Miscellaneous Music and Musings
Back from a road trip that took me from The Berkshires to Chapel Hill to DC to New York and back. Didn’t stop in a single record store along the way and returned home to find that there are now two new record stores a few hundred feet apart in the little town of Great Barrington near my home. One of the record stores opens next week, the other opened this past weekend. I stopped by the one that has opened and it has the feeling of a guy clearing out his house, basement, garage and attic of a lot of stuff. But there were definitely records to view and buy, particularly if you are into vocals. I came upon a lot of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, but I can’t vouch for the conditions. As of now, there is no organization to the store, everything seems to be thrown in at random. I did find three 10-inch records to buy: Lars Gullin on Vogue, James Moody on Emarcy and Frank Rosolino on Capital. They seemed in decent enough condition at the store, but when I took them out of the car I realized I would have to sneak them into the house because they smelled of mildew. I may go back to check out the store again, but I’ll be careful. Maybe next time I’ll take off the mask so I can make use of my sense of smell before buying anything. As for the other store, I’ll check it out when it opens and get back to you with a report.
Meanwhile, back in the world of eBay the pickings are slim among high-end collectibles. I’m watching just a few, including Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048. This is an original West 63rd Street deep groove mono. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition. The bidding is in the $160 range with more than five days left on the auction. Also Mal Waldron, Mal/3 Sounds, Prestige New Jazz 8201. This is a purpose label mono pressing, but I’m not seeing deep grooves in the picture so not sure if it is an original. The record and cover are listed in VG+ condition, but the picture of the cover looks VG top me. The bidding is in the $215 range with about a day left on the auction.
Finally, I see the mentions of the death of Bob Koester. He received quite a nice obituary in The New York Times. I was about to tell the story of when I went to the Jazz Record Mart for the first time in the mid-1980s and wound up with a suitcase-full of Prestige 78s. I just counted and reorganized them and the final number was 130, which was a bit more than I remembered. In any case, here’s a link to the story: End of An Era.
No DG on that Mal, and the cover is not great. VG would be my feeling.
A couple copies of Byrd in Flight just sold on Ebay in the last couple days. A NM copy for $1401, and a “strong VG+” copy for $1084.
Agreed on the the VG grade for the Waldron cover
Instagram friends have heard me complain about this incessantly, but as I have just moved to deep southern MD, there are no record stores anywhere. The closest is about an hour north just below DC. It’s a good one, called Memory Lane, but it makes digging a full day trip.
I WISH two new stores would open down here! I am thinking of trying to do regular pop-ups. My wife got a job doing fundraising with the museum system down here, and they are having a ‘retro’ festival in the fall. I will set up there and if it goes well, maybe regular pop-ups will become a thing!
In one if the photos in the NYT obituary, Mr. Koester is shown behind a bin of 78s labeled “Prestige Jams”…for 25 cents a pop…
I remember that bin from the 60’s, Don. Bob Koester got a hold of 100’s of Prestige 78’s when they were being discontinued. He did the same with ten inch lps. The 78’s were still around in quantity into the 90’s. And if you bought enough and Bob was in a good mood, you could still get ‘em for 25 cents.
I respect the Byrd seller’s thorough pictures, but I don’t know how I feel about full-vinyl shots. They really show every little imperfection and, I think, tend to exaggerate marks, making them look worse than they are. A couple of those appear to be potentially feelable lines, but he doesn’t state as such, so I guess they aren’t? I don’t want to have to guess.
The seller of the Byrd lp is very thorough and his listings are play graded. I have dealt with him before and always had a positive outcome. Reading the description, the playback is described in detail. Additionally, how anyone can find photos that show every detail a drawback is beyond me. All sellers should aspire to such transparency.
Al, the three 10 inchers are a good catch, esp. the Gullin, better known in the US under the Contemporary banner with the Viking design.
@TFF, what I meant was that the full-vinyl photo can work against the seller, because glare and flash can exaggerate otherwise insignificant marks, making them look worse than they are.