Wolfe Taninbaum

Wolfe Taninbaum was a leader in the development of synthetic reeds, although he is best known for his mouthpiece designs. The Taninbaum mouthpiece company was established in 1952 to provide a range of tones he was unable to find as a musician. He performed and recorded jazz and dance band music under the name Wolfe Tayne. He was hired by the CBS radio orchestra and followed that band to television in the early 1950s. When Wolfe established the Bari Company, he became a leader in plastic reeds and developed a noted soprano saxophone mouthpiece that remains one of the company’s biggest sellers. He sold the company to Super-Sensitive Strings upon his retirement, a company that is maintaining the elements of quality and consistency that were so important to Wolfe’s work and reputation.