Al | jazzcollector.com

One Man’s Junk; Another Man’s Treasure

April 19, 2015 Al 17 comments

You’re really not going to believe what happened to me yesterday. I’m up at my house in The Berkshires and we were hosting some friends for brunch. I did some cleanup in the morning and decided at the last-minute that I would have to go to the town dump to get rid of some garbage before I guests arrived. So I piled some garbage into the car, loaded my dog Marty onto the front seat and headed for the dump. In our local town here, there’s a small shack at the dump where people get rid of stuff they don’t want so that others who may be interested can just take it, free. They call it a swap shop and, occasionally, I’ve found some odds and ends in there, a couple of records, some decent speakers, nothing special. Yesterday, because I was in a bit of a hurry, I wasn’t even going to check, but it only takes a minute and it’s hard to resist. You never know what’s going to be there.

The $2,000 Bin (and Up); Rediscovering Some Confessions of a Jazz Vinyl Addict

April 16, 2015 Al 23 comments

Time to catch up on some of the jazz vinyl auctions we’ve been watching from eBay, starting with this whopper: Donald Byrd, Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill, Transition 17. This was an original pressing with the booklet. Everything seemed to be in M- condition. The final price was $3,839.10. Definitely a new high for this record for the Jazz Collector Price Guide, although I was surprised to see that this record has sold for more than $2,600 in the past.

This one is destined for the $2,000 bin and perhaps even joining the Byrd record in the $3,000 bin: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. this is an original West 63rd Street pressing listed in VG++ condition for

Blue Note

Hush and Go: A Pearson and PC Day

April 11, 2015 Al 9 comments

Just spent some time perusing eBay and added a few more items to our watch list, which is not the same as our wish list. Here’s some of the jazz vinyl we’re watching, starting with The Duke Pearson Quintet, Hush, Jazzline 3302. This is an original pressing of a record that you hardly ever see posted on eBay. This one is in M- condition for the record and probably VG+ for the cover, depending upon your level of discernment. For me, it’s VG+. The bidding is in the $300 range and there are still more than two days to go. If you check out this record, check out the seller’s other listings. It is one of the dealers from Italy who often has very nice listings. In addition to Hush, for example, you will see Paul Chambers, Go!, VeeJay 1014. This is an original pressing with the maroon label and deep grooves. It looks to be in M- condition for the record and the cover. The price is

Blue Note

Watching Some All Star Jazz Vinyl

April 10, 2015 Al 4 comments

Here’s a nice one that I don’t recall seeing in the past: The Essen Jazz Festival All Stars, Debut 131. This record features Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke. I’ve always known this by the Fantasy issue in the U.S., which, if I recall, was colored vinyl in the original pressing. This looks to be the original Dutch Debut pressing, which was in stereo? Not familiar with it, although it is somewhat surprising that stereo would be the original release in 1960. Anyway, I like this cover a lot better than the U.S. cover. This copy is listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover and has a start price of $400 with nearly six days left on the auction.

Three for the $1,000 Bin?????

April 9, 2015 Al 3 comments

Another day, another batch of records to watch on eBay. Today let’s start with Introducing Lee Morgan, Savoy 12091. This is an original pressing with the red label. All in all it looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. We’ve seen this record sell for more than $500 previous in the Jazz Collector Price Guide and it looks like this copy will set a new high point. The bidding is already more than $560 and there are still four more days left on the auction. This seller often has nice items and his listings wind up making our posts fairly frequently, although we’ve never dealt with him directly. Here’s another one of his nice records on eBay this week:

Kind of Blues & The Abstract Truth

April 7, 2015 Al 20 comments

Let’s catch up on some rare jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay, starting with Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia 1355. This was an interesting one because it looked to be an original first pressing and the record had never been played. When this album was first issued, Columbia used a plastic inner sleeve that had a seal. I know that from a couple of albums I purchased in the Baltimore collection. On this particular copy of Kind of Blue, the seal had never been broken. The cover also looked to be quite pristine and was graded in M- condition. The record wound up selling for $510, a fairly hefty price for the highest selling jazz record of all time. The question is, what will the buyer do with the record? Will he/she open it and play it, thus potentially lowering the value? Or will he/she put it on the shelf for posterity and listen to a different copy of the record, which is so readily available?

Tracking a Trio of Blue Notes

April 2, 2015 Al 5 comments

Here’s another one from my want list, and this one may even get a snipe: Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. This is an original pressing with the Lexington Avenue address, deep grooves, ears, etc. The record is listed in M- condition and the cover is just fair, with seam splits. The cover condition doesn’t bother me so much, but the price may. So far this is at about $250 with more than two days left on the auction. We’ll see. I would love to fill this gap in my collection, and I do love this record.

Here’s another one from the same seller: Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris, Blue Note 4146. This is probably an original pressing with the Van Gelder in the dead wax, although there is no mention of the Plastylite ear. The bidding is a bit more than $110 and there are also two days left in this auction. If I were to bid on this, which I won’t, I would at least inquire about the ear. Never hurts to ask.

One more Blue Note, while we’re on the subject:

Blue Note

Four Listings: Two That Are New To Us, One On Our Want List and One That Doesn’t Make a Lot of Sense

March 31, 2015 Al 12 comments

We’ve got some interesting jazz vinyl in the Jazz Collector watch list on eBay, including a couple we’ve never seen before. Let’s start with one we’ve seen many times, but still don’t own: Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. This is an interesting listing because the seller was able to post really clear pictures of the record and the label. It also raises an interesting question for the Blue Note diehards out there: One side of this record has the New York 23 address, the other just has West 63rd. Is it an original pressing. In my book it would be, but I didn’t write the book on Blue Notes. In any case, this one is listed in VG+ or VG++ condition for the vinyl and VG for the cover and the price is in the $225 range. The auction closes later today and the bidding has not yet reached the seller’s reserve.

Now for the two that are new to us:

Two for The $1,000 Bin, Plus Two More

March 30, 2015 Al 6 comments

Back in business, back on eBay, back to posting more regularly. First let’s catch up on some of the items we had been watching, starting with Hank Mobley Sextet, Blue Note 1560. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The seller had described the record as Ex and the cover as VG++, but it was clear from the pictures that the condition was less than VG++. At the time we first posted this record, the start price was around $500 and there were no bids. In the end there were four bidders, six bids and a final price of $1,075. I’m sure the seller was quite pleased. Hopefully, the buyer was as well.

Bill Evans, Explorations, Riverside 351. This was an original mono pressing with the blue label, deep grooves and reels/microphone logo. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG+ and the final price was $504.90. It looks like this record, and a few others we were watching, were purchased by one of our readers, so congratulations. Here’s another one of his scores: Miles Davis, Relaxin’, Prestige 7129. This was an original yellow label pressing with the New York address. The record and cover were both listed in M- condition, and the pictures accompanying the listing certainly made it look quite pristine. The final price on this one was $1,037.99. Welcome to the $1,000 bin.

Guest Column: Meeting Bill Evans

March 26, 2015 Al 10 comments

We haven’t had a guest column in a while, but here’s one that came in recently. I will let it speak for itself:

How I met Bill Evans…

First let me introduce myself… I am Mervyn de Gannes from Trinidad & Tobago. Born in the 1920’s, I am the third child in a family of seven kids and the first born boy. In those days, there was a piano in most homes and the girls always took lessons to learn to play. Even at the age of ten when the tutor came to our home, I would be listening in, and whenever my sisters were practicing and played anything incorrectly, I would let them know what they were ‘playing wrong’. Obviously this didn’t go over well with them as I never took lessons. By my late teenage years, by just listening to records and playing by ear, I was performing at friends’ parties until I got married at 26. My idols then were Bill Evans along with Errol Garner and Oscar Peterson.

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