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JANUARY, 19 3 0
23
Merle Johnston Succeeds
by Virtue Oj
His "Sax Appeal
By JEANETTE BARNES
MERLE JOHNSTON and the saxophone have become almost synonymous along broadcasters' row. While Merle thinks the saxophone made him, some critics claim that he made the instrument. At any rate, their arrival in public favor was almost simultaneous.
It was in 1922 that Johnston spent long, weary weeks tramping Broadway and searching vainly for a friendly face. Finally he joined a jazz band as saxophonist and toured the country. He returned to New York and subsequently was engaged to play in a night club.
The great possibilities of the saxophone were first brought to his attention by the trap drummer in this night club. Merle had never before associated the saxophone with anything but jazz. However, from that moment he became a man possessed of a single idea, namely, to lift the saxophone to the level of other solo instruments.
"I had to go about my task alone," he says. "The instrument was so heartily despised that in the entire world there
right:
Merle Johnston's Saxophone Quartet. Left to Michael Ships, Merle Johnston, director and founder, Herman Yorks and Larry Abbott.
was no master to whom I could apply for instruction. The saxophone then was a favorite of only the jazz-hungry element, and nobody ever dreamed that it could be converted into an instrument for playing the classics."
In order to accomplish his task, Merle studied and dissected music in much the same way that a great surgeon studies the most difficult case. He bought phonograph records made by the world's finest musicians, and listened to them by the hour, carefully noting how each tone and nuance was produced.
Found Saxophone Flexible
Then followed a long period of diligent practicing, during which he attempted to put into his saxophone playing the same expression, warmth and beauty of tone that these musically great did on their solo instruments. He found the saxophone to be as flexible as the human voice and, {Continued on page 43 )