Author: Al

Coming to You Live (Sort of): Jazz Collector Radio and Podcasts

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I just got back from taping my seventh Jazz Collector Live radio show in the studio of WTBR-FM in Pittsfield. I’ve really enjoyed doing the show, but I have to admit that it has taken away time that might otherwise have been devoted to posting here at the Jazz Collector web site. Hopefully, I will soon be able to strike a better balance, especially because doing the radio show is getting me more involved with my collection and listening much more attentively. For example, today’s show was devoted to John Coltrane, as a leader, playing standards, on the Prestige label. Soultrane, Settin’ the Pace, Lush Life, et al. Great stuff. Last week, I did Bill Evans as a sideman, and the week before the show was devoted to Thelonious Monk. Sound interesting? Well, the shows are now available to be downloaded as podcasts. Go to this site: WTBRFM.COM. There’s a tab for shows, and under the tab for podcasts you will find the familiar Jazz Collector logo at the very bottom. Read more

Jazz Vinyl: Where’s the Action?

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Haven’t been on eBay in a while. Have I missed anything? I meant that as a joke, but now that I’m looking I feel like perhaps I have missed something. I’m seeing a lot of records that would have gotten a lot of action, not getting much action at all. I know things always change as auctions get near closing time, but having been off eBay for a few weeks I have to say I am a little taken aback by the lack of activity. Has anyone else noticed this?  In any case, there are many records that are getting bids, so let’s look at a few of those, starting with Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia 1355. This is an original mono promo copy with the white labels. The record is listed in VG condition, and the cover is also VG, with some writing on the back and a partial seam split. Certainly not the best copy you will find, but there are already 16 bids from 10 bidders and the price is up to $300, so clearly the demand for this one remains pretty high despite the condition. Read more

Alive and Well (And Live on the Radio)

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It’s been a looooooooong time between posts, so let me catch you up on what’s been going on around here. Overall, I’ve been extremely pleased with the way things have gone in my dealings with Carolina Soul. They have been professional in every respect. Very communicative, clear, consistent. They have been prompt with payments, and have answered any questions I’ve had with clear explanations. As for differences of opinion that we may have had on grading: I respect what they do and how they do it. I heard from several winners of the auctions that they agreed with me that some of the records were undergraded. Yet, Carolina Soul also experienced a number of returns. In fact, about 20 of my records that were returned are on eBay right now. For example: Andrew Hill, Black Fire, Blue Note 4151. I’ll provide a more complete list at the end of this post.

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Jazz Vinyl Miscellany and Mail

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Before getting back to writing about my own experiences doing the recent auction with Carolina Soul Records, let’s return to our normal activity of watching other peoples’ rare jazz vinyl in eBay and taking a peak in the old Jazz Collector inbox. Let’s start with Sonny Clark Trio, Blue Note 1579. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record is listed in VG+ condition. The cover is also listed as VG+, but the pictures show it to be no better than VG. It’s from a seller in Thailand who has one feedback. The start price is $1,250 with less than a day left on the auction. We’ll see if anyone is desperate enough to take that kind of risk. Meanwhile, I have a beautiful VG++ copy that may make it to the next round of auctions. Or, maybe not. Read more

Jazz Collector, Back on eBay

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I’m on the road this week and won’t be able to post as frequently as I would probably like to, given the reality that the records I am selling on consignment with Carolina Soul Records began closing on eBay today and will continue tomorrow. I was paying so little attention to the auctions, I didn’t even realize they were closing today until I logged on around noon and saw that several of the auctions had already ended. All in all, about 300 of my records were on the consignment list today, with another 300 tomorrow. Despite whatever trepidations I may have had about the discrepancies between my grading curve and that of Carolina Soul, I’m very pleased by the results so far. Very pleased, indeed. And surprised. Having done Jazz Collector for about 20 years now, I feel like I’ve been well on top of the market and how it has evolved. But, seeing my own records being sold has been enlightening in a new way. I’m still processing the whole process and want to see how things end up tomorrow before sharing some of my preliminary thoughts. So let me do one of the things I do most frequently here at Jazz Collector, which is to look at the prices of rare jazz records that have been sold on eBay. In this case, every record on the following list was from my personal collection, singles or doubles. Read more

Chick Corea Interview, 50 Years Later

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As promised, here is the digitalized version of the article I wrote on Chick Corea for the Syracuse New Times in 1973. My first published article. I see some flaws but, overall, not bad.

Smiling, Urging, Playing as He Comes, Chick Corea Rides the 7th Galaxy on His Return to Forever

Syracuse New Times, October 21, 1973

By Alan Perlman

Sitting down and talking with Chick Corea is like watching him perform on stage. For Corea, communicating, especially communicating happiness, is a major force, influencing everything he says and does.

When he talks about his music he exhibits the same assurance that marks everything he plays. His eyes stare straight and deep and the pixyish smile disappears—yet he glows.

“The audience may applaud a lot or a little, but when the vibes are there I know,” he said after a particularly inspired set.

At 32, Corea has ascended the musical ranks, earning his stripes with Elvin Jones, Willie Bobo, Mongo Santamaria, Herbie Mann, Blue Mitchell, Stan Getz and, most importantly, Miles Davis, the George Patton of jazz. Now he is leading his own band and playing the music he wants to play. Read more

An Early Adventure in Jazz and Journalism

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Chick Corea, Return to Forever, 1973

In the fall of 1973, when I was 20 years old, I had the chutzpah to strut into the offices of the Syracuse New Times in Syracuse, NY, and inform them that I should be their new jazz critic. Although I was a journalism major at the Newhouse school, I had never published anything before in my life, not a word in my high school paper, not a syllable in my college newspaper. Not even an exclamation point anywhere! It was only by sheer luck that I was in the journalism school at all. My first two years in college were mostly a total waste. I didn’t get in to any of the schools to which I applied, so I had to go to Queens College, which was a couple of bus rides from my home in Bayside. I was still living with my parents for those two years, sharing a tiny room with my younger brother and sister, spending a lot more time at the race track and the poker table than in school, or anywhere else for that matter. Read more

The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown, Ad Infinitum

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Finally, the real deal.

To answer some of your post pressing questions. Yes, those are many of my records on the current Carolina Soul eBay auction. Seeing the actual listings makes it pretty clear to me one of the reasons why Jason and I weren’t able to strike a deal: We were grading the condition of the records on a different curve. That wasn’t the only reason, but it must have played an important factor. As a collector and former seller on eBay, I was grading the records quite a bit differently than Jason and his team, who are admittedly more in touch with today’s marketplace. Some of the obvious examples are ones I’ve written about here. Like the Jutta Hipp and Zoot Sims record on Blue Note and the Donald Byrd on Transition. I know that I got those records from the Bruce M. West collection in Baltimore, and I am pretty sure those records weren’t played more than two or three times. When I listened to them, once each, they were clean. In my collection, I had graded the vinyl condition at M- or VG++ at worst. Read more

A New Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Part 6

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I was going to milk the suspense for a couple more days, but I changed my mind. I’ll cut right to the chase. I was prepared to sell Jason from Carolina Soul Records about 5,500 records. My strong preference was an outright purchase and not a consignment. Jason was prepared to buy 5,500 records from me and had the wherewithal to make the outright purchase based on the amount I told him I was looking for. He and his colleague Nate came up to my home in The Berkshires and spent the better part of a day and evening poring through the 5,500-or-so records I had put aside. The opportunity for a big deal was in place . . . . Read more

A New Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Part 5

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On Feb. 4, 2023 I turned 70 years of age.

Yada, yada, yada . . . on Feb. 7, 2023 I sent an email to Carolina Soul Records to see if they would be interested in buying a portion of my collection. So, yeah,  you could say turning 70 was a bit of a tipping point for me. Why did I reach out to Carolina Soul as my first choice? We’ve all been watching over the past few years as they have come out of nowhere to be one of the premier sellers of jazz vinyl on eBay. They seem to grade the records fairly, they must have a strong coterie of loyal customers, they get good prices, and they keep getting these pretty amazing collections of jazz records. I also figured, with the money they’ve collected in some of these auctions, they might have the wherewithal to actually pay cash up-front for the records. Plus, there were a few comments on the Jazz Collector site that pointed me in their direction, alluding to their reputation for being “very favorable” on consignment payouts, as Clifford mentioned the other day a comment on the first article in this New Adventure in Jazz Collecting. Read more

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