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More than any other single instrumentalist,
Rudy Wiedoeft helped popularize the saxophone in the early twentieth century.
Wiedoeft also left behind a legacy of compositions for the saxophone that remains an integral part of its literature.
Wiedoeft's original instrument was the violin, but he broke his bowing arm at age ten and switched to clarinet. At the age of 15
Wiedoeft bought his first C melody saxophone, still then an exotic instrument that relatively few American musicians had succeeded in mastering. By 1917
Wiedoeft was attracting attention as a soloist in the pit orchestra of the Broadway show Canary Cottage. He began to record for Edison that year, and in 1918 composed his signature piece, Saxophobia.
The runaway popularity of Saxophobia fueled phenomenal sheet music sales of the piece and multiplied an unprecedented interest in saxophones in general. The saxophone soon became a symbol of the jazz age itself, and
Wiedoeft was regarded widely as the master of the instrument, touring as a soloist and remaining immensely popular throughout the 1920s. Aspiring saxophonist and bandleader
Hubert Vallee was so in awe of
Wiedoeft that he changed his own name to
Rudy Valleé in
Wiedoeft's honor. In 1926
Wiedoeft played a jazz concert at Aeolian Hall in New York and toured London with pianist
Oscar Levant, making what are likely his best recordings on this occasion for English Columbia.
Rudy Wiedoeft was a flamboyant character who favored Western clothes, including a ten-gallon hat, and well earned a reputation as a boozer. As the 1920s led into the 1930s
Wiedoeft's star was on the wane, although he remained popular in England and appeared with some regularity as a guest performer on radio.
Wiedoeft invested heavily in an Arizona goldmine before the depression, which didn't pan out in the end.
Wiedoeft's declining fortunes didn't sit well with his wife, who stabbed him with a butcher knife in a fit of pique in March 1937.
Wiedoeft did recover and reconciled with his better half, but it was cirrhosis of the liver, rather than the stab wound, that finally brought
Rudy Wiedoeft down at the age of 47. Though mostly forgotten today,
Wiedoeft remains a legendary figure among saxophone players, and his composed novelty saxophone music is notable for its popular style, wit, and tricky technical difficulty.