A Story Goes With It

You may recall several weeks ago I wrote a post for The Lovely Mrs. JC. It wasn’t entirely altruistic: She was seeking help from the Jazz Collector community in acquiring a birthday gift for me, preferably an original Blue Note that would fill a gap in my collection (A Blue Note Birthday). Helping her was, of course, helping myself. Well, it is a milestone birthday and the day has arrived and, as you can see from the accompanying picture, my birthday wish has been fulfilled, quite nicely I must say. I also promised I would tell you the story that went with the gift, so here it is, or at least as much as I can ascertain from The Lovely Mrs. JC. I will say that after my plea to the Jazz Collector community there was hardly a groundswell of enthusiasm. The Lovely Mrs. JC received one email. About a week after the initial post I asked her how it was going and she said not so well, so I put up another subtle reminder or two on Jazz Collector. Perhaps I was too subtle, for nothing came in. I gave her an updated wish list with a couple more records and she told me she would follow up with the one person who responded and we decided to leave it at that and I was not to ask about it anymore, lest I run the risk of ruining any suprise. She didn’t

tell me the name of the reader with whom she was corresponding, and still hasn’t, so I would like to extend my appreciation to the anonymous would-be donor. Well, apparently  there was some back and forth about various records and condition and wants and gaps in my collection and, after a period, it became clear that there wasn’t a match between what I was looking for and what this one collector was offering. And now it was getting down to the wire and The Lovely Mrs. JC still did not have a birthday gift, nor a clear path as to how to get one. But she did have an ace in the hole, and because the time was getting near, she used it. She sent an email to Fred Cohen at the Jazz Record Center in New York and explained her predicament. The Lovely Mrs. JC has met Fred on several occasions in his establishment, usually under similar circumstances around my birthday. Fred replied immediately, told The Lovely Mrs. JC that was doing an inventory and, within days, would know exactly what he had. True to his word, he emailed back a couple of days later and told The Lovely Mrs. JC that he had just what I was looking for, an original pressing of Thad Jones, Detroit-New York Junction in lovely condition. I have no idea of the price, nor do I want to know, but I’m sure it was fair and probably somewhat discounted because Fred is such a nice gentleman. He even added two jazz calendars as a personal gift to me. So this morning, after walking the dog, I came back to my apartment in the city to a familiar-looking package, obviously a record, sitting on my kitchen table. I opened it, saw the calendars, then saw the record and broke out into a big,wide smile. I explained to The Lovely Mrs. JC that, among my Blue Notes, this fills a big gap because Blue Note 1513 was the first record in the 1500 series, chronologically, that I did not own as an original Lexington Avenue pressing. I’m not sure she understood what I meant, but she saw that I was quite thrilled. And I am. And then she told me the story of how she contacted Fred, and how she went to the Jazz Record Center on 26th Street, and how she had to sneak the record into the apartment and hide it from me. And I immediately sent a thank you note to Fred, took a picture of the record with my iPhone, and then sat down to write this post. What’s next? I’m going to listen to the record, of course.

One other thing. The day is not quite over. In fact, it’s just begun. There will be at least one more story to tell, I’m sure of that. But it will have to wait till the day is complete.