Watching Some Original Original And Not So Original Jazz Vinyl
Very interesting thread on the previous post. Glad everyone has been able to keep the conversation going in my absence. For the record, I am and always will be an original, no matter what anyone says. And now, back to watching original rare jazz vinyl on eBay. I have a lot of stuff I am watching now, so let’s go, starting with Frank Morgan With Conte Candoli and Machito’s Rhythm Section, GNP 12. This is an original pressing with the red vinyl. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition. The start price is $250 with more than two days left on this auction. I was fortunate to acquire a near mint copy of this record when I purchased the Bruce M. West collection in Baltimore. For some reason, I always considered this to be an album for the $1,000 bin. I guess the reason is that it’s really rare and hard to find, plus there’s not that much early Frank Morgan on record. When I did a search on Popsike, however, I discovered that the top price for this record was $331, and that was back in 2006. I guess it’s just not a Blue Note.
This one is a Blue Note: Lou Donaldson, Swing and Soul, Blue Note 1566. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record and cover are listed in VG+ condition, although that may be generous for the cover. Based on the pictures, I would rate it VG. The start price is $1,000 and there are no bidders with more than two days left on the auction. This one has sold for as much as $1,575 in the past, according to Popsike, but the condition was a lot better. I will be surprised if this one gets the asking price, but our Jazz Collector world is full of surprises these days, right?
Hank Mobley with Donald Byrd and Lee Morgan, Blue Note 1540. This is a West 63rd Street pressing, which, if you follow the logic of the thread on the previous post, is not an original original, if that makes any sense. An original original would have the Lexington Avenue address. In any case, the seller grades the record and cover as VG+, but that is about as clean a cover as you will normally see for this record. The bidding is in the $700 range with more than two days left on the auction.
Miles Davis, Steamin’, Prestige 7200. This is an original New Jersey yellow label pressing. The record and cover are both listed as VG+. Bidding is in the $160 range, with the auction closing today. Another Prestige: Tadd Dameron, Fontainebleau, Prestige 7037. This looks to be an original New York pressing listed in VG+ condition for the record and the cover. The start price is about $180 and so far there are no bidders with more than two days left on the auction.
By now, I’m sure most of you have heard the news that Wayne Shorter died. When I think of Wayne Shorter records, I think of the Blakey and Blue Note era, so I would have to say those are my favorite recordings. But that’s the era I love in general. I’m curious what post-Blue Note and post-Miles recordings some of our readers would recommend. Perhaps with links to YouTube?
Re later period Wayne, I am quite partial to his collaboration with Milton Nascimento, Native Dancer. This is a beautiful tune, still only takes you up to 1974!:
https://youtu.be/VFPIB4rFPIA
Regards
Anthony
The New York Times published by a very beautiful and comprehensive obit which showed how Shorter’s career goes far beyond the “Blakey and Blue Note” Era.
Here’s waiting for the column that’s on the way(I assume),reflecting on how wide-ranging it was. Most readers of these pages have never known a world without Wayne Shorter in it-until now.
But then,there’s his music -“from the creator,through the musicians,to you” as his former bandleader Art Blakey often said.
I’m ever so thankful for that.
Listened to WR album “Mysterious Traveller” last night ; then to Miles Davis Quintet “ESP”….and to Bobby Timmons “The Soul Man” What a beauty all along !!! And yes, Wayne was much more than beautiful Blue Note albums.
Native Dancer is a really good record. I’m a fan.
Footprints…Live is a great disc featuring a wonderful quartet. Outside/ Inside jazz. Right now it is only on CD but will soon be issued on vinyl.
Shorter: so many many after Blue note (his later solo BN’s are all good too), but to stick with one, for the sake of not having to type my fingers blue (by the way, these sentences do not really help), i would say (To avoid the great Weather Report, wich on itself would be enough to be a Laureate,
one of his later projects (2007) with long time (still living) friend and co- musician Herbie Hancock:
The Joni Letters. (as in Mitchell)
two songs of it:
(And yes, it’s probably the last song Tina Turner recorded, and you wonder why she never made a jazz album )… Dave Holland on bass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaRx52OD8IY&list=PLNVGKTi8j9j53bgQVGVsNkMsNIY7VVmtm&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OASMDXQ42Ug
The Frank Morgan album is special because it features, what I believe, the last four recorded tracks by Wardell Gray. The other tracks with the Machito Rhythm section are of limited interest. Frank Morgan, the Charlie Parker of the West Coast, was more the product of a marketing campaign, who could not compare with his compères on the East Coast or Chicago.
Rudolf, I respect your vast knowledge of the Jazz artform. However I believe you grossly short changed Frank Morgan. If you listen to his limited early recordings and realize that Clifford Brown wanted him before Harold Land – his playing is proof of his ability. He was not a ” product of a marketing campaign” and he could hold his own with the best.
Art, I may have been too harsh regarding Frank Morgan, but he was given, by some critics at the time, the epithet “the Charlie Parker of the West Coast”, which is a way of “selling” an artist to the public.
For my ears and appreciation, he was one in the lot of those, who were ably continuing and deepening the Bird’s heritage, like Charlie Mariano, Phil Woods, John Jenkins.
Another good Wayne Shorter album to check out is Second Genesis. It was the second session he did for Vee Jay records. It was recorded October 11, 1960 but remained unreleased until Vee Jay finally released it in 1974. It’s a sax quartet featuring Shorter obviously as well as Cedar Walton, Bob Cranshaw, and Art Blakey. Killer stuff.
I had to pull out Juju and my all time favorite Wayne Shorter record Speak No Evil with my boss Ron Carter in it. It took a while for Wayne Shorter to grow on me when I first started listening to him but then he’s amazing skill songwriting ability when he turned the Jazz messengers around the way he really made Miles group click, and all of the other work that he did especially his Vijay stuff is just so amazing. It’s really sad that he’s gone now, but we have his records to listen to forever.
The Wayne Shorter Vee Jay sessions are on the same level as his Blue Note sessions…Essential!
For a moody rainy-day Shorter give Glengary GlenRoss soundtrack a spin.
Per Woody’s comment – I would include “The Young Lions” on Vee Jay. Often overlooked because it does not have an identified leader (I bought my original copy for cheap out of a “various” bin), it’s great stuff.
I just listened to a wonderful Shorter track on a JJ Johnson CD. The track is a Johnson original titled In Walked Wayne. It’s the only piece he appears on on the disc, but it’s a marvelous track, with Wayne backed by brass. Worth hunting for on Spotify or another streaming service.