Jazz Collector In Box: Time Traveling in Jazz
Time to catch up with the old Jazz Collector in box. My friend Dan sends me cool pictures that he finds somewhere on the internet. This one came in the other day from March 20, 1963, the opportunity to see John Coltrane in New Orleans for an admission charge of $2. Ah, if we could go back in time. What would be your first choice? Bird on 52nd Street; Sonny, Max and Clifford; Blakey with Horace Silver and Clifford Brown; Blakey with Wayne Shorter and Freddie Hubbard; Lester with Basie; Billie Holiday; Miles with Trane, Bill Evans and Cannonball; Evans and LaFaro; Monk with Newk or Trane? Those would be some of my choices, off the top of my head, and certainly Coltrane with McCoy, Garrison and Elvin in 1963 would be somewhere near the top of the list. If I had to choose one, it would be easy: Bird.
Our friend Maarten Kools, who recently wrote a guest column for Jazz Collector (New Newk, New Guest Columnist) stays in touch on a regular basis, for which we are extremely grateful. He always offers insight and good energy. Here are excerpts from some recent correspondence.
“Hello Al. Hope you and the Mrs. are fine! After some time of lockdown in Amsterdam, stores are open again to visit with an appointment , so I went to buy some records today. Ihave a small budget, so i had me a couple of Liberty, UA and Japanese pressings: Jackie McLean, One Step Beyond; Louis Smith, Here Comes; Jmmy Smith, The Sermon, and a nice original of Hank Mobley’s The Flip). One original: Horace Silver, Blowing the Blues Away……VG+ but as always, plays great…
“Liberty’s and UA (mono) re-issues are gettin’ pretty costly nowadays in Amsterdam.. 50-100 dollars and up. I also bought a copy of Easy Living by Ike Quebec, an album never issued until the 1980’s. Great music, cheap price. Inside there was an ‘open letter’ from 1987 from blue note/capitol. I had never seen it before, although I have some more re-issues from the eighties.
“It’s quite an emotional/ pathetic letter to jazz fans who are copping music on cassette tapes… with all that has happened since, it has a nice outdated touch. Well, in the end they were right, with the closing of so many small record shops (now because of internet).just wanted to share. Wishing you and family good health!, Maarten Kools”
Note: Maarten added a copy of the letter and I’ve reprinted it below. I hope you are not all reading this on smart phones and can read the contents. I searched the internet to provide a link, but couldn’t find a copy. We can always type it in and reproduce it at some point. This way, if someone does want to do a search on the internet, it will be there, forever.
I asked Maarten if I could publish his note. Here is his reply:
“Hi Al, please, use freely. by the way,.. the cassette tape was great ? you could make a tape with all your favorite songs on it, and give it to the girl you liked so much. nothing’s changed…my neice , fifteen years old, makes a playlist on spotify, and sends it to the boy she likes….the format/medium changes, the essence is still the same…. and about nostalgia…some bands nowadays sell cassette tapes. Ha!”
A couple of months ago we did a piece on an autograph collector named Bill based on the sale of an autographed copy of John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse A-32 (Autographs, Autographs, Autographs). After that post appeared, we got this interesting note from Bill: “our recent correspondences have motivated me to organize my collection. I came across one that you might find interesting. It is a rather paltry royalty check to Sonny Clark for just over $3. If he only knew what people were paying for his Blue Note albums!”
This came in unsolicited from a reader:
“I’ve been working on a website (https://www.thelinernotesproject.com) for musicians, students, and fans to explore all of the credits to their favorite albums. No login or $$$ required – just looking to send it around and gather some feedback. Check out the help / slide show on the home page, search for artist / musician / writer / producer / album / record label, click on any name you see to explore, and enjoy. Feel free to share the link, and let me know if you have any feedback / suggestions. Thanks.”
This also came in, quite timely:
“Hi Al. I thought you and your readers might be interested in this jazz record auction I saw on estatesales.NET. If you type “jazz” into their search box you’ll find it no problem. (Btw…I have no skin in this game at all…I just thought it was intriguing). The collection looks to be about 1,000 records, of which about 250 are shown. Lots of ho-hum stuff to be sure, but also plenty of Blue Note, Prestige, Verve, EmArcy etc. The sellers are looking someone to buy the entire collection. The location is Hendersonville, TN with the auction taking place April 1, 2, 3. Alas, I live in Portland, Maine so won’t have a chance to check it out…Don”
Finally, we mourn the passing of Freddie Redd. After all of my years obsessing about Shades of Redd, I put it on the turntable the other night in a moment of solemn reflection. It’s still an amazing piece of work after all of this years. Rest in peace.
…To venture back in time to catch Billie Holiday perform at Club Dowbeat on 52nd street in 1947 would be at the top of the list (While there, you may even be able to catch Bird and co along the street in the same night !!!)
Don-Lucky — Maybe you could get a few autographs while you’re at it. If you move it up a few years, you could catch Bille and Bird, and also sneak off and buy some vinyl. 🙂
Regarding the John Coltrane in Nola poster you depict, it’s a nice poster and all that, however Al, it has no bearing on reality.
For John Coltrane’s group was at Shelly’s Manne-Hole in Lis Angeles ca., from March 19-25, 1963, a one week booking
Los not Lis; Ca. not ca; and March 19-24,1963.
Geesh.
Lennib. Are you sure you don’t have too much time on your hands ?. What prompted you to question the poster? It seemed legit to me, so I just took it at face value. Maybe I’m too trusting.
1961 European Tour with Coltrane and Dolphy for me.
Al, the one musician other than Bird that consumes me is John Coltrane. Ever since I saw him in 1965. While I no longer have 250 plus Coltrane lps, I have 200 plus Coltrane CDs and books, etc. So, I’m very into Coltrane and try to know as much as I can.
The prompting to question this poster wasn’t new. I’ve seen it before and knew it was bogus. By the picture used, one of Coltrane from when he was in Dizzy Gillespie’s band, the words”My Favorite Things” on poster and the fact that 545 Baronne Street in Nola was the location of City Hall not a theatre.
damn, lennib. that’s still mighty impressive.
Thank you gregory the fish for your kind words.
Perhaps impressive, yet it’s the type of work so many did back in the day before internet abundance, when discographical, etc. information was so much harder to obtain.
Quite an interesting letter. Makes you wonder how these guys must have felt when Napster came around.
in truth, the real result of taping, filesharing, etc, turned out to be a huge boon for creative, independent artists, with increased concert attendance, merch sales, and exposure, and no real dent to disc sales. there is hard data on this.
it only hurt huge top 40 crap peddlers and their labels. of course, the huge labels were the real ones who stood to lose, and exploited their artists for public image to stop taping, because when you base your whole business model on a top 40 artist only having one or two decent tracks on an album, taping kills those album sales and concert dollars.
i’m still tired and incoherent, but you know what i’m trying to say.
…I like where your head is at on this issue Al ! (Note to self: Go back in time a bit early to hit up the local record shops for first pressings and bring sharpies… heh heh !)
go back in time.. would go on a lazy sunday afternoon to the village vanguard on june 25 1961.. (with a small hangover from saturdaynight),.. guess the sun would be out there in the street, would smoke myself a small joint (i’m from amsterdam)
..go downstairs and sit at a table.. some 30 (?)other people there… get a cup of coffee and a whisky (i’m from amsterdam)… Bill would start to play .. people would talk softly, sound of glasses and coffee cups.. scott joins on the bass.. paul would play soft and sunday-morning- relaxed… slowly get in this relaxed and mesmerizing state… life is perfect.
I’m assuming the signatures at the bottom of the letter were mechanical reproductions – but if not, wowee!
Bird, then Lester, after hours, late 40’s. Saw Mingus wirh Dolphy, Curson, Richmond (Five Spot); Trane with McCoy, Steve Davis, Elvin ( Judge’s Chamber, E. St. Louis); Miles with Shorter, Herbie et al (St. Louis); AEC (Taos, NM)—Jarman and Mitchell just incredible together. Ornette (New Orleans—pre Katrina. These are toward the top.
Time machine? Coltrane at any point in his career.
Four Days in December & the October Revolution presented by the Jazz Composers Guild.
London at Ronnie Scott’s Old Place or the Little Theatre Club. The Lila Eule in Bremen, late ’60s. Fasching in Stockholm, 1980s. Gyllen Cirkeln, early 1960s. The American Center in Paris in the mid-70s.
But I’ve been lucky to see many greats, sometimes multiple times — Cecil, Ornette, Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, David S. Ware, William Parker, Ted Brown, Lee Konitz, Noah Howard, Bobby Few, Alan Silva, Tony Oxley, Barry Guy, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Misha Mengelberg, Evan Parker, Paul Bley, Joe Morris, the Arkestra (under Marshall Allen’s direction), all the AEC except for Lester Bowie, tons of young players that are and will be great… the list is long!
I’ve had time-machine dreams. How about Monk-Coltrane at the Five Spot? Bird-Diz at Billy Berg’s? Mintons, 1941?
I’ve been lucky enough to see most of the people on your list Clifford plus many others.
I remember seeing Lester Bowie, with Amina Myers, at a theatre in Wimbledon performing amongst the set of Babes in the Wood which was showing there at the time.
A one off for sure!
I’m just wondering, there appears to be a connection between those much beloved and their l.p. price. I’m just not sure what that is … some of them didn’t even record for Blue note !
True posters from this era rarely bear a year date. This one seems too good to be true, just like reliced Stratocasters.