Category: Jazz Memoirs

Happy Birthday, Cannonball

2 comments

Thank you to Don-Lucky for pointing out that this would have been Cannonball Adderley’s 81st birthday. I’ll never forget where I was when Cannonball died back in August 1975. I was driving my car in Auburn, N.Y., where I was just breaking in as a newspaper reporter. I had to pull over to compose myself. Cannonball was always a big figure for me because he was a favorite of my father’s and I saw him a few times as a kid and also because the album Live At The Lighthouse was the first or second record that really set me on the path to becoming a jazz fan and, eventually, a jazz collector. For my money, after Bird there was Cannon on alto and then a big gap to whoever would be next. I’ve been putting records on eBay lately, a lot of duplicates, and I listen to parts of them before I post them. Every time I put on a Cannonball record, particularly the early ones on Mercury, I am surprised and amazed once again at just how much he had under his fingers and how naturally he swung and how everything he did was just great. So, Happy Birthday, indeed. By the way,

Read more

Live At Monterey: Jazz Collector

3 comments

For any of you who may find yourselves in the wilds of Western Massachusetts this weekend, you can come down to the Monterey General Store on Sunday and catch a live performance of none-other-than yours truly. It is a long and complicated story that brings me there, and I won’t get into the details now, but I have a minor ability to play rhythm guitar and I will be doing so in support of my friend Dan Axelrod, who I have mentioned many times on this site as a brilliant jazz guitarist and protege of the late Tal Farlow. Many years ago, Dan and I used to play fairly regularly. That’s us in the picture, with more hair and less girth. I’m on the left. Don’t laugh — it was a time when mustaches like that were quite respectable. Anyway, a few years ago we revived the act and played at the Monterey General Store — which is, quite literally, a general store — and this weekend we are reviving the act for a “jazz brunch” from noon to 2 p.m. The music will be good and the gig should be a lot of fun. I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

Adventures in Jazz Collecting: 78s

9 comments

I asked the question the other day: Does anyone out there collect 78s? No one replied, so I figured I would get the ball rolling.

The answer to the question, for me, is that I don’t collect 78s. I do, however, have more than 1,000 78s. The reason I say I don’t collect 78s is because if I did collect them, I’d be obsessed about them and worried about filling in my collection and getting all the Blue Notes and searching for 78s and hunting them down on eBay. That is what I do with my LP collection. I have never done that with 78s. Yet, through the years I have accumulated them.

It started back in the 1980s. There was an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper. A guy had a collection of jazz 78s and wanted to get rid of them. Normally I wouldn’t have cared, but I was curious: What if there were some original Bird 78s on Dial? So I called him and, indeed, there were some original Bird 78s on Dial: Yardbird Suite, Moose The Mooche, A Night in Tunisia. Holding these in my hand, it really felt like I was holding a piece of jazz history. The guy had about 1,000 78s and wanted $100 for them. That night I walked into the house and began unloading crates of 78s. Mrs. JC just looked at me and sighed.

Then, of course, I had to get a 78 player. I still have the first one I ever purchased: A crank-handle

Read more

A Record Bash & (Another) Adventure in Jazz Collecting

3 comments

As I write this, there is a gathering of jazz collectors taking place 50 miles from me in the wilds of Iselin, New Jersey. This would be the annual Jazz Record Collector’s Bash, which, according to the promotions, has been taking place annually for 35 years. The event actually began last night with the dealers setting up and continues through today and tomorrow, starting at 8 a.m. each day. For more information, you can go to their Web site by clicking here. I used to attend this event fairly regularly when it was in East Brunswick, NJ, which, of course leads to a story. I have been a jazz collector for nearly 40 years now and have never thought of myself as a seller of jazz records. Perhaps that is why I call the site Jazz Collector as opposed to Jazz Seller. Anyway, like many of you I’m sure, through the years I had accumulated

Read more

Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 4

4 comments

So I finally got home on Monday after my trip to Trenton and massive traffic on the Belt Parkway through Brooklyn and Queens. I started unloading the records, My nosy neighbor was watching. I smiled. “Records,” I said. I’m not sure she knew what I was talking about. The records filled the front foyer of my house. There were seven crates altogether. I had decided to just take everything that Rob had. This included Christmas records, and Aretha Franklin, and some pretty well damaged jazz records. The first two crates I looked through had nothing. Was it all an illusion? In my rush of adrenaline and musk and mold and dust, did I imagine that there were collectible jazz records in this batch? I went searching for the Tina Brooks record. This I knew was a collectible. I grabbed it. The moldy flakes from the cover fell off in my hands. I grabbed the vinyl, went upstairs and put it on my VPI record cleaner. The dust and dirt and grime and mold came off, but the record was in only VG condition. And the cover? It was pretty bad, and it reeked of mold and musk. I threw it in the garbage. Not a good start.

Read more

Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 3

6 comments

OK, so I let the nice collection in Hartford slip through my fingers. But I knew there was another option: Trenton, New Jersey. For the past couple of weeks I’d been dealing on line and on the phone with a guy named Rob in Trenton. Rob said his father had a friend who passed away and left his records to Rob’s dad, who had also passed away. Rob had been holding on to the records for years and was now ready to get rid of them. He’d come across Jazz Collector on line and saw some of the prices in the Price Guide and figured maybe they were worth something. We chatted and he sent me a bunch of pictures of records. There were definitely some nice ones in there, but there was no way for me to tell if they were originals or if they were in good condition. So I didn’t get too excited. Besides, I wasn’t sure what Rob wanted to do. At first I thought he might be interested in selling the records himself on eBay, and I told him that, in my opinion, that would be the way to get the best value for the records.

Read more

Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 2

2 comments

A couple of months ago my wife, the lovely Mrs. Jazz Collector, wrote a short article about me dragging her and my kids all over the place in my never-ending search for the perfect record score. But lately I’ve been trying to sell records rather than accumulate more, so it hasn’t happened. Then I started Jazz Collector and now, thanks to the Internet, I get at least one or two emails a week from someone looking to sell a jazz collection. I haven’t been tempted. Until last week. On Friday I spoke to a woman in Hartford, Connecticut. She had 2,800 records that had belonged to her late husband. They were sitting in storage. She had no idea what they were worth. There were a lot of Blue Notes and Prestiges and other records she had seen in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. She said she’d been offered $5,000 for the records, but thought they might be worth more. I told her I’d drive up from New York and would see her in a few hours. I dragged along Mrs JC as well as Marty, our dog. We went to the bank and pulled out $7,500 in cash.

Read more

Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 1

One comment

I’ve had a very interesting couple of days. In my life I’ve bought one complete jazz collection, from my best friend Dan Axelrod more than 20 years ago. It was a transaction of convenience: I got to keep the records, and he kept them in the family and could visit them whenever he wants. Since then, I’ve seen collections but either didn’t have the money or the inclination to buy them. Then I started doing Jazz Collector and a few weeks ago I put a little advertisement on the site that states: We BUY Collections. Ever since I put up that ad, I’ve been getting at least one or two inquiries a week and then, on Friday and again yesterday, I looked at two jazz collections. I will write in more detail by the end of the day, so stay tuned, but here’s the bottom line: After driving up and down the New York metro area and up to New England, I am looking across a sprawl of records in my music room that includes nice original pressings of Capuchin Swing, Gil’s Guests, Sonny Rollins Movin’ Out, most of the Coltrane Prestige and Impulse albums, and many, many more. And, of course, I had a blast doing it.

Another $1,000 Record, This One in VG Condition

5 comments

We’ve been keeping an eye lately on jazz LPs that sell for more than $1,000, which is particularly interesting in light of some of the softness we’re seeing in other parts of the market. The LP True Blue by Tina Brooks, Blue Note 4041, is one that has broken the $1,000 many times. It is quite rare. In the Jazz Collector Price Guide, we’ve seen a copy go for as much as $2,075. So, we were watching this copy of True Blue this week to see what would happen in a soft market. The record wound up selling for $1,625. What makes this more interesting is that the vinyl was only in VG condition (the cover was VG++). It’s not so unusual these days for rare Blue Notes to top $1,000, but $1,625 for a record in VG condition, is still pretty high. Part of it attests to the rarity of this particular LP, and part, also, to the underlying soundness of the market, at least for the higher-end LPs.

I do have a personal experience with this LP to share:

Read more

An Appreciation of Sheila Jordan

One comment

From the Jazz Collector archives:

Like all collectors, I’ve let prized records slip through my fingers through the years. I would go to Dayton’s on 12th Street in Manhattan in the early 1980s and balk at their astronomical prices. Looking back, these “astronomical” prices were in the $50 and $60 range for original pressings of Blue Notes, Prestiges and other rarities. I remember passing on a mint copy of Hank Mobley’s Second Message, Prestige 7082, because I thought $45 was exorbitant. If you look at the Jazz Collector Price Guide on Jazzcollector.com, you’ll see that a copy recently sold for $661. Ah, to go back in time. Even more irksome are the lost treasures of my collection that I either sold or traded. I’ve gotten rid of some prized records this way, always figuring it would be no problem replacing them. Sure. Many of those that slipped away are gone forever, never to return. Read more

1 … 3 4 5 6 7