more eligible contestants — 27 total — than we’ve ever had before. That is quite gratifying. Here are the eligible names: Michael Peoples; Doug; Rudolf; CeeDee; Joaquim; BryanK; Gregorious; Giovanni Zanoni; GW; William; Bob Brooks; Don-Lucky; Bethellodge; Bob; Japhy; Jack; Geraint; Max; Michel; Robert; Baz; RL1856; Jason; Erich Schultz; Brian; Blipp; PFunk. And it is time to bring in the lovely Mrs. JC and place all of the eligible names on the desk and scatter them about and . . . the winner is . . . BryanK. Congratulations BryanK. The sealed Dex is yours. All you have to do is send us your mailing address in an email, to al@jazzcollector.com, and we will send you the record, free of charge, and we even pay for the shipping. Hope you enjoy it. I will spend some time pondering the next record for the next contest and I will probably post it sometime tomorrow.

still sealed with a price sticker from J+R Music in New York. There’s some terrific music on this album, including The End of a Love Affair from Dexter Calling, plus It’s You Or No One and You’ve Changed from Doing All Right. What’s even better, the record will be given away free to one reader of Jazz Collector. As always with our contests, in order to be eligible to win you just have to comment on the site — anywhere on the site — between now and when the contest officially closes, which will be two weeks from tomorrow, on Feb. 26. Good luck, and thanks for commenting, it’s what gives Jazz Collector life and vitality.

Rudolf, Michel, DaveS, Max, Ceedee, Aaron, Japhy, Don-Lucky, Gregorious, RL1856, Don Robinson, GW, Brian, Geraint, Jack, Jan, Joaquim, Baz, Jason, Michael Peoples, Bob Miller. And we shall ask the lovely Mrs JC to do the honors and choose the winner, as usual. The names are written on paper . . . strewn on the desk . . . mixed . . . and the winner is . . . Ceedee. Congratulations Ceedee. It’s about time, right? Anyway, the record is yours and, as always, we will ship it to you free of charge. Just send an email to al@jazzcollector.com with your mailing address.

We are poring through our records now to decide upon another record for our next giveaway, which will be announced later today or tomorrow.

By the way, we are also selling some nice collectibles this week, including a few a couple of mint Mosaic boxed sets and some Billy Taylor early yellow label Prestiges. You can see our items by clicking Items for Sale here or at the top of the page above.

post a comment on the Jazz Collector site — anywhere on the site, about any topic, between now and the end of the contest, which will be February 1. We ship the record anywhere in the world at no cost to the winner. Pretty good deal, if we most say so ourselves.

Just for the heck of it, we did a little inventory of previous giveaways. We’ve been doing the giveaways since October of 2008 (Rudolf was our first winner) and in that time we’ve given away 16 items. Well, we’ve had 16 winners: Two of the winners haven’t collected their prizes: Michel, you had won a Downbeat last year, which I see is still sitting on my shelf. And I still have a Charlie Parker Memorial Album — original pressing no less — won by Red Colm O’Sullivan, who has apparently abandoned us. We haven’t had any repeat winners because the contests have been set up to try to avoid that, but at this point, we’re expecting someone to win again. For the record the winners have been: Rudolf, Michael Haensch, Jason, Bethellodge, Dan Hodina, Michel, Troy Grooms, Jim Thornton, Maarten Kools, Red Colm O’Sullivan, Bob Brooks, Don-Lucky, Ian Thomas, Mr DW, Jorge and Brian, who still has to collect his Brubeck LP.

all you have to do is comment on the Jazz Collector site — anywhere on the Jazz Collector site — from the time the contest opens until it closes. This time we have 14 eligible contestants and they are: Bethellodge; Don-Lucky; Michel; RL1856; Paul H; Bob Brooks; Doug; BLIPP; GW; Brian; Geraint; Charlie; Keith Fiala, and Max. And, drum roll please, the winner is: Brian.

Congratulations, Brian. We are happy to ship the record free wherever you are. Just sent an email to al@jazzcollector.com and we’ll get it out ASAP. For everyone else, stay tuned. We’ll be posting another free record contest either later today or tomorrow.

This is a later pressing and it is in M- condition. We have it on the turntable now and it’s quite nice. We’re on the West Side Story side, Tonight, Maria, I Feel Pretty, Somewhere. It is what you would expect. Nice swinging jazz with some playfulness with the time signatures, some nice percussive Brubeck and, as always, terrific Paul Desmond. The other side features Brubeck in a Carnegie Hall concert with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic from December 1959, almost exactly 50 years ago. If you’re in the U.S., check out the Kennedy Centers Honors show on CBS tomorrow and let us know what you think. Mel Brooks will also be among the honorees, so you’ll get to laugh as well as enjoy the music. In order to be eligible to win this LP, all you have to do is comment on the Jazz Collector site any time between now and Jan. 11, when the contest will close. As always, we provide the free record with free shipping anywhere in the world to the lucky winner.

call upon Mrs. JC . . . and here she is . . . and her are the names crumpled up and strewn upon my desk . . . and here is Mrs. JC with the selection . . . and here is the winner . . . Jorge. Congratulations Jorge. I think you are a relatively new commentator on the site, so welcome and please keep commenting. In order to collect your price all you have to do is send an email to al@jazzcollector.com with your mailing address. We’ll take it from there and we’ll pay for the postage as well. Please stayed tuned later today or tomorrow for our next giveaway.

Michel, Ville Iivari, Mr. DW, Ayrton, Erich Schultz, DaveS, Hohit, Bethellodge, Rudolf, Duonri, Rockie, CeeDee, Brian, Gilles Miton, Neil, Bob Brooks, Geraint, Don-Lucky, Chris, Gregorious and Jorge. As usual, we have called upon the lovely Mrs. JC to select the winning name out of a hat, and she did so last night and left the winning name laying upon my desk so that I could see it first thing in the morning, which is now. And I am opening the piece of paper and reading the name and now typing the name, which is Mr. DW. Congratulations Mr. DW. In order to claim your free record — we pay for shipping, too, so it really is free — all you have to do is send an email to al@jazzcollector.com with your mailing address.  For everyone else, please stay tuned to the site later today and we will post the record for our next give-away contest.

all you have to do is comment on the Jazz Collector site — somewhere on the site, about any topic — over the next two weeks, until the contest closes on November 16. At that point we will pool the names of all the eligible contestants and put them into either a real or a proverbial hat and pull out the name of the lucky winner. For anyone who doesn’t know this music, particularly any guitarists out there, it’s worth posting a comment or two on the site to try to win this one. You’ll be quite pleased and even if you don’t win you’ll have had the joyous opportunity to share a comment, opinion or even a jest with your fellow jazz lovers out there in the world.