One bit of instrument naming I can’t stand: “bari sax.” No one says “al sax” or “ten sax.” Why “bari sax”?
I can imagine an objection: “alto” and “tenor” are just two syllables each. “Baritone” is three. True, but “soprano” is also three syllables, and “sopranino” is four. And yet we don’t hear anyone talking about a “sop sax” or a “nino sax”. “Nino sax,” to my surprise, is a thing. (See the comments.)
The only thing worse than “bari” in instrument naming is “bone.” It sounds so falsely hip. Man, that bone was smokin’.
[And yes, people do say “bari sax.” It’s not just something written in liner notes.]
Monday, February 19, 2024
Barry Sachs
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comments: 8
Why not wonder why "saxophone" is so often truncated to just "sax?" I suspect that calling a baritone saxophone may have originated with the baritone saxophone players themselves ... they're exhausted from blowing all that air through that giant horn. ;-)
Yes, they themselves use it, as in that video. I just find it strange that “baritone” alone gets shortened. I didn’t think about “sax,” maybe because it goes with all saxophones. I just dislike “bari” — the way people dislike, say, “moist.” Ew!
Now I want to see if the baritone saxophonists I revere — Harry Carney, Gerry Mulligan, Hamiet Bluiett — ever said “bari.” My intuition says no.
If you don't say "baritone saxophone", you miss an excellent rhyme. I have heard "nino" used for both sopranino saxophone and recorders, often by the players.
Yikes! I didn’t search for “nino sax,” thinking it too farfetched. But whaddaya know. I’ll acknowledge it in the post (but after dinner),
What do you get when you cross an R&B singer with an investment banker?
Very nice!
Nino's sax
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Tempo
Yes, I saw his name often when I realized I should search for “nino sax.”
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