Selmer's hope was that by electrifying the sax, jazz players would embrace it, giving the instrument sex-appeal and attracting younger audiences. But the Varitone's sound wasn't that electric sounding ...

Sonny Rollins, one of the greatest living practitioners of jazz, bought the saxophone he still uses today on West 48th Street in Manhattan in the 1970s. Back then, the small block was dotted with so ...

The harmonics of the saxophone concentrate around similar frequencies as the human voice. When you play it, the shape and size of your mouth and throat contribute to the resulting tone. The jazz great ...