In the Belgian city of Dinant, in a modest house built

on a street that would later bear his name,

- [Adolphe Voiceover] Hello.

- [Narrator] Adolphe Sax was born.

28 years later while living in Paris,

Sax would invent the saxophone and revolutionize music

in ways he couldn't imagine.

But this isn't that story, this is the story

of how Adolphe Sax escaped death seven times

before inventing the saxophone.

Hardly old enough to stand, the young Adolphe

fell down three flights of stairs.

A stone floor broke his fall.

At the age of three, Adolphe swallowed

a bowl of watered-down sulphuric acid,

mistaking it for milk.

Years later, Adolphe found himself

a bit too close to a gunpowder explosion.

He was again burned when a cast iron frying pan

was not knocked over onto him.

Later, a roof stone fell on his head,

leaving a life-long scar.

Adolphe was nearly asphyxiated when recently varnished

items were left in his bedroom overnight.

He woke up, barely.

Playing with friends in a nearby river,

Adolphe was swept up in a swift current and nearly drowned.

Again, he survived.

On February 7th, 1894, Adolphe died peacefully in Paris.

The saxophone had already crossed the Atlantic,

prime to evolve into an icon of American jazz music

and guaranteeing Sax his immortality.

(jazz background music)