The Selmer Super Action 80 series 3 Soprano saxophone is used exclusively on this album.
This saxophone is from a lineage of great saxophones produced by the Selmer Paris music company .
This model comes with two detachable crooks (one straight, one curved) which give different tone variations and facilitate different playing positions.
The soprano saxophone was originally conceived as a brass clarinet and was therefore a straight tube.The curving of the saxophone body was needed because of the impracticalities of playing the larger members of the saxophone family.
There are curved and straight versions of the soprano although only a few manufacturers now produce a curved version.(Yanagisawa being by far the most popular of the new instruments).There was also a half curved(or half straight) version which was called a Saxello. Roland Kirk was a champion of unusual saxophone hybrids and used horns such as the saxello,the stritch, the manzello and the slide saxophone.
The Selmer name is still the most respected within the saxophone playing community,although there is stiff competition now from names such as Yamaha,Yanigasawa,and Keilworth.
The dynasty of great selmer horns started in 1922 with the 'Model 22'.
1922 .....................'The model 22'
1926.....................'The model 26'
1930.....................'The Cigar Cutter'
1934.....................'The Radio Improved'
1936.....................'The Balanced Action.'
1948.....................'The Super Action'
1954.....................'The Mark VI'
1974.....................'The Mark VII'
1981.....................'The Super Action 80'
1986.....................'The Super Action 80 series II'
1990.....................'The Super Action 80 series III'