THE SAXOPHONE

More than 150 years ago, Antoine-Joseph Sax combined the body of a brass horn to the mouthpiece of a woodwind thereby inventing an instrument he named after himself, the saxophone.

Fletcher Henderson, called the Colored King of Jazz, brought his band to the Kansas City’s Pla-Mor Ballroom on 31^st. and Main in 1929. Coleman Hawkins, who’d been born in St. Joseph Missouri, joined Fletcher Henderson’s band and no doubt played in the band at the Pla-Mor engagement. Hawkins, also known as Bean and Hawk, went on to become one of the best saxophone players in history.