Category: Features

Another Adventure, Part 7

12 comments

Untitled copyIt wasn’t until early January that the second batch of records arrived. As I did with the first batch, I recorded the unveiling for posterity. This is what I wrote:

The final batch of records has arrived. The guy from the shipping department in the building just brought them up on a hand truck. Three boxes – those banker’s box file boxes, the brown and white ones you get in Stapes. They’ve never been good for storing or transporting records, but hopefully this batch made it through safely. Opening the first box. There’s a sheath of what looks to be sheepskin or some kind of cotton on top. Nice. The records seem safe. On top, an Errol Garner record. No big deal. Going through the records. Each has the same type of soft plastic cover: I have a feeling these were the original covers on the records. In the 1950s and 1960s they didn’t use what we have come to know as shrink wrap, but they used a cover and it fit loosely over the records, just like these. They certainly seem old enough, and dirty enough, and covered with enough dust to have been original covers from the 1950s. No matter. Getting through the box, one by one, record by record.

Read more

Another Adventure, Part 6

5 comments

Zemanta Related Posts ThumbnailSo we are now in late December 2011 and I am going through the box of records that was delivered to my apartment in New York City and I am recording my discovery in real time for posterity. Here goes:

Let’s keep digging.
Another beauty. Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048. This is another one I’ve never owned, certainly never an original pressing which .  .  . this is! Sweet again. I just did a post on this record on Jazz Collector, just a week ago. A copy in near mint condition sold for more than $1,700 on eBay. This one is also in near mint condition, at least it is for the record. The cover is at least VG++, perhaps even M-. Perhaps this won’t top the market, but it’s got to be worth at least $1,200 in today’s market. Will I sell it? Will I sell the Griffin? Not a fucking chance. I’ve been waiting more than 40 years to get original copies of these records for my collection. And now .  .  .  finally. They are mine.
There’s more.
Let’s keep digging.
A bunch of Blue Notes all in a row: Read more

Another Adventure, Part 5

6 comments

Garner copyWell, yes. Yes, I would be interested in the records at around the price that we had discussed nearly two months earlier. Now, recall, I had still never seen the records. They were in Toronto and I was in New York. The guy selling them admittedly didn’t know much about them, other than what he had gleaned from the Jazz Collector Web site and the Fred Cohen Blue Note book. He also told me that many of the records were from England and South Africa, which meant that it was still possible they were not original pressings. If it wasn’t a big investment for me, I wouldn’t have cared that much. But we were talking about a hefty hunk of change, a few thousand dollars, for essentially 25 or so records. This was definitely a risk on my part. So I made a suggestion: I would send him one third of the total price and he would send me 25 records, of which there would be at least 10 of the Blue Notes. If the records were as he said—original pressings, nice condition—I would then send him the rest of the money and he would send me the rest of the records. There were some more negotiations. Again, I won’t bore you with the details. Eventually we struck at deal. I took a deep breath, wrote out a check, put in the mail and waited.

Read more

Another Adventure, Part 4

9 comments

Byrd in FlightWhat’s the saying: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing? Unfortunately, I was the inadvertent cause of my own undoing, at least temporarily. By publishing a price guide on Jazz Collector with very specific details on pressings and condition, I was able to provide enough knowledge for my new friend in Toronto to be a little bit dangerous, at least dangerous to the prospect of my ever getting my hands on his records. I will spare you all the grim details, but we went through several weeks of negotiations and couldn’t agree on a price. I still hadn’t seen the records, but I had pulled enough information that I had a good sense that most of the Blue Notes—but not all of them—were original pressings, including Cool Struttin’ and Byrd in Flight, among others. And I was promised that the records and covers were in excellent condition.

Read more

Another Adventure, Part 3

7 comments

Lou takes off copyThere were several things that struck me about the latest note from my new friend in Toronto, the one with the 25 Blue Notes he was looking to sell among a batch of other jazz records. One was that he had taken the time to do the research and come up with some potential values for the records. Two was that he had taken the time to catalogue them and even listen to a few. And three was that he was asking if I knew a Jazz Collector who might be interested in the collection. I liked that he capitalized Jazz Collector, because that would be me and not just any jazz collector, and he said that his dad would have loved for these records to go to a real collector who would appreciate them. I took all of this as an indication that, all things considered, he would like to sell the records to me.

Read more

Another Adventure, Part 2

One comment

cool struttin'Toronto. That’s where the records were located. In Canada.
So a few thoughts went through my head. First, how long does it take to drive to Toronto from New York City? From my recollection, it was about 10 hours. I checked on Google. Only eight hours. Not bad, but not great. Then, what’s it like crossing the border hauling hundreds of records. Granted, this was only 200 records, but what would happen? Would I be stopped? Would I have to pay some kind of tax? Would the border guard be a closet jazz collector anxious to confiscate my one and only treasured copy of Cool Struttin’?
The idea of Toronto didn’t thrill me, but I wasn’t at the stage yet where I had to worry about that. I still hardly knew anything about the records. That issue was cleared up just a week later in the next e-mail. The owner had taken my advice and purchased Fred Cohen’s Blue Note book. He had taken the time to go over each of the records and provide me with a full list. He had gone through the Jazz Collector Price Guide to come to an approximate value for each record.

Read more

We’re Back: Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting

7 comments

Griffin copySo yesterday I was in my apartment in New York and I had 45 minutes to kill and I decided to put on a classic Blue Note record I hadn’t listened to in a while, if ever. I went through the collection and stopped at Johnny Griffin, A Blowing Session, Blue Note 1559, and I put the record on the turntable and it is quite an interesting record, with early Coltrane and lots of up-tempo material, particularly The Way You Look Tonight. And one other interesting thing is the presence of Art Blakey in the rhythm section, who has an ability to make every session sound like one of his own, with that perpetually driving beat and heavy accents. And I’m listening to the record, and I’m looking at the cover, and I’m reading the liner notes and I’m thinking to myself: Where and when did I get this record? And therein lies a story.

Read more

An Evening With Herbie Hancock

27 comments

hancock copySo yesterday afternoon I was walking my dog Marty, the one who has accompanied me on my recent record scores, and we passed Barnes & Noble two blocks away and there in the window was a notice that Herbie Hancock would be appearing in the evening at 7 p.m. to discuss his new biography in conversation with Larry Blumenfeld who, I subsequently found out, is a jazz writer for, among others, The Wall Street Journal. Of course, this was of great interest to me so I left my house at 6:40 or so to venture the two blocks to Barnes & Noble and I took the escalator to the area where the discussion would be and, to my great surprise, the room was completely filled and overflowing, to the point where I actually had to stand outside the main area to hear and see the discussion. There must have been between 200 and 300 people in attendance. I don’t know why, but I expected a much smaller crowd. I never entertained the idea of leaving, because I wanted to hear what Herbie had to say and because I had also brought two of my rare Blue Notes for him to sign, which, as you can see in the picture, was a successful outcome. I was pleased that a good portion of the conversation was around Hancock’s time with Miles and, especially, his time with Blue Note. I will share one of the interesting Blue Note stories he told.

Read more

Top 5 Live Albums From The Jazz Collector Era?

24 comments

sarah copyI was lying in bed at about 3:30 in the morning unable to sleep so I put some nice ballad music on my iTunes and the song “Detour Ahead” came on from the Sarah Vaughan album After Hours At the London House and I thought to myself, gee, that is one of my favorite live albums of all time. It’s great music and there’s those outtakes on “Thanks for the Memory” and the whole concept was quite unusual, setting up a live recording date at a club in the wee small hours of the morning and inviting other musicians who had finished up their gigs to make up a large portion of the audience. And then, still unable to sleep, my mind started racing through its database of jazz records to come up with my favorite live recordings and the next thing I know it’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m still not asleep. But at least I have an interesting post for Jazz Collector, and that is my list of favorite live jazz albums. I decided to take the Sarah record off the list and just concentrate on instrumental records. Perhaps I’ll do the vocals at a later date. Meanwhile, I offer for your perusal:

Read more

Having Fun With Jazz Records

19 comments

mating callI had fun with my records last night. I had about an hour and a half where I had nothing to do, nothing I wanted to read, and I decided I would just sit and listen to two records fully rapt, eyes closed, no distractions. But what to play? I just went to the shelves and the first record that caught my eye was Mating Call, Tadd Dameron and John Coltrane, Prestige 7070. Why Mating Call? I’m not sure. It’s not a record I’ve listened to often and it’s not on my regular play list. When I want to listen to Coltrane, there are other records that grab my eye. Perhaps I haven’t listened to Mating Call in 10 years, so I wanted to check it out again. And I did. What a great record. This is actually, I think, the first record on which Coltrane was the sole featured horn player. His playing is great, not nearly as adventurous as it would become, but far more confident than on Miles, Prestige 7014. He had either come a long way in the period between those recordings, or the format gave him more room to showcase his gifts. As for Tadd Dameron, Read more

1 … 8 9 10 11 12 … 21