Author: Al

Another Adventure, Part 3: Ornette, Monk, Dee and Me

6 comments

Dizzy

It was a Thursday when I went to Dee’s, the week before the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. Before I left Dee’s with my five records and four-hour drive, we had one last conversation as I was getting into my car. For a variety of reasons, Dee needed to sell the records by the Spring, hopefully in the May/June time frame. She was concerned that Spring would come and she would still have the records. I told her not to worry; if she still had the records in the Spring, I would drive back, pay her a fair price and take the records so she wouldn’t have to be concerned. She offered on the spot for me to take them all, sell them at my own pace and then pay her later. She was obviously comfortable placing a lot of trust in me, but I politely declined. I didn’t want that much responsibility, tempting as it may have been. Read more

Another Adventure, Part 2: Ornette, Monk, Dee and Me

5 comments

Gerry Mulligan

It was probably mid-November when I made my way north to Dee’s. She lives up, up, up a mountain and, with the early snow in that part of the world, I was fortunate to have a four-wheel drive vehicle, otherwise there may have been no story to tell at all. Dee has this fantastic house that she designed and helped build, with views overlooking the mountains, and everything in the home is bursting with creativity and creative energy, including furniture that she also designed. Not to mention the vinyl.

Dee and I got along right off the bat, as you can probably tell. We’re around the same age and we both love jazz, so that was a good start. She told me a bit of her life story, I told her a bit of mine, we chatted, I got a brief tour of the house and then we went to the room with the records. There were 5-6 long shelves with records, I guessed about 1,000 or 1,200 records in all. They were not all jazz records. There were classical, a little rare gospel and blues, and a big section of contemporary Latin and Brazilian – her own carefully curated collection. Read more

Another Adventure, Part 1: Ornette, Monk, Dee and Me

8 comments

I owe you all a story.

It started last Halloween. A new commenter on Jazz Collector, who identified herself as Dee Dee, submitted the following:“I am Ornette’s stepdaughter – raised with Monk in the house frequently. I’m needing now to part with his and my mother’s vinyl collection, AND my original silver gelatin art photography – an AUTOGRAPHED edition of one single print of these historic musicians:

Count Basie
Miles Davis
Dizzy Gillespie
Horace Silver
Art Blakey and Billy Higgins
Gil Evans
Gerry Mulligan
Cecil Taylor and Tony Williams
Abbey Lincoln
Gato Barbieri
Pharaoh Sanders
Charlie Haden
Ernie Andrews
Mal Waldron
Steve McCall
Charlie Rouse
Freddie Greene
Bobby Bradford
Bela Fleck
Buster Williams
Chico Freeman and Pacquito d’Rivera
Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Gomez
Milton Nascimento
Djavan
Joao Bosco
Ivan Lins
Airto Moreira
Jose “Cheo” Feliciano
Francisco Aguabella
Willie Colon
Yomo Toro
Dave Valentin
Papo Lucca
Yolanda Rivera” Read more

Rare Vinyl, eBay Complaints: An Email Grab Bag

11 comments

Somebody sent me this link: Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This was an original New York yellow label in nice condition, VG++ for both the record and the cover. It sold for $2,028. Not sure why this particular link was sent to me, but I figured I’d share it nonetheless. Nothing seems out of whack to me, in terms of the eventual price or the provenance of the record as an original pressing. Maybe someone else can find something. You have all been more observant than I have been lately, it seems. Perhaps too many distractions at my end. Maybe I should just retire from work and devote myself full-time to Jazz Collector. 🙂

Read more

Original Blue Notes? $1.57 Each? I’m a Dreamer, Aren’t We All?

16 comments

Back on eBay. This seller has a lot of nice records closing today, including: Paul Chambers, Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1534. This is a West 63rd Street second pressing that looks to be in VG++ condition for the record and probably VG+ for the cover. The bidding is in the $465 range, fairly steep for a non-first pressing. One of the things that caught my eye was the shrink wrap still on the cover. A first pressing wouldn’t have had the shrink, but what struck me was the sticker on the shrink, which said “SPECIAL PRICE $1.57.” Imagine being able to buy this for $1.57. On further examination, the seller has a bunch of other original pressings with the same SPECIAL PRICE $1.57 sticker, including Dexter Gordon. A Swingin’ Affair, Blue Note 4133; Duke Pearson, Wahoo!, Blue Note 4191; and Donald Byrd, A New Perspective, Blue Note 4124, among others. I have a dream where I go back in time and walk into a record store and all of these records are sitting there at $1.57, sealed, and I buy them all, every last one. Read more

Random Musings on Random Jazz Vinyl

8 comments

Here are some more random jazz records we are watching this week on eBay, starting with Steve Lacy, Soprano Sax, Prestige 7125. This is an original yellow label pressing with the New York address. The record looks to be in VG++ condition and the cover also looks like it is VG++. The start price is in the $100 range and, so far, there are no bids. I’ve never heard this record, nor have I ever owned it, but I would like to. A copy recently sold for around $480, which would be out of my comfort zone anyway, even if I were inclined to buy on eBay. Read more

Miles, Morgan, Monk and More

7 comments

Today we will view some random jazz vinyl from my eBay watch list, starting with Miles Davis, Volume 2, Blue Note 5022. This is an original 10-inch Lexington Avenue pressing. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition. Bidding starts at around $100 and so far there is no auction action. The auction closes in about three days. This record caught my eye, even though I already own it, because it is such an awesome cover and because I recently view a collection loaded with 10-inch records. At this point I have passed on purchasing the collection because the seller has it over-priced, but I am hoping he comes back to me when he realizes I made a fair offer. Will keep you posted. Read more

Cool Struttin’ With Some Bop and Blues

12 comments

We mentioned the passing of Jack Sheldon last week and now someone in the Jazz Collector world will get to honor him by purchasing one of his rarer and most highly sought LPs, specifically The Jack Sheldon Quartet, Get of Out Town, Jazz:West LP 1. This is a 10-inch record listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover, although the picture looks more like VG to these eyes. There are 13 bids and the price is in the $170 range with less than a day left on the auction. We’ve written about this record once before, back in 2018, when a copy in worse condition than this one – with a G cover – sold for $450. At the time, we had never seen a 10-inch Jazz:West LP and, to be fair, we’ve still never seen one live, only on eBay. I just checked Popsike, and $450 was the top price for this LP, matched almost exactly a year ago by a nearly mint copy. Read more

A Recurring Case of Blue Note Envy

13 comments

Back to eBay with four Blue Notes that come to you straight from my want list, leading off with Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This looks to be an original deep-groove West 63rd Street pressing that appears to be in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. The bidding is now in the $300 range with four days left on the auction. This is a record that has sold for more than $1,000 several times in the past, with a top price of $1,802, according to Popsike. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see this copy end up in the $1,000 bin. This is a record I once owned and stupidly traded away back many years ago – I would say nearly 40 years? – when  I was transitioning from fan to collector and I had set out to fill in all of the first 200 or so yellow-label Prestiges. Read more

Jimmy Heath, RIP

3 comments

Lots of news from the Jazz world, not all of it good. In case you haven’t heard, Jimmy Heath died this morning. He’s been a fixture in jazz since the early days of the bebop era and a major figure in the evolution and history of the music. I had the privilege of seeing him perform many times, back in the days of Jazz Interactions in New York. He was also at the premiere of the Chasing Trane documentary when I saw it in 2016 and I’ll never forget him standing up and singing the theme of Part 2: Resolution of “A Love Supreme.” He may have been diminutive in size, but he was a giant in stature. Who’s left? Read more

1 … 26 27 28 29 30 … 210