Author: Al

On eBay: Some 10-Inch Blue Note Beauties

4 comments

I bought those three James Moody 10-inch Prestige records and have gotten into a 10-inch head this past week. I reorganized my 10-inch LPs and did what Rudolf does for some of them, organizing them by label rather than by artist. It was cool doing this with the Prestiges because I never realized before how many I had. But it was disappointing with the Blue Notes, because it made me feel like I wanted more. Then I looked at eBay and saw a couple of real beauties for sale, including:

Miles Davis Volume 2, Blue Note 5022. This one is M- for the record and at least VG++ for the cover and the picture looks absolutely pristine. What a beauty. The price is already more than $300 and it is not going to find a place on my shelf.  This one is from the same seller and looks equally appealing: Clifford Brown, New Star on the Horizon, Blue Note 5032. Same deal as the Miles: M- vinyl, beautiful cover, incredible crystal clear picture. It’s also more than $300 with more than a day to go.

Also on eBay now is an auction from the Jazz Record Center including:

Read more

Guest Column: Collecting Blue Note CDs

25 comments

Mattyman has promised us a guest column about collecting Blue Note jazz CDs and here it is:

Collecting Blue Note Albums on Compact Disc
Guest Column by Mattyman, The Netherlands

First of all a big thanks to Al for giving me the opportunity to tell y’all something about collecting Blue Note releases on CD, which I’ve been avidly doing since the early nineties. Since I couldn’t think of a ‘logical line’ in my column, I decided to randomly describe a few of the things that I pay attention to before I buy a CD and to make things more clear, I have once again created a photo page that y’all can use while you read the story. The few photos that I included in this story are only meant to literally jazz up the look of the column. I will continuously refer to that photo page as well, so maybe the best way to do this is to open the page in a new window.
Here we go, folks!
The first jazz album that I ever bought was John Coltrane – Blue Train, in 1992. There was a reason why I bought it. My favorite Dutch writer (and known jazz collector, drummer and DJ), Jules Deelder, has written many long and short stories about his deep love for jazz, how he first heard it as a little boy and how mesmerized he was by the voice and trumpet playing of, as he’d find out later, Chet Baker. His endless hunts for vinyl are the most fun to read, since I had been digging like that myself for seventies funk. I wanted to know more about jazz, ’cause if Jules Deelder dug so frantically, it had to be good. I honestly had not listened to one jazz album in my entire life before 1992. So I went to my favorite record store and grabbed Blue Train, simply because

Read more

On eBay: A Rare Rollins Prestige Plus Two

30 comments

If you think the Monk Prestige cover was great, check out this one: Sonny Rollins Quintet, Prestige 186. This is an original 10-inch pressing. I’m a huge Rollins fan and I’ve been collecting for more than 40 years and not only do I not own a copy of this record, I’ve never seen it. It must be quite rare. I would love to have it, yet the price is already more than $400 and I can’t bring myself to spend what it would take to win this. It’s more the principle than the money: Too many years of hunting for bargains, I guess. Anyway, I will be jealous of the winner at whatever price.

There’s a bunch of other interesting jazz vinyl on eBay now as well, including: Rocky Boyd, Ease It, Jazztime JT001. This is a among a nice collection listed by Round Again Records up in Providence, which I have mentioned here before as

Read more

More Jazz Vinyl: Monk 10-Inch & A Few Bargains?

3 comments

Here’s some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay:

Look at the great cover on this one: Thelonious Monk Plays, Prestige 189. This is a 10-inch pressing that was listed in M- condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. It was part of a nice crop of 10-inch Prestiges offered by the Philadelphia Record Exchange and it sold for $295. You may recall that I bid on the James Moody 10-inchers from this auction. I wound up winning all three for about $150 total, about $50 each. To me that’s a fine deal, great music, even though, perhaps, the resale market for these records won’t be so great. Won’t matter though, since I’ll have thousands of records to sell before I get to these.

Some interesting, lower, prices than usual: Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness Prestige 7047. This was an original New York pressing in VG condition for both the record and cover. This is quite a classic, of course, yet it sold for less than $60. The dealer mentioned something about the cover being “professionally” repaired, whatever that means, so that could have impacted the price. Still, even in VG condition, you’d expect more, based on the prices we’ve seen lately for original Blue Notes and Prestiges. Here’s another:

Read more

Jazz Vinyl on eBay: KD for the $1,000 Bin & 2 More

37 comments

Here’s some more jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay:

Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 1535. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing with the deep grooves and flat edge. It was in M- condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,727.

Here’s one we’ve never seen before: Freddie Redd, Session in Stockholm, Nixja Records NJL 14. This one looked to be in VG+ condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $531. I always find it thrilling that I’ve been collecting jazz records for more than 40 years and I still come across records I’ve never seen nor heard of. I bet this is a great one, too.

We don’t usually track records that sell for $22, but we were watching this one because it’s symbolic of something: A great record, great cover, great label, great condition, but no real interest from a collectible standpoint, at least not anymore:

Read more

Moody’s Mood Is A Sad One For Jazz Lovers

3 comments

Philadelphia Record Exchange had a bunch of nice 10-inch Prestige LPs up this week and someone sent me a link. I took a look and there were several nice James Moody records that looked to be in nice condition and were not getting much action. I’ve never quite understood why the Moody Prestiges and Blue Notes never have much cachet among collectors, but the reality is they don’t. So I bid on the first two that came up and I won them both, under a nom de plume you may not recognize, and I’m hoping to win the third. The prices, in my view, were quite fair. I shared my good fortune with a friend, who sent me a link to this article: Jazz legend James Moody battling cancer. Sounds like we will soon be losing another great one and one of the last remaining links to the dawn of the bebop era.

Guest Column: Record Shopping in Japan

11 comments

In a comment last week one of our loyal readers asked if he could write a guest column about his experiences buying vinyl in Japan. So without further ado, we offer:

Record Shopping in Japan
By Mike Falcon

For most of my adult life I have been very interested in Japanese culture.  I love their movies, art, food, culture, and overall aesthetics.  I studied Japanese while in college as my obligatory foreign language and have traveled there a few times.  Something I have found very interesting about Japan is how they appreciate American and Western culture.  Japan is very different from America or Europe but as a society they have a very deep appreciation for key things from these cultures.  It was so amazing to me to eat various Western foods in Japan and find that the Japanese do Italian, French, Brazilian, and Spanish food more authentically than is available in the U.S.  I ate in a small Italian restaurant where the chef took pride in his Italian food on a level I think could only be found in Italy itself.  For me the Japanese appreciation of Western culture is most evident in three of “my favorite things:” Jazz, vinyl and baseball.   I will save you from my interesting and wonderful experiences with Japanese baseball and other observations because this in an article about vinyl hunting.

The Japanese, relative to the U.S., have a lot of record and CD stores.   I don’t believe they have suffered the same setbacks as the American record industries have, as the music store business seems much healthier.  In Tokyo you can find corporate-owned music and DVD stores eight stories tall that would take a day or more to explore.  These places were interesting but I found the small record stores

Read more

Some More Jazz Vinyl For the $1,000 Bin

13 comments

There’s quite a bit of jazz vinyl to catch up on, which will be have to do in a few posts, so let’s start simply this morning with the $1,000 bin, much of which, it seems, we predicted.

Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original pressing in VG++ condition for both the record and cover and, as noted, it had the promo stamp. It sold for $1,525. Probably would have gotten more without the promo stamp.

Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This was an original pressing with the red vinyl. The record was VG+ and the cover was listed in VG+, although there was a full split on the bottom and a partial split on the top. There was some question whether this would prevent it from breaking the $1,000 barrier, but it did not: This one sold for $1,136.

This one had it all going for it: Helen Merrill, Emarcy 36006. It was an original pressing, with the blue writing on the back cover, the seller was Euclid Records and the pictures accompanying the listing were quite clear and bright. The price was $1,568.

Read more

A Random Post of Favorite Jazz Vinyl

22 comments

This is a completely random post. At the WFMU Record Fair last week I was selling a copy of Miles Davis Steamin’ on Prestige and got into a discussion with a buyer and he said, of the Steamin’/Workin’/Cookin’/Relaxin’ group of albums that Steamin’ was his least favorite. I said, hmm, that’s interesting because Steamin’ is my favorite of the group. He eventually purchased Steamin’ from me and I’m hoping he’s pleased. In any case, I’m sitting here in my home office/music room staring at my records and thinking about some of my favorites from among the artists where I have (1) a lot a records and (2) clear favorites. Looking through the records, I realized for some artists – such as Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley even Horace Silver – I don’t have any single record that stands above the others. If pressed, I could name a favorite, which I will not do for those artists, but which I will do for some of the other artists where the choices, for me at least, are more clearcut. Some may be obvious, some more obscure, some may even be ridiculous to others, but these are the ones I like. Staring at my collection, looking at them in alphabetical order, here goes nothing:

Read more

Tracking Four For the $1,000 Bin

24 comments

Here is some jazz vinyl we are watching now on eBay that we expect will end up in the proverbial $1,000 bin:

Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This is an original pressing with the deep grooves and purple label and it is a promo copy as well. The seller has it listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover and the bidding is already more than $700 with five days to go. This will end up in the $2,000 bin, won’t it?

This one may end up there as well: Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This is an original pressing with the red vinyl. The record is VG+ and the cover is VG++. This one is around $200 and there are still five days of bidding.

Read more

1 … 129 130 131 132 133 … 210