Description
King altos are the best altos ever. This one has beautiful original lacquer and looks great, with the only past repair being a resoldered key guard foot. It just got a full, fresh, high-end overhaul, done by Matt Stohrer. This means it got about 30 hours of highly-skilled labor done to make the mechanism all factory fresh, and to replace everything that can be replaced so that it is back to new playing condition and pad wise. Matt is something of an authority on vintage King repair You can watch his repairman’s overview of King Super 20 saxophones here. I’m tempted to wax eloquent about what a proper overhaul includes, but think of it like rebuilding an engine or replacing a transmission, and you’ll have the right idea. It now performs great and will be ready to go for many many years to come with only regular maintenance needed.
This King Super 20 alto is from just about the most desirable year, 1950, which is the same version of Super 20 that Cannonball Adderley played on Kind of Blue and Somethin’ Else. It is in great shape, with no serious past repairs at all. This is the ‘Series II’ which has the best combination of beauty, features, and key work of all of the Super 20 altos. You really can get the Cannonball Adderley vibe going on one of these (with lots of practice) better than almost anything else. Cannonball played almost exactly this serial alto on Kind of Blue. This plus a Meyer 5 or Ted Klum NY Model plus a soft reed and lots of guts is what you need for what I consider to be the benchmark for good alto sound.
Why do I say that Super 20’s like this are the best altos ever? The overall combination of tone, beauty, and ergonomics. For me, great tone that you get from these full pearls Super 20’s is pretty hard to beat. It’s warm, full, rich, and projecting, but without any hint of shrillness or thinness. Cannonball’s tone, I always think of as a tenor saxophone reincarnated in the body of an alto, and that’s pretty much what a Super 20 alto like this is. It feels like the tone is coming from a bigger, deeper instrument, but in the alto register, which is really remarkable.
Just for fun, here’s Cannonball on his Series II Super 20 playing one of his classic ballads, Dancin’ in the Dark.
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