Book Cooks and Cook Books
Here’s some more jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay, starting with Booker Ervin, The Book Cooks, Bethlehem 6048. This was an original pressing listed in M- condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. It sold for $616, proving, again, that it is not only the Blue Notes that are fetching collectible prices. This one was listed by my friend Steve at Round Again Records in Providence, RI, who has some nice records for auction last week. With all of the “books” that Booker recorded — Freedom, Song, Space and Blues — a Cook Book record would have been nice. Not sure what would have worked for a Cook Book, but I’m sure we can come up with some songs with a food theme here. I’ll start with Fats Waller’s “All That Meat and No Potatoes.” and, of course there’s Mingus’ “Eat That Chicken.” Any others?
This one seemed to be on eBay forever and it finally sold last week:
Wynton Kelly, New Faces, New Sounds, Blue Note 5025. The record was listed in VG+ condition with “minimal background noise throughout,” which is why I wasn’t interested and perhaps other potential buyers as well. The cover was listed as Ex. There was one bid at $290. Perhaps we’ll see this back on eBay again. One-bid auctions always leave me a little skeptical that the seller had a friend put in a shill bid in the hopes of attracting other bidders, but no one else took the bait. It’s tempting to do that when a record doesn’t sell and I’m sure it works sometimes.
That’s a lot of change for some Booker Ervin!
Lee Morgan’s “Cornbread”?
i won a one-bid auction recently. it was for an original “cattin with coltrane and quinichette” at a very nice price. and it was in great condition when it arrived. it does happen!
It crossed my mind recently while listening to the Ervin LP that maybe, just maybe, Booker was referring to the financial impropriety type of cookin’?
Hi Al – I know this isn’t the appropriate place to put this but I wanted to make sue you saw it. I recently won a Barmey Kessel 10″ off eBay where the seller said he bought two boxes of 10″a off someone at a flea market in the RI/CT border area. For some reason, I decided to see if there was anything inside the jacket, and I saw this stamped in red:
WM. CARRARO
25 Aberdeen Street
Malverne, NY 11565
Pony Pontdexter & Booker Ervin …Gumbo
Phil — very cool. Red used to mark the records in pencil on the back in the upper left corner. I still have many records in my collection with the familiar Red marks, but not sure if I have any with the stamp. He must have started using that later.
The weird thing is that I really had no reason to be looking in there, not sure what I expected to find.
Phil — Did you know Red, or did you just read about him here and remembered the articles?
Recently I came across a sleeve with Red’s name stamped Inside. I always wondered how he did that.
I have known Red personally and bought quite a lot from him.
I just read your articles and very much enjoyed the stories. I LOVE knowing he’s marked some of the records he had, I think it puts me more in touch with how small of a world this hobby really is (but unfortunately it also makes me want to obsessively peek inside all of my jackets for more stamps!)