One of my favourite dealers of vintage saxophones has a minty Dörfler & Jörka alto for sale at the moment. Mark Wiseman, who owns The Little Sax Shop, has a silver plated, Impala alto, serial # 13428, listed on eBay at the moment.
Like all silver plated D&J horns that I’ve seen to date, this one has real mother of pearl key touches and decorative buttons. (The two tone models appear to mostly have a fake M.O.P. as their accents.)
Source: Mark Wiseman
Here is how Mark describes this little gem of an alto:
Just back from a professional renovation/service, disassembled, cleaned, all new corks, felts, some new pads, regulated perfectly. I am extremely tempted to keep this alto. It plays with such an exquisite tone that I have never experienced in a German horn, or perhaps any other horn for that matter – it sings like an angel. It makes the descriptive words ‘deep’, warm’ and ‘heavenly’ look redundant. It has a close action that I can only describe as like being on rails, it is that fast, comfortable and ‘safe’ – meaning that it goes where you want it to go when you want it. It just behaves.
The alto is in immaculate condition, there are a few very light areas of scratching, and some minor (and expert) dent removal on the middle back, impossible to photograph. The pads are older but are all doing perfectly what they should. If it sounds this good now, what’s it going to be like with a new set of pads?
Beautiful keywork, pearls (check out the mother of pearl thumb rest). Oh yes, rolled tone holes.
The alto is engraved Impala, after the well known and very common German animal. (?) This does not affect the tone, I can assure you.
The case is a bit of a beauty too, also immaculate.
In conclusion, an exceptionally high quality German horn, with a simply beautiful tone. 50 years old? Are you kidding? I recommend this instrument to absolutely anyone, be they a complete beginner, an aspiring music student, or a professional classical or jazz musician. I would think it will be a long time before there is another one of these for sale. It’s a bit of a worry that I want to keep it too…oh yes, it is nickel plated, or German ‘silver’, so you won’t ever need to polish it.
The photos do not disappoint. They show a horn in wonderful condition.
Source: Mark Wiseman
Although we might have seen photos of these D&J horns ad nauseum, how many of us have actually heard them? Mark has uploaded a brief video to You Tube which demonstrates the core sound of these mid century German saxophones.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEQldXR8z7o&feature=player_embedded
Very Keilwerthesque, wouldn’t you say? D&J of course shares a lot of common history with the J. Keilwerth company. Josef Dörfler worked for J. Keilwerth before he co-founded D&J, and then the 2 companies did work co-operatively for a number of years.
The J. Keilwerth company did eventually take over the D&J production machinery, and some unfinished products, in 1965 when one of the partners (Jörka) retired. Josef Dörfler then later went to work for Keilwerth again, and eventually became responsible for training Julius’ grandson, Gerhard. Today, Gerhard owns his own vintage saxophone restoration and sales shop in Nauheim.
For a full history of the company, and their rather detailed involvement with Keilwerth, check out the Dörfler & Jörka page on the main portion of my site.
The auction for this minty D&J alto runs until April 23. The Buy It Now price on the sax is £599.00—which eBay currently estimates to be approximately $962.05. Or, if you like, you can always make the man an offer. At the time of writing, there were no offers yet on the vintage German, Keilwerth clone horn.
Update: Mark decided to end this auction on April 10. The horn had not sold.