Author: Al

Waltz For Debby Hits The $2,000 Bin

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Here’s one I somehow missed: Euclid Records had a sealed copy of Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby, Riverside 9399, which sold recently for $2,034, which is definitely a new high for this particular record. The question I have is this: What does a collector do with a sealed record? If you want to listen to it (presumably) you have to break the seal, and thereby it is no longer a sealed record. So do you just hang on to it and admire it and realize it’s still sealed and find another copy for listening? These are the things we think about here at Jazz Collector.

Soaring With an Alto Sax Legend (Not)

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Sometimes it’s fun to browse through eBay, just for an occasional chuckle. Here’s one I like, on a record that’s closing this evening. The record happens to be John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, Impulse 77. In order to drum up interest, the seller decided to spend an extra 75 cents or so on a subhead for the item, which he used as follows: “Soar Through The Heavens With Alto Sax Legend.” Yes, we all appreciate Trane as an alto sax legend, as we appreciate Bird as a tenor sax legend, right? Anyway, if you find listings or mistakes that amuse you on eBay, feel free to share them here at Jazz Collector.

More Peak Prices, Plus Miles, Sonny, Trane For Sale

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In mentioning records reaching new price peaks, I inadvertently left out a couple of records among the ones I’ve sold recently. These aren’t records we’ve tracked often, but we haven’t seen higher prices for either of them:

Granchan Moncur III, Some Other Stuff, Blue Note 4177. This was a New York USA pressing. The record was M- and the cover was VG++. It sold for $223. 70.

Anthony Williams, Spring, Blue Note 4216. This was also a New York USA pressing in beautiful condition, M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. This one sold for $202.50.

We have a bunch of records up on eBay now, although none will fetch those kinds of prices. Here are a few of the records that are available:

John Coltrane (et al), Wheelin’ and Dealin’, Prestige 7131. This is an original pressing, with the New York

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Is The Market Slowing? Not Based on These Prices

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Sometimes, as summer approaches, eBay slows down. Not so far this summer. We’ve seen a lot of rare jazz records setting new highs for prices over the past few weeks, as we’ve been upgrading the Jazz Collector Price Guide. If you look at the prices of some of these records, you’ll get an idea:

Kenny Drew, The Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 224. This was an original white label pressing. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was listed as VG++. The price was $898.88.

Kenny Dorham, Whistle Stop, Blue Note 4063. This was an original West 63rd Street mono pressing that was listed in M- condition, both record and cover, and it was posted by a reputable seller. It sold for $898.89.

Jackie McLean, 4, 5 & 6, Prestige 7048. This was an original Yellow label pressing with

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This Weekend on eBay: Thad, Jackie, Kenny Dorham

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Here are a few items we’re watching on eBay this weekend. As always, it’s a good idea to check the seller’s other items because many sense, such as yours truly, tend to offer decent records in bunches:

Thad Jones, The Magnificent Thad Jones Volume 3, Blue Note 1546. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing. I’m not sure why, but the seller mentions Lexington Avenue pressings selling for more than $2,000, but I’ve never seen or heard of a Lexington Avenue pressing of this LP. Has any of you? Anyway, this one looks like it’s in about VG condition and has a starting bid of around $150 and, as of now, has no bids.

Jackie McLean, 4, 5 and 6, Prestige 7048. This is an original pressing with the New York address and the yellow label. It looks to be in VG+/VG+ condition, although the seller uses different terminology that we do, and is currently priced

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For the Price Guide: Dolphy, Jackie, Criss, Kamuca

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Time to catch up on some recent collectible items on eBay and update the Jazz Collector Price Guide, which has now surpassed more than 4,000 entries, each one, I’m proud to say, hand-entered and hand-selected by yours truly. Here are a few more I’ll be hand-entering this weekend:

Eric Dolphy, Last Date, Fontana 681008ZL. This is the original Dutch pressing. The record was listed as M- and the cover as VG++. It sold for $661. Also from Eric Dolphy, Outward Bound, New Jazz 8236. This was an original deep groove purple label. The record was M- and teh cover was VG++. The price was $283.

Jackie McLean, Swing, Swang, Swingin’, Blue Note 4024. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was listed as VG++ and the cover as VG+. The price was $547.11.

Sonny Criss, Jazz USA, Imperial 9006. This was an original pressing. The record was listed as

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New To the $1,000 Bin: Giant Steps

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We’ve been watching a bunch of records to add to the Jazz Collector Price Guide and one of them is a newcomer to the $1,000 bin: John Coltrane, Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311. This was a black label original mono pressing. The record was listed in M- condition — hardly played — and the cover was listed as VG++. It sold for $1,125 and had about 230 page views, which is quite a bit. This record may have sold for more than $1,000 previously on eBay, but, if it did, we weren’t watching. Our previous high for this item in the Price Guide was $690. By they way, as I was doing a search in the Price Guide for this record, I noticed that not everything is being listed in alphabetical order. I guess the database is structured so that when new items are entered, they automatically go in at the end. So if you’re searching for a record like Giant Steps, or anything else by Coltrane — who has three pages in the Price Guide — you should make sure to look at all of the Coltrane pages because after the first couple of dozen items, everything else is entered kind of randomly. I hope this is clear. I will talk to my Web and database associate to see if this is fixable. In the meantime, just do a lot of searching.

Philly Record Fair, July 11

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Jazz Collector must be getting popular: I now find myself on a list getting various and sundry press releases on jazz and vinyl topics. I will pass on to you those that I think will be of interest, such as this: On Saturday, July 11, there will be a Record Fair in Philadelphia at the Institute of Contemporary Art. I can’t vouch for the quality of collectibles, and I won’t be able to attend myself, but it is always fun to go to a record show and hunt for bargains. This one opens at 9 a.m. and offers free admission after 11 a.m. For details, you can click here.

Horace Silver on Blue Note: Comments Anyone?

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OK, we’re still in the midst of the contest to give away the book: Blue Note The Album Cover Art. To be eligible to win this book — free, we even pay for shipping — all you have to do is post a comment on the Jazz Collector Web site before July 2. The winner will be announced July 3. When we did the original post announcing the contest, we promised to share with you the foreward of the book, written by Horace Silver. Here goes:

“Blue Note Records were very meticulous in every aspect of their production: They used he best vinyl, they paid for rehearsals and when I asked to be in on other parts of my album Alfred Lion (the label’s founder) gave me every opportunity. A lot of musicians in those days worked very hard to make good music and once the music was done, they let Alfred Lion go on with the rest of it. One day I went to Alfred and said,

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