Podcast: Jazz-y Blues, Blues-Y Jazz

This week’s theme is blues-influenced jazz and jazz-influenced blues. Artists include Lavern Baker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Count Basie, Lambert Hendricks and Ross, Joe Williams.

Jazz Vinyl Miscellany and Mail

Before getting back to writing about my own experiences doing the recent auction with Carolina Soul Records, let’s return to our normal activity of watching other peoples’ rare jazz vinyl in eBay and taking a peak in the old Jazz Collector inbox. Let’s start with Sonny Clark Trio, Blue Note 1579. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record is listed in VG+ condition. The cover is also listed as VG+, but the pictures show it to be no better than VG. It’s from a seller in Thailand who has one feedback. The start price is $1,250 with less than a day left on the auction. We’ll see if anyone is desperate enough to take that kind of risk. Meanwhile, I have a beautiful VG++ copy that may make it to the next round of auctions. Or, maybe not. Read more

Playing Favorites

No sooner did I empty the Jazz Collector eBay watch list did I fill it up again, starting with two of my all-time favorite records from the same seller: Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness, Prestige 7047. This is an original New York yellow label listed in M- condition for the record and probably VG+ for the cover, based on the description and the pictures. Maybe VG for the cover. I know the seller and he is very reputable. The auction closes in about three days and the start price is about $450 with no bidders yet. Another of my favorites from this seller Benny Golson Sextet, The Modern Touch, Riverside 256. This looks to be an original pressing with the blue label and small logo. The record and cover are both in M- condition. This one also closes in about three days, with a start price of about $250 and no bidders . . . yet. Both of these records will sell, if not to anyone else then perhaps to me. Yes, I have copies. But the M- Golson is a strong upgrade for one of my top records. Love the arrangements and all the playing, especially an impeccable Kenny Dorham. Read more

Four For Blue Note

Random Blue Note jazz vinyl from our eBay watch list, starting with Herbie Hancock, Empyrean Isles, Blue Note 4175. This is an original mono pressing listed in M- condition for the record and cover. Seller rates it a ten on a scale of one to ten, for whatever that is worth. I had this in my queue and a reader sent me a link and it has 70 watchers, so it is, at the very least, a widely viewed listing that closes within a couple of hours of when I post this. The bidding is already more than $900 and at that price it will set a new high for this record, according to Popsike, but we are fully expecting that this copy will break into the $1,000 bin. Read more

Highlights from a (sold) Estate Sale

A reader sent me a link to this estate sale with a note that it was being sold as a complete collection: The Estate of Alan J. Javorcky: Noted Trombone and Jazz Musician.  I received the note around 3 p.m. yesterday and went immediately to the site.  First thing I saw was a note that the jazz collection had been sold and was no longer available. I decided to look anyway, and I suggest that you do the same before they take the pictures away.Go all the way down to lot #212. First you’ll see a batch of EPs. At first blush, I thought these were 10-inch LPs erroneously listed as EPs, but I’m pretty sure they are EPs. Maybe someone can confirm. The picture is from that group of EPs It’s a challenge because the EPs and 10-inch LPs often used the same covers. Move down to 310 and you start with LPs of the 10- and 12-inch kind. Read more

Jazz Collector In Box: Time Traveling in Jazz

Time to catch up with the old Jazz Collector in box. My friend Dan sends me cool pictures that he finds somewhere on the internet. This one came in the other day from March 20, 1963, the opportunity to see John Coltrane in New Orleans for an admission charge of $2. Ah, if we could go back in time. What would be your first choice? Bird on 52nd Street; Sonny, Max and Clifford; Blakey with Horace Silver and Clifford Brown; Blakey with Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard; Lester with Basie; Billie Holiday; Miles with Trane, Bill Evans and Cannonball; Evans and LaFaro; Monk with Newk or Trane? Those would be some of my choices, off the top of my head, and certainly Coltrane with McCoy, Garrison and Elvin in 1963 would  be somewhere near the top of the list. If I had to choose one, it would be easy: Bird. Read more

The Musings of Me

Just yesterday morning I finished writing a book that I have been co-ghost writing along with my business partner, Mike. It is nothing too exciting and has nothing to do with jazz, unless you could somehow make a connection between cybersecurity and jazz, which I could not do, nor would I ever want to do. I was thinking, perhaps, that working somewhat diligently on the book was both a reason and an excuse for my recent absence from Jazz Collector and my paucity of posts over the past couple of months. Perhaps that is partly true but, of course, it is not the whole story. Sometimes when you are writing intently and intensely for work, the idea of writing for fun becomes less appealing.

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Blue Notes and Beyond

The Jazz Record Center has a veritable Blue Note Jazz Festival on eBay now, with several beauties, including a couple that are already sitting in the $3,000 bin, including: Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 1535. This is an original 12-inch pressing with the Lexington Avenue address, flat rim playing surface and frame cover. This looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The auction closes in a bit more than one day and the bidding is already at $3,015. Then there is the Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This is also an original Lexington Avenue, frame cover pressing, and this one has promo stamps on the labels. The record looks to be in M- condition and the cover is probably M- or, at worse, VG++ for sticklers. The bidding is at $3,000. Read more

Soul Sisters, Smithvilles and Other Vinyl Rarities

Since I haven’t been posting as frequently as I used to, I find I have a backlog in my watchlist of items I meant to write about, but haven’t had a chance. So let’s go back a few weeks and see what we missed, starting with Horace Silver, Serenade to a Soul Sister, Blue Note 4277. This was an original Liberty Mono pressing and was part of the recent Jazz Record Center auction. I honestly never realized any copy of this record was viewed as highly collectible until I read the JRC’s description of it as “the rare Van Gelder-stamped mono pressing.” Apparently these mono pressings were never sold to the public. I often find I learn something new whenever JRC has an auction. This copy was in M- condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $464. Guess I’ll have to settle for my nice stereo pressing.

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