Month: August 2009

Today on Ebay: Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On

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The seller Herschel78 is back with some very nice items that are closing today. Here are a few:

Jackie McLean, Lights Out, Prestige 7035. This record is VG++ and the cover is near and it’s an original pressing with the New York address and yellow label. A real beauty, at least in the picture. The current price on this one is $620 and there are still a few hours to go. Tempting, but I’m trying to get rid of records, not acquire them.

Also, Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584. This is an original pressing in near mint condition, “the finest copy you’ll ever see,” according to the listing. This is now at $800 and is a near certainty to crack the $1,000 barrier. In the Jazz Collector Price Guide we’ve seen it go for as much a $1,420.

This one is also in beautiful, near-mint condition:

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All Things Considered, Some Surprising Prices

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Time to catch up with some of the items we’ve been watching this past week. We will do this in a few posts throughout the weekend. We’ll start with some of those items sold by the seller bobdjukic, who’s clearly got something going on that enables him to get wacky prices as well as staggering numbers of page views.

We’ll start with Thelonious Monk, Monk’s Music, Riverside 1102. This was a later stereo pressing, with that gold stereo stamp that many of the Riverside’s carried. Clearly not an original, which was a white label mono. One time on eBay, an original copy sold for more than $3,000. We chronicled it on Jazz Collector and it created quite a stir. See here. In any case that price for a mono was an aberration, just as we feel the price here for a stereo is an aberration. This copy, in M- condition for the record and cover, sold for $413.55. The seller actually wrote this in his listing: “Monstrously rare stereo pressing, many times rarer than the mono.” Yikes.  The other amazing thing about this record: It had more than 1,700 page views in eBay. Yikes again.

Speaking of second pressings, there was the copy of John Coltrane, Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311. This was the one with the bulls-eye label, that was characterized as being of the same provenance as the black label. This record

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Win A Free Collectible: Original Bird on Savoy

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Okay, we are going to celebrate the impending end of summer with our best give-away to date: This is a genuine collectible, an original pressing of an all-time great LP: Charlie Parker Memorial, Savoy 12000. Yes, this is an original pressing with the red Savoy label and the deep groove. The record is not in perfect condition, but it sounds real nice, with just enough surface noise to certify it’s authenticity as a release from the mid-1950s. This features Bird in a variety of settings, with Miles Davis, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Duke Jordan, Curley Russell and others. It’s a mix of Bird’s Savoy material, from his earliest dates with Tiny Grimes, to his tenor sessions with Miles, to classics such as Steeplechase and Barbados. In order to be eligible to win this record, all you have to do is

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My Favorite Things: The Winner Is . . .

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Time to do the drawing for the winner of the great LP, John Coltrane, My Favorite Things, Atantic 1361. This is a near mint stereo pressing, not an original, but it sounds great and it’s one of the classics, despite the surprising criticisms from some of our favorite commentators. For me, this is a real favorite and one of the first records I fell in love with when I fell in love with jazz. I find the title track powerful and innovative and am a huge fan of the way Trane does “But Not For Me,” with an echo of his Prestige years, but the clear growth he had shown in Giant Steps. And then there is Everytime We Say Goodbye, which Mrs JC and I took for our wedding song. Speaking of Mrs. JC, here she is to select this week’s winner. As most of you know by now, the rules for our contests are simple: All you have to do to be eligible to win

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Today at Jazz Collector: Trane Reigns

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This is a busy day here at Jazz Collector, with a particular emphasis on John Coltrane collectibles. Some of the heavy-ticket items we’ve been watching are closing today, including that copy of Giant Steps, which is now more than $200; later today we will be announcing the winner of our contest to win a copy of My Favorite Things; and we are closing our last auctions for a couple of weeks, as we head off for a brief holiday. Have no fear, during the holiday we will still be doing our daily posts, and more, on Jazz Collector. Meanwhile, some of the items closing today.

Art Taylor, Taylor’s Wailers, Prestige 7117. This is an original pressing and the record features an all star lineup of John Coltrane, Jackie McLean and Charlie Rouse, among others. The record is in M- condition and the cover is VG++. The price is now about $450. This is one of those records in the batch being sold by Bobdjukic, which also includes the Giant Steps LP. What I find incredible is

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Phil Woods & eBay Existentialism

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I have a friend who is a big fan of 10-inch LPs and a big fan of 1950s Phil Woods. I was looking at eBay today and sent him this photo and this listing: Phil Woods New Jazz Quintet, Prestige New Jazz 1104. This one is only in VG condition, but I knew he would love it. Sure enough he wrote a reply: “You know me too well.” I love this one too, particularly the red and white New Jazz label, which you don’t see too often and, if I recall, doesn’t appear on 12-inch LPs at all. It is now in the $50 price range. So I’m picturing my friend now sitting at home pondering: To bid, or not to bid. The essential existential e-Bay question on a sultry summer day in New York. My bet on the answer? To bid.

Miles, Introducing Trane, On eBay, In Metronome

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I was perusing eBay early this morning and came across this beautiful item: Miles, The New Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige 7014. I’ve always loved this LP, not just for the music and the great cover, but for the historic value as well: The introduction of the great Miles Quintet of the ’50s and, in particular, the introduction of John Coltrane. So, I put this item on my watch list and took a further look and it turns out to be a listing from Rudolf, our faithful friend and commentator. So we are happy to help Rudolf publicize this listing on the Jazz Collector site, but we also noticed a nice teaser in the listing, which notes that they album will be offered with a copy of Metronome’s July 1956 review of the album. Furthermore, the listing notes that the Metronome review is

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Some More Blue Notes, Some More $1,000 LPs

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We casually mentioned the Lexington Avenue version of Sonny Rollins Volume One, Blue Note 1542 and there, lo and behold, is a beautiful M- copy that is ready for the $1,000 bin. This one sold for $1,225.

Also entering the $1,000 bin is Dizzy Reece, Blues in Trinity, Blue Note 4006. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing that was in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $1,595.

John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. This was an original pressing n VG+ condition with a light scratch. The cover was listed as excellent-minus, which is, what, VG+ at best? It too is in the $1,000 bin, fetching

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A Question About Blue Note Labels in Transition

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Someone asked us off-line if the LP Dexter Calling by Dexter Gordon, Blue Note 4083, is known to have pressings with the West 63rd Street label. There is often confusion about some of these titles right on the cusp of when the company moved and changed addresses. I’ve seen sellers on eBay list Sonny Rollins Volume 1, Blue Note 1542, as a West 63rd Street original when I have a Lexington Avenue copy on my shelf. Anyway, on the Dexter Record, the original pressing is New York USA. This question had come up a few years ago and the Blue Note expert Larry Cohn set us straight. The real question is on the Dexter Gordon LP Doin’ Allright, Blue Note 4077. There actually are pressings of this with the West 63rd Street label, but there is no evidence to suggest that these are any earlier than the New York USA pressings. This album was issued at a time when Blue Note was in transition and they simply used both labels while they

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