Category: The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown

What Happened To The Jazz Vinyl Countdown?

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In an earlier post, Rudolf poses the following statement and question: “Al announced the slimming down of his collection a while ago. But I don’t see anything else but buying records by the lot, ‘improving’ on quality, etc., etc. Al: I just would like an honest reply to my straightforward question (the lovely Mrs. JC is not tuned in, so your reply can be honest). The question: With how many albums has your collection grown since your slimming down action?”

Ahem.

I will answer the question directly and then go into some level of explanation. Since the launch of what I affectionately called The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown almost exactly a year ago – September 29, 2009, if anyone would like to go back to the archives – I would say that my “collection” has increased by about 50 records, while the number of records in my house has grown by several hundred, at least.

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Jackie, Bluesnik

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So I went through this whole process of cataloguing my Blue Notes a few weeks ago. It was quite interesting and, if you’ve been following my adventures, you will recall that it led to (yet another) existential crisis. More on that later. For now: In going through my Blue Notes I came to the realization that some records I thought I owned as original pressings were not originals. This is fine, except for the ones that are blue label late pressing Blue Notes, of which, unfortunately, Jackie McClean, Bluesnik, Blue Note 4067, was one. This, I thought, was a record that needed to be replaced by a better copy — i.e., an earlier pressing that wouldn’t cause me to hang my head in disgust every time I looked at it.  With a blue label Blue Note, no matter how good the record, I was never going to listen to it, period. The problem, however,  is that Bluesnik is now selling

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Sonny 10-Inch Prestige

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How do you place a value on an album like this: Sonny Rollins Quartet, Prestige 137? Here’s my story: I purchased a copy of this record about 25 years ago as part of a large collection. It is quite, quite rare, Sonny is one of my favorite artists and it has this great cover picture of him from the early 1950s with slicked-back hair and a wisp of a mustache. A real beauty, right? However, the copy I owned was in pretty poor shape and a few years ago I picked up a near mint copy on eBay for $200. Actually, it was advertised as near mint and it’s not near mint, but that’s another story. So I’ve been sitting with two copies of this record, one in poor shape, and as I’ve been trying to weed doubles out of my collection, I’ve put this one aside and avoided making a decision. For some reason, this week

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Max Roach, Dorham, Mobley

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I was poring through my records the other day and stopped for a moment on this one: Max Roach Four Plays Charlie Parker, Mercury SR 80019. I’ve had this record for a while and haven’t listened to it in years, but it struck me as such: It features two of the great stalwarts of the Blue Note catalogue — Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham — both in their primes; it has a great cover and a great concept. Yet, it is not really high on any list of collectible records and, in fact, we have never once even tagged it in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, which means we haven’t really seen it sell for a collectible price in the past seven years. And it struck me: What if this record, with this personnel, in this era — 1958 or so — had been issued on Blue Note? What would it be worth? Why is there such a profound difference between the value of a record like this, on the Mercury label, and a record with similar personnel in the same era from the Blue Note era? I think these are rhetorical questions, but I’m happy

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Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Doin’ Allright

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Sometimes you forget to listen to great records, right? You have a limited amount of time to listen, and there are all the other great records, and then there are the other records that have never made it to your turntable and you figure they deserve a chance as well. And, what happens, at least to me, is that some of the great records get buried on the shelf and sometimes go years without being heard. So this week I’ve been going through my Blue Notes and I had about an hour yesterday to just sit and listen and I decided it was time to take one of those records off the shelf and put it on. The record I chose: Dexter Gordon, Doin’ All Right, Blue Note 4077. And I put it on, the first track, I Was Doing All Right, and I smiled instantly and said quietly to myself, “Oh, yeah.” Oh yeah, as in

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More Confessions of a Vinyl Addict, Part 1

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Friends, my name is Al and I am a vinyl addict. It is necessary for me to confess once again because I have had yet another setback. Remember my mission to pare down my collection, which I have labeled The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown? Well, as part of that endeavor I decided it would be wise to take inventory of my records so that I would know what I actually have, in intimate detail: Record, condition, provenance, value. I had never actually done this before, so yesterday I set up a spreadsheet and began the process. I started, naturally, with the Blue Notes, the 1500 series, Blue Note 1501, Miles Davis Volume 1. I pulled the record off the shelf, looked at the record, cleaned it, typed the information into the spreadsheet, put it back on the shelf and then pulled the second record, Blue Note 1502, Miles Davis Volume 2. Same deal: Looked at the record, cleaned it, wrote it down, then moved on to the next record.

What a mistake.

I was moving along fine through the first eight records in the

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Miles? Prestige?

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This is a test of whether I am willing to cut close to the bone in this Jazz Vinyl Countdown upon which I have embarked. This is the record in question: Miles Davis, Early Miles, Prestige 7168. This is a yellow label pressing with the deep groove and RVG in the deadwax and it’s in very nice condition, at least VG++ on the vinyl. Plus it has a promo stamp on the back. So why is this record even in contention to be discarded? Well, the music was previous issued on 10-inch LPs and, more notably, on the 12-inch LP Miles Davis Plus Horns, Prestige 7025. I recently obtained a very nice original pressing of Miles Davis Plus Horns. So, the question I’m asking myself: Does that make Early Miles extraneous. In the old days, the answer would have been a clear NO WAY! Today, however

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: For Love or Money

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I’m still doing my Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Selling more records, writing about them a bit less. However, I did make a couple of interesting decisions in the past couple of weeks I’d like to share. In the course of doing the Jazz Collector Price Guide I logged a copy of this record: Zoot Sims and Joe Newman, Lockin’ Horns, Rama 1003. It sold for $260 in near mint condition and had sold for more than $400 in the past. I happened to know I had a nice copy of this record, a promo, and I happened to know that I had not listened to it in 25 years, since I bought it. So the question was: Keep it or sell if for the bread. I listened to the record and it’s actually very nice. But, I thought to myself, would I ever listen to it again: Not likely. I have a lot of Zoot records that I prefer, so this one probably wouldn’t make it off the shelves. So I put it up on eBay with a start price of around $50, no reserve, and it sold for about $215. That was fine by me. The second recent incident involved a rare Blue Note and a higher price tag:

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Kenny Clarke on Savoy

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I was going through my records the other day and came up with this interesting discovery: This Savoy LP by Kenny Clarke featuring Cannonball Adderley was issued with two different covers. I discovered this accidentally because I had one filed under Cannonball and the other under Clarke. The one with the better cover — ‘better” in terms of a great picture on the front — is the one entitled Bohemia After Dark Featuring Cannonball. The other one is also titled Bohemia After Dark, but that’s just on the back cover: The front cover just lists it as The Jazz Corner of The Villiage, Cafe Bohemia, Featuring Kenny Clarke. Both are Savoy 12017 and both have the same tracks and liner notes. If I had to guess which was the first pressing, I would have said the second one, the one

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: John Coltrane, Ballads

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No, I am not thinking about getting rid of one of my all-time favorite records. No, this is a question about what to do with multiple copies. As noted in the headline, the record is: John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse 32. I have had two original pressings of this record, one a mono and one a stereo. To me, this makes sense. But recently I purchased a second stereo copy of the record, this one a reissue. I have to be honest. The reissue sounds as good as the original. So I’m going to sell my original stereo pressing, and I’m going to first offer it here at the Jazz Collector site. It’s not a high-end collectible like Blue Train, but it’s a wonderful record, beautiful and romantic with a great selection of songs. It features Trane with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones.

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