Herbie Nichols Trio on Blue Note: The Winner Is . . .

Okay, time to announce the winner of our latest contest to give away a jazz collectible. This one is: Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519. This is a vinyl reissue from, I think, the mid-1980s, issued by Pathe Marconi in France. The record and the cover are in M- condition and the music is mint-plus. It features Max Roach on drums, plus Al McKibbon or Teddy Kotick on bass. As always, we have one copy to give away and we are giving it to someone who has commented on the Jazz Collector site during the past two weeks. That’s how we do things: Comment on the site, be eligible to win a free collectible. This week we have 17 eligible contestants, all of whom we would like to thank for commenting on the site and all of whom we would like to encourage to continue doing so. They are:

Read more

Win A Free Collectible: Herbie Nichols on Blue Note

Now that we’ve given away the Billie Holiday record it is time to turn our attention to the next contest. As mentioned, we decided to go through the collection we purchased the other night to come up with something worthy. There were many candidates, and the one we chose is this: Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519. This is a French reissue of this classic Blue Note LP featuring Nichols on piano with Max Roach on drums and either Al McKibbon or Teddy Kotick on bass. We can safely give this one away since the one in our collection is a Lexington Avenue pressing. As always with these contests, the goal is to encourage people to comment on the Jazz Collector site. It is working and we are getting both more comments and more commentators. Anyway, we have

Read more

Billie Holiday At Carnegie Hall: The Winner Is . . . .

Time to give away the Billie Holiday record: The Essential Billie Holiday Carnegie Hall Concert, Verve 8410. This is an original pressing with the MGM label and the gatefold cover. It’s an interesting piece in that it intersects Billie’s singing with a narrative from her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues. The goal with this give-away, as with all of our give-aways, has been to encourage people to comment on the Jazz Collector site. The good news is that the tactic seems to be working: Since we began this particular contest we’ve had 22 separate people posting comments on the site, which is our high mark for a two-week period. So thank you to everyone for contributing. OK, rather than list everyone’s name — you know who you are — we will just delve into

Read more

Win A Free Record: Billie Holiday at Carnegie Hall

Okay, it is time for our next Jazz Collector free collectible give-away contest. We always try to find interesting items for you, and this time we are offering up this: The Essential Billie Holiday Carnegie Hall Concert, Verve 8410. This is an original pressing with the MGM label and the gatefold cover. The record is in nice condition, although there are some marks at the end of side two. It’s an interesting record in that it was recorded in 1956 and issued here in 1961 as part of Verve’s Essentials series, which were tributes to jazz greats on the Verve labels, several of whom, unfortunately, had died. These included Lester Young and Charlie Parker. This LP was recorded live at Carnegie Hall as part of a concert in which Holiday sang and in which she also  had several sections of her autobiography, Lady Sings The Blues, read aloud to highlight various aspects of her life and to

Read more

The Sound of Sonny Rollins: The Winner Is . . .

Okay, it’s time to announce the winner of Jazz Collector’s latest giveaway. This time, you may recall, we are giving away a copy of Sonny Rollins, The Sound of Sonny, Riverside 241. This is not an original pressing and is an OJC pressing. Yet it is in near mint condition and it is great jazz vinyl featuring some fantastic Rollins from the mid-1950s. We had put this up as a way of honoring Rollins in the wake of yet another snub by the Kennedy Center Honors. Anyway, as with all of our giveaways, all you have to do to be eligible to win is to comment on the Jazz Collector site, anywhere, in response to anything, as long as the comment is made during the duration of the contest. The eligible contestants this time are:

Read more

Jazz Collector Honors Sonny With FREE Record

Okay, if the Kennedy Center won’t honor Sonny Rollins, we will. In honor of Sonny’s recent 79th birthday on Monday, we will be giving away a free copy of one of Sonny’s classic LPs from the 1950s: Sonny Rollins, The Sound of Sonny, Riverside 241. Of course, this is not quite an original pressing: It is an OJC reissue. Still it is a great record, it’s in near mint condition, and it’s available free. As with all of our contests, we have one copy of the record and we will hold a drawing to determine the winner. In order to be eligible all you have to do is comment somewhere on the Jazz Collector site between now and when the contest closes, on September 21. You can comment anywhere — perhaps you want to weigh in on whether you agree with me that Sonny is being short-changed by not receiving a Kennedy Center honor. If you comment on the site between now and September 21 we’ll put you in the running for the contest. It’s as simple as that. By the way, if you want to see a funny out-take from my attempt to photograph the record, read the rest of this article.

Read more

Free Bird LP: The Winner Is . . .

OK, the summer is over, the living is no longer easy, and it’s time to give away our latest free record: Charlie Parker Memorial Volume 1, Blue Note 12000. This is an original pressing with the deep red label and the deep groove. It’s not in mint condition, but it is quite nice and quite listenable. As we have mentioned many times before, all you have to do to be eligible to win our record contests is to post a comment on the Jazz Collector site — anywhere on the site — from the time the contest begins until it ends. The idea is to encourage visitors to comment on the site. The concept seems to be catching on: This time we have our highest number of eligible contestants, and the amount of commenting on the site is clearly growing (as is the overall traffic, by the way). Anyway, those eligible to win this week’s grand prize are:

Read more

Win A Free Collectible: Original Bird on Savoy

Okay, we are going to celebrate the impending end of summer with our best give-away to date: This is a genuine collectible, an original pressing of an all-time great LP: Charlie Parker Memorial, Savoy 12000. Yes, this is an original pressing with the red Savoy label and the deep groove. The record is not in perfect condition, but it sounds real nice, with just enough surface noise to certify it’s authenticity as a release from the mid-1950s. This features Bird in a variety of settings, with Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Duke Jordan, Curley Russell and others. It’s a mix of Bird’s Savoy material, from his earliest dates with Tiny Grimes, to his tenor sessions with Miles, to classics such as Steeplechase and Barbados. In order to be eligible to win this record, all you have to do is

Read more

My Favorite Things: The Winner Is . . .

Time to do the drawing for the winner of the great LP, John Coltrane, My Favorite Things, Atantic 1361. This is a near mint stereo pressing, not an original, but it sounds great and it’s one of the classics, despite the surprising criticisms from some of our favorite commentators. For me, this is a real favorite and one of the first records I fell in love with when I fell in love with jazz. I find the title track powerful and innovative and am a huge fan of the way Trane does “But Not For Me,” with an echo of his Prestige years, but the clear growth he had shown in Giant Steps. And then there is Everytime We Say Goodbye, which Mrs JC and I took for our wedding song. Speaking of Mrs. JC, here she is to select this week’s winner. As most of you know by now, the rules for our contests are simple: All you have to do to be eligible to win

Read more

Free Collectible Time: My Favorite Things (Really)

Is it possible someone could be reading Jazz Collector and not own a vinyl copy of John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things? Perhaps we’ll find out, because this is the prize in our next free collectible contest. We have a beautiful near mint later stereo pressing of My Favorite Things, Atlantic 1361, which we will be giving away to one fortunate reader of Jazz Collector in two weeks. This, of course, is a classic record and should be a staple of any jazz collection, even if your jazz collection consists of only five records. But maybe there are readers of our site who are newcomers to jazz and coming to learn, or who have somehow missed out on this record, or who would like a second copy to put in another room of their home, or perhaps one to frame and hang somewhere for perpetual inspiration. I, for one, have copies of this record in at least three different rooms in my house, plus another in my lake cottage. But, of course, I am certifiably insane. Nevertheless, if you would like to win a copy of My Favorite Things for any reason whatsoever, all you have to do is . . .

Read more

1 2 3 4 5