument's inventor was a badass dude.
As a recovering sax player, i approve.
This dude is legendary.....he kicked sax!
Seems like great proof of a time traveler trying to take him out hahaha That river just kept on flowing!
damn anti saxxxers
but the mental image i have now of a musician in a military force roaming the battlefield with a saxphone and im fine with this
I don't think he actually died, he just got tired and took a nap. Legends say he's still napping to this day.......
I found your channel a few days ago and I subscribed after the first one and watched SO MANY since. I absolutely love it. Thank you so much and keep up the great work!
Thank you I appreciate that
One of the most interesting stories I've heard in a long time. Very fascinating.
I dunno why but as soon as you said he had musical duels I just pictured him ripping into “Baker Street”. “You’re not ready for this, but your great great grandkids are gonna love it”
Excellent work on this video. Oh yes, best segue ever
Adolphe Sax's life would make a great movie
Oh my god!!! You guys out did yourself this time! This video was the best one I’ve seen yet... and I’ve seen most of them! How about doing some on other instruments? I played the contrabass clarinet in high school and college... I’d love to hear about them......although I’m definitely sure it won’t have the same surprising stamina of the great Adolfo Sax...
"Just go and get started, that's the best thing to do."
You got my upvote before your sponsor segment finished, because of this line. :)
Of all the instruments I have learned to play, and there have been a dozen of them, the saxophone was the one that was the most fun to learn. It is easy to learn the basics of fingerings and ombucher, and it is a required instrument in any marching band, jazz band or the so-called "big bands" that played the popular music of the 20th century. What would the songs String of Pearls, In the Mood, Baker Street or Careless Whisper be without those classic sax riffs? It is said that the saxophone is the instrument that most resembles the human voice, and I have to agree. The sound of a saxophone is unmistakable! I really wish I'd learned about Mr. Sax long ago when I learned to play his lovely instrument. What a lucky genius he was! And now I *MUST* go listen to String of Pearls! Thanks TIFO Team!!! You folks are awesome!
Nice song, and screen name! I'm a Whovian, too! Matt Smith is my favorite Doctor, slightly hedging out David Tennent. But I'm quite willing to make room for Jodie Whittaker and I really enjoyed her first season/series, depending on which side of the pond you reside.
I’m curious what all instruments you have learned? I also take joy in learning many instruments!
So far I’ve learned piano, guitar in many tunings, extended range guitar (7- & 8-strings), 12-string guitar, bass, extended-range bass (5- and 6-string), drums and various percussion, ukulele... things I have on my list to learn are harps, mandolins, banjo, shamisen, and saxophones!
Always loved the sax. Was the first instrument to make me interested in music.
When I think Sax, I hear Born to Run!
I'm in agreement and would also add the sax on 'Will You?' by Hazel O'Connor and 'Your Favourite Trick' by Dire Straits. I absolutely take my hat off to the great Mr Sax! 🌟❤️🙏🏻
@@xxXthekevXxx In approximate chronological order: autoharp, penny whistle, recorder, piano, organ, marching snare drum, marching band "bells," (basically a small, 2.5 octave upright xylophone) alto sax, tenor sax, flute, piccolo, marching bass drum, six-string guitar, electric bass. Gee, I guess I underestimated the number? But if the different versions/sizes/keys of saxophones, flutes/piccolos and drums are all counted as just one each, rather than the actual number of different versions of any given instrument I can play, well... we arrive at 10! 😁
Thank you for covering this!!!
He's one of the most awesome Belgians! ❤️
Incredible, I have so much respect for those who create the tools with which artists speak in new ways, it's like its own form of meta-art. I wish this guy could've seen Charlie Parker and Coltrane pushing his invention to its absolute limits a few hundred years later :)
Carry on Chap! Excellent channel. Great, great work.
There seems to be a small mistake in the script. Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti composed the opera Dom Sébastien, not the other way! This was actually the last opera he fully composed before his death! ;P
Thanks for this video. I used to play the alto saxophone when I was in middle and high school.
"Sax-a-ma-phoneeeeeee... Saxamaphonnnnne"
as a former sax player for many years, never exactly perfecting it but enjoying the alto and baritone sax; i've always had a warm place in my heart for this guy. i knew of his crazy troubles with morons and nay-sayers in Paris but was entirely unaware they'd tried to ruin him 'with Sax and Violins' multiple times! :o
i was also unaware he could 'blow your Sax off' with epic skills to keep paying the bills in musical duels! such great background Simon and the guys! the childhood, the cancer? wow! i didn't know any of that but i was aware of the tragic loss of his son.
here's to the guy who gave Dave Koz, Candy Dulfer, Kenny G, and in a MUCH tinier way myself such joy! plus, any soft jazz nay-sayers... go blow your own horns somewheres else. i'll keep enjoying the relaxing and soulful sounds of the saxophone when i'm chilling and ring out a clarion call with vim vigor and vitality when an energetic mood hits me.
The Saxaphone and Clarinet are so similar. I'm not surprised if he created the bass clarinet
simon 2019: 20 minute videos are long
Simon 2021: WELCOME TO ANOTHER EPIC BLAZE! (1h+ runtime)
Learned how to play a Tenor saxophone in middle school, was fairly easy to learn too!
He didn't only suffer from an early head injury it arguably made him who he was. Head injuries have been linked to more and more geniuses. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
This is the best telenovela I have ever seen!
Thankfully his name was something cool like Sax. Imagine if it was Fred or Bob. The Fredaphone? The Bobaphone? Never would have taken off.
It feels like Sax's life could be the plot to a kids show of some sort
Thanks 4 this video!
Brilliant Simon.
Thank you for this 🎷 Mr. Sax.
I'm a very saxual person myself. Thank you for making this video, I knew who created the instrument just not the great back story
Fleur East: "If you wanna hear me sing you better play that sax."
Trumpetist: "My time to shine!"
during my last trip to Paris I went to Montmartre Cemetery and visited Sax's grave site (amongst others) and I knew of his inventive prowess, but not the extent and variety of hurdles life threw at him. glad to know it now, tho!
The universe really tried to save us from the saxophone, but this guy just wouldn't die.
Adolphe Sax: The Belgian Musical Rasputin.
But honestly, I want to see the designs of the Saxo-cannon. I wonder if the Maginot Line and Belgium would have worked better (Maginot Line) or lasted longer (Belgium) in WWII if it was actually created. Imagine the history books!!! "The German Werhmacht plowed their blitzkrieg into the Belgian boarder, but they were repelled by the Belgian army armed with 40 Saxo-cannons." That'd be both awesome and kinda funny. I'd imagine it would look kinda like a saxophone, so. . . yeah. Fun times....
YESSSSS AS A DEVOTED SAXOPHONE IM LIVIIING FOR THIS VIDEO HAVENT WATCHED IT YET THOUGH I LOVE ALDOPHE
The United association of instrument makers sound like Regina George on steroids on steroids.
Sax flourished in the musical workshop but not without his own pitfalls. His childhood was riddled with a collection of near-fatal accidents.
For instance, he once thought a certain liquid to be milk and actually drank some diluted sulfuric acid. He was hit on the head by a stone, nearly drowned in a river, and poisoned three times by varnish. He also swallowed a needle and fell from a three-story window. There’s little wonder why his mother, nerves likely frayed, bemoaned: “He’s a child condemned to misfortune; he won’t live,” and that his nickname was “little Sax, the ghost”
Berlioz celebrated his creation, which then was only called the bass horn, writing:
“Its principal merit in my view is the varied beauty of its accent, sometimes serious, sometimes calm, sometimes impassioned, dreamy or melancholic, or vague, like the weakened echo of an echo, like the indistinct plaintiff moans of the breeze in the woods and, even better, like the mysterious vibrations of a bell, long after it has been struck; there does not exist another musical instrument that I know of that possesses this strange resonance, which is situated at the edge of silence.”
allthatsinteresting.com/adolphe-sax
I, as a sax player, was totally gob stopped by this article. Thanks, Simon.
Just pointing out a mix-up: at 7:55 the composer is Gaetano Donizetti, and his opera is "Dom Sébastien"; the opposite is spoken.
I don't want to hear any rapper/celebrity talk about their "haters" ever again. This is what having real haters is.
this would make an awsome movie/show i mean the guys a fricking badass!!
OMG someone needs to make this movie! Why hasn't this been a movie? Wait, has it?
you never cease to amaze!!
Now *THAT* is a survivor!!!