hwestern U.S., he received a degree from the Tempe Normal School of the Arizona State Teacher's College. He then began engineering study at the University of Arizona, at which point he began playing saxophone. In 1921, Cecil Leeson enrolled as a saxophone major in Dana's Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio (currently part of Youngstown State University), graduating in 1925. Career From 1926, he worked on occasion in various commercial groups in Detroit, and in Ohio, including broadcasts on Cleveland's radio station WHK and WJAY. Musicians Guy Lombardo and his brother Carmen were then active in Cleveland, and Leeson began directing the Lombardo School of Saxophone by early 1927, which Carmen had started in 1926. His approach to classical saxophone playing differed from jazz and dance saxophone music popular at the time, and helped promote classical saxophone style in a mainstream medium. A writer in the Hollywood News said that "in Leeson's capable hands, the saxophone no longer the blatant jazz instrument of popular conception, but an instrument of really beautiful tone color . If there were other saxophonists who could play as Leeson does, the saxophone would speedily make its appea