Jazz In Korea: A Story Goes With It

For those of you who won’t be in New York at the WFMU Record Fair this weekend, we are watching some  jazz vinyl on eBay. Here’s an interesting one with a story behind it: Howard McGhee and his Korean All Stars, Jazz At the Battlefront Volume 1, Hi-Lo 6001. This is an original 10-inch LP. It is listed in M- condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover. The current price is a little more than $100 and the seller is Euclid Records, who we hope to see at the record fair on Sunday. Anyway, this is the story behind the record. From what I recall, the great jazz bass player Oscar Pettiford was hired by the U.S. government to lead a group of jazz players to go over to Korea to play for the troops who were stationed there in 1951 or 1952. So he put together a group including Howard McGhee on trumpet, JJ Johnson on trombone, Rudy Williams on tenor sax, Skeeter Best on guitar and Charles Rice on drums. Pettiford, of course, was to be on bass — except something happened. I had heard it was a fight, perhaps in a bar, but my

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Prestige Day: Jackie, Farmer, Fuller, Webster Young

The past few days we’ve been catching up on some Blue Notes and some 10-inchers. Now it’s time for our old friend Prestige:

Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Pal, Prestige 7068. This one was in M- condition for both the record and the cover and it was another one out of the batch from Nautiluso. The price was $896. While we were there, we checked out whether there’s any new feedback on this seller from the amazing collection of a few weeks ago. So far, there’s nothing new to report. We’ll keep looking.

Art Farmer Quintet Featuring Gigi Gryce, Prestige 7017. This was an original New York yellow-label pressing and was offered by Euclid Records. The record was VG++ and the cover was M-. The price was $203.50, which is a bit more than we’ve seen in the past for this record, but certainly well deserved as an early Prestige with some great artists.

Curtis Fuller, New Trombone, Prestige 7107. This was an original New York pressing, also

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Catching Up: Miles, Cannon — What’s Going On?

Back on eBay after a couple of days’ break. Those auctions we were watching from the seller bobdjukic closed and, while we’re not looking to give this seller any undue publicity, we are quite fascinated with the prices he is somehow able to obtain — even higher than top dealers such as The Jazz Record Center and Euclid Records. We will give a few examples: This one we noted before: Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool, Capitol 762. This is an original British pressing, not even an original U.S. issue. It was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover and sold for an astounding $812.15. I recently sold a beautiful mint U.S. pressing of this record and was happy to get close to $100 for it. Is there something about the British pressing we’re not aware of? Doubt it, but somebody out there in the Jazz Collector world will know if there is. The other thing is, look at this quote from the seller’s description of Birth of the Cool:

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Art Pepper For the $1,000 Bin: Blues Walk, Almost

Here’s one for the $1,000 bin and another for the almost-$1,000 bin:

The Return of Art Pepper, Jazz West 10. This was an original pressing. The vinyl was listed in M- condition and appeared to be unplayed. The cover looked to be about VG+. The price was $1,155.55. We’ve seen several Art Pepper records cross the $1,000 barrier in the past: The Art Pepper Quartet on Tampa as well as Modern Art on Intro, which recently topped $1,500. This is the highest price we’ve seen yet for this LP, according to what we have followed in the Jazz Collector Price Guide.

Joining the almost-$1,000 bin, which is not really a bin, is this one:

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Today on eBay: Tal, Drew, Kenny Dorham, True Blue

We had a couple of hours to kill last night, so we did something we used to do every day: Scroll through a full 24 hours worth of jazz records listed on eBay. It was good timing, because we found some nice items for our Jazz Collector readers and one item we plan to bid on for ourselves.

Our friends at Euclid Records have a nice batch closing today, including: Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 224. This is an original white label pressing and is listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The current price is $1,256, so, Kenny Drew, welcome again to the $1,000 bin. Also from Euclid is The Tal Farlow Album, Norgran 1047. This is the 12-inch version with the beautiful cover by David Stone Martin. It is in M- condition for both the record and the cover and is currently in the $60 price range. My friend Dan Axelrod, who was Tal’s good friend and protege, swears that the 10-inch version of this record offers far better sound quality than the 12-inch version. I suppose that’s why he has more than a dozen copies of the 10-inch version. Nonetheless, the 12-inch Tal Farlow Album is quite lovely to listen to and quite collectible and is certainly a worthy addition to any collection.

It always pays to read the eBay listings carefully. Here’s an example why:

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No Summer Slump Yet: Lots Of $1,000 Records

We have quite a large number of items to add to the $1,000 and even $2,000 bins on this beautiful Monday morning in sunny New York. If there is a summer lull in prices on eBay, it hasn’t much made a dent in the prices of some of the high-end collectibles, such as these:

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1550. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing in beautiful M- condition, for both the record and cover. It was also sold by the seller Roverd-90, who had the Johnny Griffin the other day and also had a few others, such as the Lee Morgan Candy I’ll cover below. Quite a nice week for Mr. Roverd-90. This record sold for $1,825.

As mentioned, Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This is one of the rarest of the rare and was in beautiful M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $1,900.

We had pointed out the Jazz Record Center’s auction of Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This one was listed as mint condition — not even mint minus and we had predicted that it would sell for at least $2,000 and perhaps as much as $3,000. We were right the first time: This one fetched a price

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Waltz For Debby Hits The $2,000 Bin

Here’s one I somehow missed: Euclid Records had a sealed copy of Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby, Riverside 9399, which sold recently for $2,034, which is definitely a new high for this particular record. The question I have is this: What does a collector do with a sealed record? If you want to listen to it (presumably) you have to break the seal, and thereby it is no longer a sealed record. So do you just hang on to it and admire it and realize it’s still sealed and find another copy for listening? These are the things we think about here at Jazz Collector.

One For the $3,000 Bin

Here’s one that sold for more than $3,000 the other day: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This was an original pressing in M- condition, both record and cover. It had the advantage of being sold by Euclid Records, which is one of the larger sellers on eBay and has an excellent reputation. This copy sold for $3,416, which puts it among the Top Five we’ve recorded on the Jazz Collector Price Guide.  If you click the previous Price Guide link, it should take you to a page where all of the records are sorted by highest prices first, which is always a fun way to view the Price Guide. 

Speaking of prices, we’ve got some nice items closing tomorrow at pretty reasonable prices, and we just put up some interesting new items that are closing next week. Among the more interesting items we have up now are a Lexington Avenue pressing of Paul Chambers, Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1534. This is closing tomorrow and is currently about about $180. For next week

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Coming Up on Ebay: Rollins, Melle and Booker Ervin

Here are some interesting items we’re watching on eBay over the next few days:

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This is an original New York pressing with a promo stamp on the cover. The record is listed as M- and the cover is listed as VG++. The current price is about $115 with three days to go. It will be interesting to see the final price of this one, compared with the one sold earlier in the week by the Jazz Record Center, which went for $1,492. 

Gil Melle, Gil’s Guests, Prestige 7063. This is an original New York pressing with the yellow label. The record is listed as M- and the cover is VG++. The current price is about $100. As Rudolf pointed out in an earlier comment, the seller, Sweedeedee, has a nice variety of items up this week, including several vintage Prestige pressings, such as

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Today on Ebay: Trane and Mr. PC

We’re back watching eBay after taking some time off. It’s actually good to take a break every once in a while. Gives you a perspective that there are things more important than collectible jazz records. But not at Jazz Collector, so here are some items to watch:

This one’s from our friends at Euclid Records: John Coltane, Lush Life, Prestige 7188. This is an original yellow label pressing in M- condition. The current price is about $120. One of the things I’ve always liked about this record is the opportunity to hear Trane in a trio setting. This was around the time Sonny Rollins was playing with a trio and it seemed that Trane was emulating his friend and peer. Not the case, however, if you review the liner notes by Joe Goldberg, who asked Trane about why he was playing in a trio setting. Trane’s response?

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