Music
Rudy Wiedoeft
1893–1940 · saxophonist, clarinetist, composer
Detroit-born virtuoso of the C-melody saxophone whose 300-plus recordings and novelty solos made the saxophone a craze in the 1910s and 1920s.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Flushing, Queens, New York City
aged 47- Birth name
- Rudolph Cornelius Wiedoeft
- Detroit years
- 1893–1900s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Rudy Wiedoeft was born in Detroit to German immigrant parents and as a child played in the family orchestra, first on violin and then on clarinet. After moving to New York he recorded successfully on clarinet with the Frisco Jass Band, then switched to the saxophone, still an unusual instrument at the time. Through the 1910s he became famous as a saxophone virtuoso, especially on the C-melody saxophone, making more than 300 recordings for many labels and doing more than anyone to popularize the instrument in the United States and abroad. His style combined rapid, double- and triple-tongued runs with long legato phrases and ragtime-flavored rhythm, spiced with slap-tonguing and "laughing" effects. His pieces, such as "Saxophobia" and "Valse Erica," were widely played. He remained a popular radio entertainer into the 1920s and inspired a young Rudy Vallee, but his pre-jazz style came to sound dated in the 1930s. He worked in Vallee's band and in France before illness ended his career, and he died in New York in 1940.
Highlights
- Made more than 300 recordings as a saxophone soloist
- Popularized the C-melody saxophone in the 1910s and 1920s
- Composed "Saxophobia", "Valse Erica" and "Sax-o-Phun"
- Early recordings with the Frisco Jass Band