Regular readers of The Mississippi Rag are already familiar with some of the historic photos and clippings that jazz advocate Randy Richards collected and lovingly pasted into a scrapbook.

Donated to the RAG by Randy's family after his death, the scrapbook is loaded with wonderful photos of past jazz and ragtime greats and is a delight to peruse.

Just take a look at this month's offerings - a series of ads which publicized Selmer saxophones and clarinets by using the reed sections of various famous big bands of the Thirties to endorse Selmer's instruments. In some cases, the bandleaders were sax players (Glen Gray and Ozzie Nelson, for example), but, when they weren't, Selmer managed to include them in the ads anyway (vibist Red Norvo, trumpeter Bunny Berigan and trombonist Russ Morgan).

It was a brilliant ad campaign, proving that Selmer sure understood how to use musicians' sax appeal to sell its products! 

January 2008 issue | © 2008 The Mississippi Rag

P.O. Box 19068, Minneapolis, MN 55419.