Category: The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown

Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Archie Shepp, Impulse

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When people ask me about my record collection or even my taste in jazz, I often kid around and tell them it ends in 1964. There is quite a bit of truth in that, however. My taste generally runs to bop and post-bop and, as I’m getting older, I’m finding it going more backwards into mainstream jazz than towards anything current. Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying I recently picked up a bunch of albums on the Impulse label and am in the throes of deciding what to keep and what to sell. I put this one on the turntable yesterday: Archie Shepp, Fire Music, Impulse 86. It seemed promising: A 1965 LP with tracks such as Prelude to a Kiss and The Girl From Ipanema. The record is in beautiful condition and I’m sure it is a classic of its genre. But

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Early Eric Dolphy

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We were cleaning this record yesterday to put it up on eBay: The Chico Hamilton Quintet With Strings Attached, Warner Brothers 1245. It is an original pressing in pretty nice condition. It was in a pile of records to sell. It was not one I was even considering keeping, so it wasn’t even going to get a mention in the Jazz Vinyl Countdown. Then I looked at the liner notes, where it mentions a “newcomer” on reeds by the name of Eric Dolphy. I had forgotten about Dolphy getting started with Hamilton. Anyway, I decided to give this record a second chance. I put it on the turntable. Quite interesting Dolphy — he plays mostly straight, but you can absolutely hear the direction he will head towards in the next few years. So, after listening to several tracks, what’s the verdict?

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Bird’s First, Autographed

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Here’s an interesting test: With this winnowing down of the jazz vinyl collection, are we still a collector or have we morphed into something else  — perhaps a dealer-slash-collector-slash-aficionado or something other equally endearing term? Well, we have two copies of this pretty rare 10-inch record: Jay McShann, Kansas City Memories, Decca 5503. This record is noteworthy because it is the first studio recording of one Charles Christopher Parker Jr. Bird’s solos on The Jumpin’ Blues and (especially) Hootie Blues usher in a new era in jazz. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? Both of our copies of this record are in pretty nice condition, but one of them has a bonus feature: An autograph on the back by

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Ike Quebec, Blue Note

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We were watching this record carefully on eBay: Ike Quebec, It Might As Well Be Spring, Blue Note 4105. It was an original pressing in M- condition, both the record and the cover. It sold for $276, which is about as high a price as we’ve seen for one of the Ike Quebec LPs on Blue Note. We figured perhaps it would be a good time to sell our copy as well. Turns out, we don’t have a copy. We have three other Ike Quebec Blue Notes: Blue And Sentimental, Blue Note 4098; Heavy Soul, Blue Note 4093; and Soul Samba, Blue Note 4114. Anyway, we figured we’d try one out and see if it will make the cut as we reduce our collection to 1,000 records. The one we chose is Heavy Soul, figuring this was the least likely to stay, since the rhythm section

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Jackie Mclean, 4, 5 & 6

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Okay, this was a close one: Jackie McLean, 4, 5 and 6, Prestige 7048. I’ve had a copy of this in my collection forever, an original New York pressing. I probably listened to it once when I first got it. Someone had placed about 10 stamps on the back cover: “Club Soulville.” I recently saw a copy on eBay — VG on the vinyl, VG+ on the cover. For $60 or so, I was able to get it for a nice cover upgrade and get rid of Club Soulville. This morning I got up real early and took a look at both records, figuring now was the time to figure which one to sell. Quite unfortunately, they both looked  quite marked up. The one I bought on eBay was not really a VG, it was more like a VG-, with lots of marks. The one I had in my collection — the Club Soulville copy — didn’t look that much better. Could it be that I would be in a position to get rid of both copies? Alas, thank goodness for the heavy vinyl on

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Serge Chaloff, Boston Blow-Up!

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This is one I had on the to-get-rid-of list for sure. I’ve owned a mint copy for 25 or so years and never listened to it. I found a second copy and put it on eBay last night. In order to list it on eBay I finally put it on the turntable. You know what? I’m selling the one on eBay and keeping the one in my collection. This is quite a nice record, Serge was some player and the bari version of Body and Soul is certainly worth the price of admission. Now I’ve got to give a second listen to Blue Serge before I get any thoughts about getting rid of that one as well. That may be harder to keep, since it is now selling for several hundred dollars in today’s market. I’m hoping that during the course of this process I’ll discover music that’s been sitting around the collection for awhile. I had the same experience with

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The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown: John Coltrane, Settin’ The Pace, Prestige 7213

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As you may expect, the whole idea of permanently and arbitrarily shrinking my record collection, which has taken close to 40 years to accumulate, is causing quite a bit of trauma around here, around here being inside my very guts. So, if you’ll excuse me, I will ease into the process over the next few days before undertaking any gut-wrenching decisions. Therefore I shall start with one of my all-time favorite records: John Coltrane, Settin’ the Pace, Prestige 7213. This is a great record, probably my second favorite of all the Coltrane Prestiges (right behind Soultrane). The first “Arthur Schwartz” side, with the amazing ballad “I See Your Face Before Me” and the incredible “If There Is Someone Lovelier Than You” is all-time great Trane. The challenge is not deciding whether to keep this record for a collection of 1,000 — if the collection were to be shrunk to 20 records, this would probably still make the cut. The question is merely

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The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown

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I counted my records the other day. At least I counted most of them. I didn’t count the 78s and I didn’t count the ones in storage. The ones in storage are all to be sold and the 78s are, well, 78s. No matter. The point is this. I have more records than I want. I have them in four separate rooms in two separate homes. I have records I have owned for more than 25 years and have never put on a turntable. I have records by artists I don’t especially like. I have collected them because I am a collector. It is what I do. That is why my site is called Jazz Collector.

I counted the records because I have made a fairly momentous decision, and that decision is this: I am going to get rid of many of them. This is heresy, is it not? These are my friends, all hand selected personally by me. I have invited them into my home, to share my space, to give me comfort and joy in times of stress or sorrow. And they have served me well, all of them, in whatever way they could.

But the time has come to part ways with many of them. Why?

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