Can someone tell me how you finger a jump of say an octave and a half (common with saxes and many other
sounds) smoothly without a pedal?

Just curious...

Look, it's possible to mess up a simple horn line by playing two notes at a time. But I don't hear a general
call to make all sax sounds monophonic. You simply learn to play legato cleanly. That way, if you DO want
two sax voices, you are not stymied. I am starting to
get quite amazed at how willing some of us are to restrict what we can play to make screwing up harder..

Like I said, SOME people hit the wrong notes, but mysteriously, you don't say 'get rid of the keys'! But
some people use the sustain poorly, and it's 'get rid of the sustain'... Why not simply learn to USE IT PROPERLY..!