My email is enclosed If you would like I can give you my phone number. I have a lot of family photos of him, his children, band members, your dad and your aunt Randy. He gave me his golf clubs with his initials I still have.
He tied a sled to his car and towed me around on the snowy airport runway in Turners Falls, Mass. He made up bedtime stories to put his grandsons to sleep. What you really need to know about is what a wonderful grandfather he was. He shot a hole in one on the same hole two days in a row. He taught students in his home to play clarinet, saxophone, flute and violin until he died. He spoke of a very nice young man, pianist/songwriter George Gershwin, who hand a song (Rhapsody in Blue) he wanted to introduce with Paul Whiteman’s band. The orchestras he played for, that I know of, were the San Francisco Symphony, Paul Whiteman and the NBC Symphony. He was my cousin but really a big brother to me. I visited them on holidays, weekends and school and summer vacations. I spent half of my childhood in the company of Pappy (Chet), Grandma, Bob, Nancy, Mark, Randy and your grandmother Shirley. She is Chet and Ethel’s daughter, Nancy and Robert’s sister. We would be prepared to put anyone with serious interest in purchasing the instrument in contact with George, if they would like to discuss the details of the instrument in further detail. The saxophone was last serviced ten years ago, when it was repadded and the springs checked. It has the name Buescher Elkhart, Ind on the outside and is covered in black rexseen with blue velvet and has a two compartment interior. The hardwood case was supplied with the saxophone when it was bought. The saxophone is numbered 295197, has its original gold lacquer with mother of pearl buttons, silver crook and bell.
We believe, based on the dates involved, that George was the second owner (after Chester Hazlett), but that is not certain. The saxophone has the name of Chester Hazlett inscribed on it, and it once belonged to Hazlett, who was a member of the famous American Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Unfortunately, he can’t find the receipt, but knows that it was the most expensive saxophone in the shop at the time. He was a semi-professional saxophonist for approximately 60 years and bought the saxophone from a London shop called La Fleur in the early 1950s. This King Super 20 alto saxophone is being sold on behalf of my wife’s grandfather, George Nuttall, who will be 90 next year and would like the saxophone to go to a good home.
The seller of this King Super 20 Silver-Sonic, described the sax like this: Nonetheless, the fact that it was once owned by such a well known musician makes this an interesting piece of saxophonic history. Since this Super 20 was clearly built post 1920s-it is circa 1947-Chester Hazlett would have owned it after his busy playing days with the King of Jazz. By the 1940s he was semi-retired from music. However, when the 1930s swing band era came in, Whiteman apparently was not able, or willing, to switch to that style of music, and found his popularity fading. Whiteman was often referred to by the press as the King of Jazz. Hazlett was a saxophonist/clarinetist for arguably the most popular dance band leader in the US during the 1920s: Paul Whiteman. The sax that I’m referring to is a King Super 20 Silver-Sonic alto, that at one time belonged to the legendary Chester Hazlett. Well, a few weeks ago an auction ended on the UK eBay site, for a horn whose once-owner had a fascinating history. It would be fascinating to know who they belonged to or what kind of music they played or for that matter, what kind of bands they were played in. I have always thought it was a real shame that our vintage horns couldn’t tell us about their pasts.
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