Invented in the early 1840s, the saxophone was a relative latecomer to music—and to jazz. But starting in the mid-1920s, with the rise of the big bands, the instrument slowly but steadily evolved from ...

It's a primal scene in the personal myth of many a saxophonist: that first glimpse of the golden horn that embodies a world of shining aspiration. "Sonny Rollins," according to his Web site, "first ...