Wandering around this wonderful place called zee infrawebz, I stumbled upon an old King Cleveland alto sax. The guy only wanted $79 for it so I assumed it was a basket case. I exchanged some email with him and he said the bottom three pads may need replacing but he can play it down to low D. I decided that I could live with replacing three pads. I have a guy here named Tommy Ianni who is great for horn repairs, though like most guys who are good, he is very busy.

So in the course of emailing, I asked if he would consider selling it outside of auction. He said he would but the buy it now price was too high, so I decided to ride out the auction. That auction ended today about 10:30am EST, and I ended up getting the thing for $87.86!! With shipping, right at $110.

Now the story gets good. Before I bought I ran the serial number and found that this sax was built between 1960 and 1964. That puts the horn well inside the years that my father worked at King, which was H.N. White until right around that time. My uncle also worked there, and many family friends worked there, most of whom had kids I went to school with. So this will be a nice sentimental value horn to own.

Now, it gets better. The repair guy I mentioned? Tommy Ianni? His dad, Tom senior, also worked at H.N. White/King Band with my father, so we have known each other on and off since we were young children. I am pretty sure when I take the horn in next week Tommy and I will share a moment thinking back to our fathers working together at the place that horn was built.

This sax will be the second King instrument I have, the other being a flute I bought in 1997. My father passed away in 1991, and this sax will be great to have. Hopefully I can get it in shape and use it for this year's reunion show in October. It HAS to sound better than what I play now....