Blaze Fingers Episode 10: The Saxophone Prodigy
Saturday January 14, 1961: The home of Fats Bixby: 11 AM
Fats Bixby: Blaze, I’ve written a new saxophone exercise for you to help you to gain more mastery over your horn. The formal name for a saxophone exercise is a saxophone ETUDE.
Blaze Fingers nodded, signaling that he understood everything that Uncle Fats had just told him. Blaze then studied the piece of music intensely for about 1 minute.
Figure 1: The Saxophone Etude that Fats Bixby Wrote for Blaze Fingers, based on the Saxtalk.com Harmonic Etude in Honor of Marian McPartland
Blaze then turned the piece of paper upside down and said “Uncle Fats, I’ve got it, I’m ready.”
Fats shook his head in absolute disbelief: “You mean that you know that piece of music in its entirety after only looking at it for a minute?”
Blaze shook his head “yes”.
Fats: Show me!
Fats sat down at the piano with the etude’s piano part in front of him. He started to play the etude’s chord changes. Blaze played the etude PERFECTLY. He had memorized the entire piece in that short period of time! He didn’t miss one single beat, one single note, or one single rest.
Fats: You have a real gift son!!! You are going to be a phenomenal saxophonist. We will have to work a little bit on the high G to get it to “speak” a little bit more clearly.
Sunday January 15, 1961: Cook County Jail, Chicago, Illinois: 9 AM
Fats Bixby: How is everything? How’s the food?
Maurice Fingers Sr: I can’t complain too much. The food is pretty good, and they treat me very well here. But I miss my wife and boy terribly!
Fats: I know that you do. I have a few friends on the police force, and I think that they are going to re-open the case against you. They are going to re-interview Bill Castellano to see if there is anything that they missed. We are going to try to get you out of here, by God’s grace.
Maurice Fingers Sr: I had nothing to do with the robbery. I’ve never even been in Castellano’s shop!
Fats Bixby: I know that you didn’t do it.
Maurice Fingers Sr.: How’s my boy doing?
Fats Bixby: He’s doing QUITE WELL on the saxophone! He’s taken on the stage name Blaze Fingers. Your son is a true saxophone prodigy: he’s got a photographic memory: you can show him a piece of sheet music once, and he’s got it locked in his brain...for life!
Maurice Sr: How are we going to put that talent to good use? The life of a musician can be a rough one.
Fats Bixby: I’ll protect him until you get out of prison. The drug dealers all know to steer clear of him, or they’ll feel my wrath! Your son will make a good clean living as a great musician: you have my word.
Maurice Sr: I appreciate that Fats! My family and I are forever in your debt.
Fats Bixby: It is my pleasure!!! Many years ago, a wealthy patroness did the same thing for me that I am doing for your son. This is MY WAY of paying back that debt. I’ll be here to see you again next Sunday. Keep the faith until then: we’ll get you out of this!
Fats Bixby and Maurice Sr hugged, and the guard led Maurice Sr back to his cell.
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Thank you for reading this exciting episode of Blaze Fingers!!!