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Museum gets presidential woodwind

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton plays the saxophone in January 1992. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton plays the saxophone in January 1992. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Former President Clinton has donated the saxophone he played at his inauguration to the American Jazz Museum.

The attraction is part of the historic 18th and Vine district, where musicians often play into the early morning at an old union hall called the Mutual Musicians Foundation.

“Though he may have been unable to hang in a jam session at the Mutual Musicians Foundation, he is the only leader of the free world to be a jazz musician, and I know he would have loved the chance to sit in on a set,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said in a statement Thursday announcing the donation.

Cleaver also said the federal budget just passed by Congress includes $312,000 for the museum to spend on education programs, new exhibits and the restoration of its collection of jazz films.

The saxophone, which is expected to be handed over in a public ceremony today, had been in the collection of Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.