Oh, that’s for subscribers to the Now-Again Reserve series — a yearly rate and you get bonus LPs, though probably more beneficial if you’re into the psychedelic rock and funk stuff that Now-Again mostly releases. I’m not sure if there are any of the 3LP sets left, to be honest…

Typically, when analyzing any autograph I have a three strike policy myself… That my friends, would have been strike one ! But in this case, Clifford saved the day, and I trust Clifford so I will grant the seller a proverbial hall pass for the moment.

I also look at the varying signature styles and defining characteristics from different time periods in an artists career, the medium they used to sign with, and the date the lps were pressed in relation to the artist’s life. (You would be surprised at how many lp’s re-issued after an artist has passed away had supposedly been signed by them, often with mediums that were not readily available when they were alive…)

However, just looking at the signatures alone, I reserve the right to remain a bit suspect, after all, without any form of provenance on these (like a photo of them being signed) one only knows for sure if one was there to get it autographed first hand right.

That being said, lets start with Sonny: He is the toughest to authenticate as I have many autographed LP’s I’ve had signed by Sonny in person over the years and they all look totally different ! Even when I asked him to sign more than one Lp for me after the same show ! This applies to his signature style, size and even the printing style of his personalized messages before each autograph. That being said, there were a few tell-tale traits that distinguish them as his. Since Sonny is still with us thankfully, it is plausible that both LP’s were signed by him. The style is certainly a “later” version of his signature, but unfortunately, none of them really seem reasonable enough for me to vouch for with any real certainty… They both seem questionable in numerous areas and I would proceed with caution on them…

Next up, Miles… What can I say, aside from being a musical genius, the man had excellent penmanship, but didn’t have an elaborate “paraphe”. He also hated signing autographs, and was notoriously difficult to get. Later in life, he never signed his full name either, and eventually just resorted to signing his first name, often followed by an exclamation mark as seen used when signing his paintings and sketches… In this case, I see numerous subtle issues with the scale, rotation style, ascenders, descenders etc… For that reason, I’m out on this one as well.

Last but not least, John Coltrane… This one looks surprisingly good, despite the faded medium. Hard to tell for sure if this one was just traced from a known authentic example from the photos, but it’s certainly the most passable of the lot IMHO.