Category: Uncategorized

What is On Your Turntable? Here’s What’s on Mine

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Jazz copyI’m back from a brief respite. Went to an old mining town in southwestern Colorado called Creede, where my son directed a wonderful production of Our Town. A theater in an old mining town? Indeed. The story is that when the mining business began declining, town leaders put out a call for help asking for ideas on how to keep the town alive and attract residents year-round. A group of theater students from the University of Kansas decided to open a theater there. That was 50 years ago and the theater is still alive and kicking. They had done a production of Our Town back in their first season and had Michael come and do a new production this year.

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3 Blue Notes, 3 For the $1,000 bin

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OK, let’s start out with some of the jazz vinyl auctions we’ve been watching, starting with: Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This was the one that had the New York 23 label on one side and the plain West 63rd label on the other side. The record was M- and the cover looked close to M-. The top bid was $1,457. But, alas, the record did not sell. It failed to meet the seller’s reserve price.

This one came close to the same price and did sell: J. R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing listed as M- for the record and VG+ for the cover. The price was $1,399.

Here’s another Blue Note that got a big price: Horace Parlan, Us Three, Blue Note 4037. This was an original pressing listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,880.55.

 

 

 

Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012

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In case you’re just seeing the news, Dave Brubeck passed away earlier today. Are there any Brubeck records that qualify as real collectibles, say more than $100 in value? In looking at my shelves, I probably have more records by Brubeck than any other artist. Between Fantasy, Columbia, Atlantic and Concord, he had an incredibly prolific recording career. Nice that he was able to achieve the Kennedy Center Honors a couple of years ago while he could still appreciate it.

Guest Column: Collecting Jazz 45s

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A couple of weeks ago friend of Jazz Collector Erich Schultz asked why we never wrote about  collecting jazz 45s here at Jazz Collector. We said that we didn’t collect them ourselves, we didn’t know of any collectors and no one had ever even asked. We also invited him to write a post on the joys of collecting jazz 45s and, voila, here it is. Erich, it’s all yours:

Collecting Jazz 45 RPM Records, by Erich Schultz

Although I have a large library of jazz 10” and 12” 33 RPM records, I also have over 1,000 jazz 45 RPM records as well. I starting collecting these 45’s about five years ago, and I have picked up most of them in the Los Angeles area when I visit my two children (I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.) I also get them sometimes through bulk sales on ebay. My reasons for collecting them include: Read more

Is There Rhyme or Reason to eBay Pricing Patterns?

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eBay, as I’ve said so often on the site, defines the pricing market for jazz collectibles. I’m sure there are still places running auctions by mail and I’m sure places like the Jazz Record Center still get strong retail traffic, but, by and large, if you want to know what a record is worth, look on eBay  — or, even better, look at our Jazz Collector Price Guide, which is taken from eBay and is more comprehensive. Which is just a long way of getting to the point that, even though I’ve been watching the prices of jazz LPs on eBay for years, I’m still often surprised by what I see. Last week we were talking about a two-tier market — and clearly there is, but I’m not sure it’s so different than it was 15 or 20 years ago — and every time I see further compelling evidence of some record prices dropping through the floor, I see other evidence of some record prices soaring through the roof. Here are a few examples of records I’ve been watching this week:

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