One Degree from Curly Sue

Picture this: it is Saturday evening, and Buckwalter is in one of his employer's practice studios working on a recently purchased book of Coltrane transcriptions. Outside, there is a sudden ruckus, and the Madame appears in the doorway of the studio. "Guess who just walked in," she says.

"Who?"

"Jim Belushi and Kenny G."

And it actually was. There's a new casino in town -- more on that later -- and these two C-List celebrities had been invited down to party at the opening of the new nightclub there. Jim was in need of three harmonicas in case he wanted to sit in with whatever band was playing there, and Kenny G... well, I'm guessing he just needed a friend. So now I can add Belushi and G to the list of mostly-famous celebrities that I've spotted in my life. The list is topped by Robert Loggia, but that's a story for another time.

In other news, Station Casinos' newest property, Red Rock Casino, opened a mile or so from our apartment last week, and we have sampled it extensively. It is beautiful, fabulous, and altogether the most Strip-like off-Strip casino I've ever seen. The stakes at the table games -- when we finally found them -- were respectable (although not as delightful as the Suncoast's fifty cent roulette), and the slots are looser than Paris Hilton. Case in point: one twenty cent spin on a particularly loose machine unlocked bonus after outrageous bonus, and I walked away $32 richer. On a penny slot, that's one hell of a pay out.

Buffet-Crampon Super Dynaction

Finally, after months of research and looking at pictures and combing my memory for the sound of these horns, I recently came into possession of a 1959 Buffet-Crampon Super Dynaction tenor sax (SN 64xx, for those of you playing the home game). It came in need of some repair and it had obviously lived a hard life before it came to me, so I resolved to take good care of the fine old fellow and give him the life he was built for.

Initially, I was a little disappointed in the horn because it didn't really play "out of the box." There was a serious leak in the left-hand stack which impacted pretty much everything below written C5, and the only mouthpiece I had was this high-baffle buzz saw piece by Beechler that made a heinous racket with the notes that did work. So I took the horn to one shop here in town where the techs I talked to (including the owner and namesake of the store) pretty much made fun of me and my new horn for twenty minutes or so before telling me that it needed repairs in excess of $450. Needless to say I was both shocked an skeptical, so I brought the horn back to my own music shop and had our woodwind tech check it out. He made a far more reasonable bid for repairs (and was a good deal nicer to me), so I had him do some work. Make no mistake: there are some expensive repairs in this horn's future, but they can all wait for quite some time.

Now, the horn. After having been repaired and put together with an Otto Link Super Tone Master 7*, it is superb. Buffet, although quite well-known for their clarinets, never really broke into the Selmer-dominated US sax market in the middle part of the last century, and although there's talk of them reviving their production of saxophones, they halted production in the sax department in the mid-1980s. When they were making saxes, though, the Super Dynaction was built with the intention of competing with Selmer's legendary Mark VI. Never having played a Mark VI tenor, I can't really compare the two, but I can say that my new-to-me Super Dynaction compares very favorably to the other Selmers I have played. In short, it's a great horn with phenomenal action, a really lush, dark-yet-edgy tone, and remarkably good ergonomics for a vintage horn. Here. Check it out.


Isn't it cool? The lacquer is pretty worn in a bunch of spots which really gives it that groovy vintage look. It's neat to try and imagine the life this horn has had. I know, for example, that at least one of the previous owners (I'm not sure how many there have been) enjoyed drinking while he played; inside the case (which is original) there are several rings from sweating glasses being left on the flat velvet surfaces. All in all, it's a great horn and I am deeply satisfied with my purchase.

For those of you who have made it this far, well done. Fair warning, though: things are about to get a whole bunch more saxy, so if you're not a saxhead, you may want to grab yourself some gin. (If you are a saxhead, you're probably already drunk... you lushes.) See, here's the deal. In my sax life, I have played a 1960s-era Conn 14M alto; a 1989 Yamaha 62 alto; Selmer Series II alto and tenor, Series III tenor, and, most recently, both Selmer's Reference 36 and 54 tenors. And, of course, I've played my new Buffet Super Dynaction. Firstly, let me say that Selmer makes an outstanding instrument; there's no doubt about that. But having lived with their Series horns for three years and now coming to a non-Selmer tenor, I really have to say that I don't think I'm really a Selmer guy. G-Money's Reference 36 is an excellent horn, and after playing the 54 I fully agree with him that the 36 is superior in every way. But if I hada choice, Selmers are just not my bag.

My father's Conn was the first horn I ever played (possibly the first one I ever heard too), and although the action was so stiff that my hands usually hurt after I was done playing, I really liked playing it. From that horn, I went to my YAS-62 alto, and I've got to say that I love Yamaha saxes. Every once in a while, I would come back from rehearsal or practicing on the college's II or III tenors and just play a little scale action on my Yamaha to feel the keys under my fingers. (It sounds stupid and unlikely, given my lazy practice habits, but it's actually true.)

Now, I'm not trying to hate on Selmer or say that they don't make exceptionally fine saxophones; certainly, if I could afford to buy anything out of the Selmer Paris shop, I might be whistling a different tune. But for now, I really think I'm just not a Selmer guy. I'm looking at acquiring a new soprano in the fall, and my top choice right now is the Yanagisawa S901. That could certainly change in the next few months, but since the difference in price between that horn and the comparable Selmer model is roughly equivalent to a long weekend in New York (airfare included), I don't think Selmer's going to make the cut.

Still, He Breathes

A brief word to let all my people out there in the dark know that I'm still alive and keeping it real in the Pacific Time Zone. Two things: finally finally finally, I got my new-to-me tenor sax back from the shop and had a chance to play it. Excellent. It is sufficiently vintagey to please my desire for that, and the action is phenomenal. I bought a new Otto Link Super Tone Master (7* for those of you playing the home game) to go with it, and the sound is awesome. Exactly what I was looking for. Pictures and a more in-depth discussion of the horn (and how I've realized that I'm just not a Selmer guy) will be posted presently. Stay tuned.

Also, yesterday I was all but offered a job teaching here. One of my co-teachers over at The Store was talking to me about my studies here at the university and he started really pressing me about what I wanted after I got my license. You know a guy is serious about bringing you into his world when he starts talking benefits and salary scales. I will pursue my soft-spoken Arkansan friend further and post that presently as well.

It's a busy time of year up in this piece; I'll be back soon.