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Another Adventure, Part 5

November 21, 2014 Al 6 comments

Well, 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.

Another Adventure, Part 4

November 19, 2014 Al 9 comments

What’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.

Another Adventure, Part 3

November 18, 2014 Al 7 comments

There 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.

Another Adventure, Part 2

November 17, 2014 Al One comment

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.

We’re Back: Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting

November 15, 2014 Al 7 comments

So 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.

An Evening With Herbie Hancock

October 29, 2014 Al 27 comments

So 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.

Top 5 Live Albums From The Jazz Collector Era?

September 10, 2014 Al 24 comments

I 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:

Features

Having Fun With Jazz Records

April 24, 2014 Al 19 comments

I 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

Potpourri: Kenny Burrell, Max Roach, Roland Kirk

January 29, 2014 Al 5 comments

Jazz Collector is on the mailing list for a number of news releases and updates from record companies, such as Mosaic, although we never seem to be able to get on any lists for review copies of anything (hint, hint if anyone from Mosaic is paying attention). Anyway, a few things that have come into the mailbox have intrigued us lately, so we will depart from our usual eBay watching today to share some stuff.

Kenny Burrell — To Preserve ‘America’s Gift to the World’ A Jazz Elder Becomes a UCLA Professor

This is an interesting article on Kenny Burrell and his longtime commitment to jazz education. Definitely worth a read.

Max Roach — Relevatory Archive of a Giant of Jazz

Interesting stuff. At their peak the Brown-Roach Quintet was making $500 total for two nights at Basin Street, $900 for six days at the Cafe Bohemia. Today, there are single copies of records recorded at the Cafe Bohemia that sell for more than that.

Roland Kirk — The Limelight/Verve Years

This is a limited edition LP box set. The email containing the reminiscence by Michael Cuscuna caught my eye. I, too, Read more

Features

$37,000 For a 78

January 21, 2014 Al 9 comments

I was cleaning out some old emails and came across an article someone had sent me about a collector spending $37,000 on a rare 78-RPM blues record: Rare Tommy Johnson 1930 Blues 78 Rpm Record Goes for $37,100 on eBay. It led me to another article from a few years back on a similar subject: They’ve Got Those Old Hard-To-Find Blues. And I thought we jazz collectors were crazy.:)

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