Jazz Collector Listener’s Guide, Nov. 28, 2008

It’s Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and, for some reason, this seems a day to sit around and do nothing except listen to music. So I have been in my music room poring through records and putting on some favorites that I don’t listen to all of the time, or haven’t listened to on vinyl in a while. I started with an old Riverside, Bags Meets Wes, Riverside 407. This was recorded in December 1961 and features a great rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Sam Jones and Philly Joe Jones, in addition, of course, to Milt Jackson and West Montgomery.  Side one starts with a blues, “S.K.J”  and then Stablemates, Stairway to the Stars and another blues, Blue Roz. I got involved listening to Philly Joe on brushes, which is always a miracle, and that led me to Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness, Prestige 7047, not Side One with Coltrane, but Side Two featuring Paul’s Pal, with some great Philly Joe brushwork, then My Reverie and The Most Beautiful Girl in the world. Read more

eBay Today, Sept. 30

It’s another VERY slow day for high-end jazz collectibles on eBay. Is there something going on that we’re not aware of? Anyway, here are some interesting items of note that are closing today:

Joe Newman, I’m Still Swinging, RCA 1198. This is the one with the Andy Warhol cover. As we noted in an earlier post, this sold recently on eBay for $200. This one’s current price is $16.50.

Art Taylor, Taylor’s Tenors, Prestige New Jazz 8219. This is an original pressing with the purple label and it seems to be in nice condition. Offered by Atomic Records, which is one of the larger jazz dealers on eBay.

Zoot Sims, Zoot!, Riverside 228. This is an original pressing with the white label in nice condition. Current price is only around $30. That’s pretty low. It’ll be interesting to see how high it goes up.

Hank Mobley, The Turnaround, Blue Note 4186. This is an original pressing with the New York USA label.

Oh, and we almost forgot our own listings: 

The Complete Lee Morgan Fifties Blue Note Sessions, Mosaic MQ6-162.

Miles Davis, The Complete Plugged Nickel Sessions, Mosaic MQ10-158.

Catching Up With Some Interesting Collectibles

Here are some interesting results from some records we’ve been watching on eBay:

Red Garland, All Kinds of Weather, Prestige 7148. This is an original yellow label pressing with the New Jersey address in M- condition. Price: $385. I’ve never quite figured out which Red Garland records sell for the highest prices, and why. So, if anyone out there has the answer, please post a comment.

Here’s an interesting one: Paul Chambers, Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1534. What’s interesting is that this was not an original pressing: The original pressing on this has the Lexington Avenue address, and this copy had the West 63rd street address. So it was not original and it was only in VG condition, yet it still sold for $124.50.

Ben Webster, Soulville, Verve 8274. This was an original pressing with the trumpeter logo in M- condition and sold for $190.09. That’s a pretty nice price for a Ben Webster on Verve. This was sold by

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A Weekend With Jackie, Basie, Warhol, Monk

As promised, here are a few more records to keep an eye on this weekend, as well as some sellers who have interesting items.

Jackie McLean, A Long Drink of the Blues, Prestige New Jazz 8253. I‘ve always loved the second side of this LP, with Jackie in a quartet setting doing Embraceable You, I Cover the Waterfront and These Foolish things. This particular copy of the record is an original, but not in great condition. Sometimes, if the price is right, it makes sense to bid on something like this, hoping that the record sounds better than it looks. In any case, this is a record worth looking at and it’s also worth looking at some of the other items from this seller this weekend.  A few weeks ago we wrote about a Joe Newman record selling for a high price because of a cover illustration by Andy Warhol. Now here’s another album with a Warhol cover, Count Basie, RCA 1112. This is being sold by Atomic Records, one of the largest eBay jazz sellers.

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The Tal Farlow Album, Autographed

For those of you keeping score at home, here are some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay:

 

Tal Farlow, The Tal Farlow Album, Norgran 1047. This is an autographed copy in M-/M- condition. Price: $249.95.  This was one of those records I planned to bid on but figured the price would go too high because of the condition of the LP and the presence of the autograph. The first bid was $249.95 and I expected it to go way up from there. But nobody else bid, including me. Read more

Filling in Some Blanks

As we go through records preparing to sell them on eBay, we always seem to find a few that fail to list the accompanying musicians. When this happens, we go through our source material to try to fill in the blanks. Among the resources we use most often are The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, which we have on CD-ROM; various Internet sites, such as The All Music Guide; plus several discographies we have in our collection, including those for Blue Note, Savoy, Prestige, Verve, Clef and Norgran.

Whenever we find this information we will post it on the Website. So here are some of our recent findings: Read more

Is That Bill Evans With Tony Scott?

Today we answer a couple of questions from readers and keep our ongoing eye on eBay.

 Q. It always drives me crazy when records don’t list all the musicians. I was recently listening to a copy of The Touch of Tony Scott on the RCA label. The pianist sounded like Bill Evans, but I wasn’t sure. Can you please tell me who is on this album?

A. Good ears. The pianist is Bill Evans, very early in his career. You can hear him very effectively on “Round Midnight.” The album was recorded by three different bands on three dates in 1956. Read more