Notable players of this era include Billy Fowler, Coleman Hawkins, Otto Hardwicke (of the Duke Ellington orchestra), Adrian Rollini (who was a pioneer of bass sax solos in the 1920s and 30s), Min Leibrook, Spencer Clark, Charlie Ventura, and Vern Brown of the Six Brown Brothers.

American bandleader Boyd Raeburn (1913–1966) led an avant-garde big band in the 1940s and sometimes played the bass saxophone.

American bandleader Stan Kenton's "Mellophonium Band" (1960–1963) featured fourteen brass players and used a saxophone section of one alto, two tenors, baritone, and bass on many Grammy winning compositions by Johnny Richards (with Joel Kaye doubling baritone and bass saxophones).

Shorty Rogers's Swingin' Nutcracker (recorded for RCA Victor in 1960) featured a bass saxophone (played by Bill Hood) on four of the movements.

Jazz players using the instrument in a more contemporary style include Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, J. D. Parran, Hamiet Bluiett, James Carter, Stefan Zeniuk, Michael Marcus, Vinny Golia, Joseph Jarman, Brian Landrus, Urs Leimgruber, and Scott Robinson, although none of these players use it as their primary instrument.

The earliest extant orchestral work to employ it is William Henry Fry's "sacred symphony" Hagar In the Wilderness (1853), which also calls for soprano saxophone and was written for Louis-Antoine Jullien's orchestra during its American tour.

[citation needed] It is also occasionally used to perform in smaller (less than six-member) chamber groups, though typically to play a part originally intended for another instrument as very few such pieces are written to include bass sax.