https://reverb.com/news/10-most-important-saxophone-models-and-their-players
First, I don't particularly care about players. Sorry; I like Desmond and Lenny Pickett. That's about it. However, I do have one thing to specifically say about that article: it sucks. So, in no particular order, here are my picks. These are also mostly off the top of my head:
* Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the horn. I don't see how you could write an article about "important saxophones" and not include the inventor.
* Buffet-Crampon. One of the first, if not the first, Sax licensees. Additionally, Pierre Goumas Buffet-Crampon's "president," received a bunch of patents from 1875 to 1887 to improve the saxophone keywork. That eventually ended up (along with a couple other improvements) as the Buffet Apogee model.
* Lecomte. Inventor of the automatic octave key.
* CG Conn ... sort-of. August Buescher built the first saxophone in the US.
* CG Conn and Buescher, again. This is for popularizing the saxophone in the US under the New Wonder and True Tone model names, respectively.
* Conn and Buescher, a third time. While they're probably not the first companies to make stencils, they sure made a lot of them.
* Oscar Adler. The first German saxophone maker. Max Keilwerth apprenticed here.
* Julius Keilwerth. One of the extremely few Germanic companies to make it out of WWII without being amalgamated into Amati. I also list them because they made a bazillion stencils.
* Bundy, especially the Bundy II. Everyone's heard of Bundy. Selmer USA produced a bazillion of them. They're not going to impress you with tone or ergonomics, but they do impress with ruggedness and an inexpensive price.
* Yamaha 23 model. If you want to dethrone Bundy as the de-facto student instrument, you have to make a better horn and sell it cheap. The 21 model was probably the first alarm bell to Selmer USA. The 23 was a 5-alarm fire.
That's a list of 10, depending on whether you count duplicates or not. Some other horns that should be on the list:
* Selmer Balanced Action. The Mark VI's great grandfather. You could argue that the SBA was the first horn in the "Mark VI Style" and the VI is just an evolutionary improvement over that design.
* Grafton Acrylic Alto. First plastic saxophone -- and the plastic saxophone idea has never gone away.
* Yamaha 61 model. The first pro model out of Japan that could compete on even footing with all the other pro horns.
There could be a special award inclusion for the first saxophone designed with a computer. I think that was one of the Selmer S80 models. I'd also want to include the first Taiwanese saxophone selling worldwide. I don't know who could be considered the first. LA Sax? I understand the folks in the Reverb.com article choosing P. Mauriat just because they don't know which Taiwanese horn came first.
You'll note that I didn't include the Super 20 and/or Silver-Sonic. While I know a lot of folks love them and they can command Selmer Mark VI-level prices, that horn doesn't strike me as that big of a deal. Yes, the Silver-Sonic had a sterling bell and were the first mass-market horn that did. Does that mean I should include the first copper horn? Bronze? I could probably name at least 10 other horns just with that.
I also would love to include Jim Schmidt and Benedikt Eppelsheim in my list because I do think their horns deserve recognition. Unfortunately, I don't think their work is going to make it into mainstream sax manufacturing anytime soon.
First, I don't particularly care about players. Sorry; I like Desmond and Lenny Pickett. That's about it. However, I do have one thing to specifically say about that article: it sucks. So, in no particular order, here are my picks. These are also mostly off the top of my head:
* Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the horn. I don't see how you could write an article about "important saxophones" and not include the inventor.
* Buffet-Crampon. One of the first, if not the first, Sax licensees. Additionally, Pierre Goumas Buffet-Crampon's "president," received a bunch of patents from 1875 to 1887 to improve the saxophone keywork. That eventually ended up (along with a couple other improvements) as the Buffet Apogee model.
* Lecomte. Inventor of the automatic octave key.
* CG Conn ... sort-of. August Buescher built the first saxophone in the US.
* CG Conn and Buescher, again. This is for popularizing the saxophone in the US under the New Wonder and True Tone model names, respectively.
* Conn and Buescher, a third time. While they're probably not the first companies to make stencils, they sure made a lot of them.
* Oscar Adler. The first German saxophone maker. Max Keilwerth apprenticed here.
* Julius Keilwerth. One of the extremely few Germanic companies to make it out of WWII without being amalgamated into Amati. I also list them because they made a bazillion stencils.
* Bundy, especially the Bundy II. Everyone's heard of Bundy. Selmer USA produced a bazillion of them. They're not going to impress you with tone or ergonomics, but they do impress with ruggedness and an inexpensive price.
* Yamaha 23 model. If you want to dethrone Bundy as the de-facto student instrument, you have to make a better horn and sell it cheap. The 21 model was probably the first alarm bell to Selmer USA. The 23 was a 5-alarm fire.
That's a list of 10, depending on whether you count duplicates or not. Some other horns that should be on the list:
* Selmer Balanced Action. The Mark VI's great grandfather. You could argue that the SBA was the first horn in the "Mark VI Style" and the VI is just an evolutionary improvement over that design.
* Grafton Acrylic Alto. First plastic saxophone -- and the plastic saxophone idea has never gone away.
* Yamaha 61 model. The first pro model out of Japan that could compete on even footing with all the other pro horns.
There could be a special award inclusion for the first saxophone designed with a computer. I think that was one of the Selmer S80 models. I'd also want to include the first Taiwanese saxophone selling worldwide. I don't know who could be considered the first. LA Sax? I understand the folks in the Reverb.com article choosing P. Mauriat just because they don't know which Taiwanese horn came first.
You'll note that I didn't include the Super 20 and/or Silver-Sonic. While I know a lot of folks love them and they can command Selmer Mark VI-level prices, that horn doesn't strike me as that big of a deal. Yes, the Silver-Sonic had a sterling bell and were the first mass-market horn that did. Does that mean I should include the first copper horn? Bronze? I could probably name at least 10 other horns just with that.
I also would love to include Jim Schmidt and Benedikt Eppelsheim in my list because I do think their horns deserve recognition. Unfortunately, I don't think their work is going to make it into mainstream sax manufacturing anytime soon.