not to my knowledge. John Coltrane used to be an alto player, when he joined Bostic’s band he was told that he’d need to switch to a tenor because Bostic was THE alto player in his own band.
Many have been fooled by his big and raunchy sound because he approaches it like the tenor players were doing.
Bostic recorded many LP’s. Tell your friend to go and look at them and see if he’s ever holding a tenor!?
there may be some complilation done by a record company that put a pic of a tenor sax on tnhe cover but that’s just because of their ignorance in knowing the difference.

it’s the biggest rockin sound anyone’s ever gotten off an alto.
it’s unique, I can’t tell you why, but for sure it’s mostly to do with the way he growls….only tenor players did that in his day.
it’s that growl with his big unique natural tone….maybe something in his set up helped him but I’m not familiar with what he used, maybe something you wanna look into.

Hello, tell me, which mouthpiece did Earl Bostic use? Size? Thanks)

Amazing sound eh 🙂
i read
I’ve been told that Earl Bostic sometimes used tenor reeds on alto mouthpiece. And that he also used a razor blade to for having a buzzing tone. I don’t know if is true? I know a bass player who is playing baritone reeds on his bass sax mouthpiece. Back to topic.
from what I’ve read he somehow fitted a baffle into his mouthpiece that was made from a bit of razor blade – some sax players back then used to modify the baffle and facing of their mouthpieces to get more projection etc

Re tenor reed on an alto mouthpiece the main problem is that ir’s too wide for a lot of mouthpieces so, depending on the mouthpiece, you may get a lot of overhang on each side and the ligature may not open up enough to accommodate it..
Since the cut of a tenor reed is longer than an alto reed it will be more flexible which may suit longer facings and possibly may make things a bit brighter or more buzzy

and,
Re tenor reed on an alto mouthpiece the main problem is that ir’s too wide for a lot of mouthpieces so, depending on the mouthpiece, you may get a lot of overhang on each side and the ligature may not open up enough to accommodate it..
You can use a wet stone (long) to narrow down the wide of the reed.. Not on plasticovers ;), You must be careful so you don’t ruin the tip and thin part of the reed. I just use a bari reed on tenor mpc when I play my Comm I (I) tenor. I think I get more power out from the sax. And a big window and bigger reeds is also a good combo. My Rovner mpc’s have very big windows. It was John Laughter that told me to use bari reeds on tenor mpc. He was on Rovner as well. .

Courtesy of Cafe Saxophone