YAS-23?

[rs1sensen]

When was the YAS-23 originally released?

[Gandalfe]

1814 November 6 - Antoine-Joseph Sax (Adolphe Sax) is born in Dinant, Belgium.

1834 - Sax perfects the bass clarinet.

1842 - Sax arrives in Paris, France.

1842 June 12 - Sax's friend Hectory Berlioz writes about the saxophone in the Paris magazine Journal des Debats.

1844 - The saxophone is first exhibited at the Paris Industrial Exhibition.

1844 February 3 - Berlioz conducts his arrangement of his choral work Chant Sacre which includes the saxophone.

1844 December - The saxophone makes its orchestral debut at the Paris Conservatory in Georges Kastner's opera, Last King of Judah.

1845 - Sax replaces oboes, bassoons, and french horns in French military bands with Bb and Eb saxhorns.

1846 - Sax is granted the first patent for fourteen variations of the saxophone.

1847 February 14 - In Paris, a saxophone school is set up at the military band school "Gymnase Musical".

1848 - An annonymous benefactor gives Sax the money to pay his workers.

1852 - Sax's annonymous benefactory dies.

1856 - Sax declares bankruptcy for the first time.

1858 - Sax becomes the Professor of Saxophone at the Paris Conservatory.

1858 - Jean-Baptiste Singelee writes the first two Paris Conservatory contest solos - Concerto for soprano and tenor saxophones and Fantaisie for baritone.

1859 September 29 - Sax's son Adolphe Edouard is born.

1861 - At the premiere of his opera Tannhauser, Wagner, in lieu of 12 French horns, uses saxophones in the orchestra pit.

1866 - After Sax's 15-year patent expires, Millereau Co. patents Saxophone-Millereau which features a forked F# key.

1867 - Saxophone lessons start at the Paris Conservatoire.

1868 - Gautrot, Pierre Louis & Co. devises the screw-in pad system and a mechanism inside the pad cup inorder to keep the outside of the pads flat.

1873 - Sax declares bankruptcy for the second and final time.

1873 - The American bandleader, Patrick Gilmore, uses the saxophone in military bands in New York City for the first time.

1875 - Goumas patents a saxophone with a fingering system similar to the Boehm system for the clarinet.

1881 - Sax extends his original patent and also lengthens bell to include low Bb and A. He also extends the saxophone's upward range to F# and G with the use of a fourth octave key.

1885 - Gus Buesher builds the first saxophone in the United States from Sax's patent.

1886 - The Association Des Ouvriers devises a right hand C trill key and a half-hole system for the first fingers of the left and right hands.

1887 - The Association Des Ouvriers invents the tuning ring and the predecessor of the articulated G# Evette and Schaeffer. They improve on the articulated G# so that G# key can be held down while any finger of the right hand is being used, improve the forked F#, add low Bb, and invent the bis key.

1888 - Lecomte invents the single octave key and adds rollers for low Eb and C.

1894 - Adolphe Sax dies and his son Adolphe Edoaurd takes over the factory.

1897 - Storyville is created.

1908 - The book entitled Universal Method for Saxophone, by Paul de Ville, is first published by Carl Fisher.

1911 - During a cadenza in "Eleven O' Clock, H. Benne Henton becomes the first American saxophonist to play altissimo notes during a solo performance.

1914 - The saxophone begins to appear in jazz bands for the first time.

1920 August 29 - Jazz alto great Charlie "Bird" Parker is born in Kansas City, Kansas.

1926 September 23 - Jazz tenor great John Coltrane in born in Hamlet, North Carolina.

1926 January 31 - The Aeolian Hall in New York City features the first performance of serious saxophone literature in a performance by Jascha Gurewich.

1927 - Jazz great Stan Getz is born.

1927 - Ravel uses the sopranisimo, soprano, and tenor saxophone in his Bolero.

1928 - The Sax factory is bought by the Henri Selmer Company.

1932 August 23 - Eugene Rousseau is born in Blue Island, Illinois.

1934 - SML (Strasser, Marigaux, Lemaireis) is founded by an ex-employee of the Buffet company.

1939 July 21 - Jamey Aebersold, an influential jazz saxophonist, is born.

1939 - Arnold Brillhart, a well-known jazz saxophonist, begins the design and production of mouthpieces.

1941 - Top Tones, by Sigurd Rascher is released as a study about the saxophone altissimo register.

1942 - Stan Getz begins playing as a profesional jazz saxophonist.

1942 - Marcel Mule is appointed Professor of Saxophone at the Paris Conservatory.

1948 - Birdland (named after Charlie "Bird" Parker) opens in New York City.

1955 March 4 - Jazz great Charle "Bird" Parker plays at Birdland in what will be his last public performance.

1955 March 12 - Charlie Parker dies in New York City while Watching Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra on television.

1956 - Frederick Hemke becomes the first saxophonist to win the Premier Prix de Saxophone at the Paris Conservatory.

1956 - Selmer starts to produce the Selmer Mark VI Saxophone.

1959 March 15 - Jazz tenor saxophonist Lester Young dies in New York.

1963 - The Art of Saxophone Playing is published.

1967 July 17 - John Coltrane dies after suffering from severe abdominal pains.

1969 May 19 - Coleman Hawkins dies.

1969 December - The first World Saxophone Congress Meeting, organized by Brodie and Rousseau, is held in Chicago, Illinois.

1970 - The second World Saxophone Congress Meeting is held in Chicago, Illinois.

1971 - The third WSC meeting is held in Toronto, Canada

1973 - the fourth WSC meeting is held in Brodeaux

1975 - Cannonball Adderly dies.

1976 - Selmer introduces the Mark VII with a standard High F# key.

1976 - Selmer starts to market its square-chamber mouthpieces.

1977 May 30 - Paul Desmond dies.

1980 - Yamaha introduces its 62 series including my favorite, the YTS 62.

1981 - Selmer introduces its S80.

1982 - The seventh WSC is held in Nuremburg, Germany.

1983 May 11 - Sax Girl is born!

1984 - Larry Teal dies.

1986 - Selmer introduces its Super Action 80 Series 2.

1991 - Stan Getz dies

1995 Fall - Sax Girl starts playing the tenor saxophone.

1998 September 17 - Sax Girl's YTS 62, Joshua Cole, is "born".



Special thanks to the Saxophone History Timeline (http://www2.potsdam.edu/CRANE/mcallitp/Timeline) for many dates.

[rs1sensen]

I'm sorry but I don't see the YAS-23 on there, if it is could you please point it out, thanks!

[pknight]

This is all based on deduction, but here goes:

A. The 62 line replaced the 61 line in 1980, according to Gandalfe's timeline.
B. At the time that the 61 line was in production, the student model Yamaha was the 21. The 21 and the 61 shared common design elements that were absent on the models that followed (62 and 23/32).
THEREFORE
C. It seems likely that the 23 replaced the 21 at about the same time that the 62 replaced the 61, or around 1980.

Of course, actual documented information on the origins of the 23 would be more reliable, but I'm betting that my logic is about right.

[Gandalfe]

Thanks PKnight, I knew someone would pull this together. The Yamaha history site has precious little info about its saxes.