Rudy Tenor in the movies!

[jazzbug1]

I am a fan of the early Rudy Vallee band. If one enjoys music of the 1920s, thay played a very melodic style, and with Rudy's witty singing, their records are quite pleasant. His recordings of 1928-31 are especially nice, but by 1932 his band (along with most) became more commercial sounding. They made a movie in 1929 called "Vagabond Lover", which has many nice shots of his early band. These players were typical "straight" players, but his tenor sax man, Joe Miller, was capable of playing some pretty hot solos, which I have always enjoyed on the early recordings. A close look at still photographs from the movie show Joe playing a Bb tenor with a brace bar on the neck, BUT the bell keys are on the left side. Only one saxophone fits this: a Rudy Wiedoeft model tenor, which would have been brand new in 1929. These tenors are very rare, as I own one, and have only heard of one other. Surely, Joe was proud of his new horn, and I compare his few hot solos to be as good as the only other white player on the solo tenor (in the 20s), Bud Freeman. I have no idea what became of Joe, as he stayed in the Vallee band until about 1936 and then disappears. Perhaps he becames tired of the travel or joined another band, as the demand for good tenor players was high during the height of the swing era. My Wiedoeft tenor is so superior above middle D that I sold my legendary Conn 10M and have never felt a regret.

[Walter Webb]

Here's a clip of Vagabond Lover. You can hear that tenor but it's too far away to really see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb36JID2jRA&feature=related

[jazzbug1]

Rudy played Bueschers at this time. He is often heard on alto and baritone. He was an average player and a less-than-average singer, but he was a shrewd businessman and promoter. His anticipation of what the audience wanted and his success in radio made him famous and wealthy. By 1931, the corny-sounding "radio tenor" was out of date, as the richer baritones such as Crosby and Columbo became the dominant sound, so Rudy put a variety show on radio, leaving much of the singing to others and changing his own singing style to more in a baritone range. He dismissed his early singing and his early films as trash, but they capture an era that is gone forever, an era of youth culture that was only echoed in the 1950s youth culture. Alas, few are alive to remember the dawn of "talkies", radio, early suburban living, media "hulabaloo",and the first family automobiles. My parents and my teacher (student of Wiedoeft) used to talk of the 20s with much fondness.