Famous and influential players include Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.

Based on an amalgam of ideas drawn from the clarinet, flute, oboe and ophicleide, the saxophone was intended to form a tonal link between the woodwinds and brass instruments found in military bands, an area that Sax considered sorely lacking.

The mouthpiece of the tenor saxophone is very similar to that of the clarinet: an approximately wedge-shaped tube, open along one face and covered in use by a thin strip of material prepared from the stem of the giant cane (Arundo donax) commonly known as a reed.

When air is blown through the mouthpiece, the reed vibrates and generates the acoustic resonances required to produce a sound from the instrument.

Soon after its invention, French and Belgian military bands began to take full advantage of the instrument that Sax had designed specifically for them.

Modern military bands typically incorporate a quartet of saxophone players playing the E♭ baritone, tenor, E♭ alto and B♭ soprano.

The tenor is sometimes used as a member of the orchestra in pieces such as Sergei Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" and "Lieutenant Kijé Suite" and Maurice Ravel's "Boléro".

Much of the popularity of saxophones in the United States derives from the large number of military bands that were around at the time of the American Civil War.

After the war, former military band instruments found their way into the hands of the general public, where they were often used to play gospel music and jazz.

It was the pioneering genius of Coleman Hawkins in the 1930s that lifted the tenor saxophone from its traditional role of adding weight to the ensemble and established it as a highly effective melody instrument in its own right.

During the bebop years, the most prominent tenor sounds in jazz were those of the Four Brothers in the Woody Herman orchestra, including Stan Getz who in the 1960s went on to great popular success playing the Brazilian bossa nova sound on tenor saxophone (not forgetting John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins).

In recent years, the tenor continues to be very popular with fans of smooth jazz music, being played by artists such as Kirk Whalum, Richard Elliot, Steve Cole and Jessy J. Saxophonists Ron Holloway and Karl Denson are two of the major proponents of the tenor on the jam band music scene.