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Adolph Sax

Musical instrument designer and musician (clarinetist), best known for inventing the saxophone, (1814-1894)

He was born in Dinant (Namur province, Wallonia), and, despite being one of the greatest inventors of the nineteenth century, is largely unknown today.

A genius whose fertile mind generated idea after idea, he was unfortunately the object of numerous court cases where his contemporaries accused him of plagiarising their inventions. Any money he made was spent on lawyer’s fees, and he was ruined several times.

Originally trained as a violin-maker, his lasting legacy is the family of instruments including the sax-horn, the sax-tromba and the saxophone, nowadays seen as the most modern of instruments and widely used in contemporary and jazz music.

However, at first, the saxophone generated little interest among musical instrument manufacturers, composers and musicians, and Sax had to train the makers and players himself!

Famous Belgians