Another Adventure, Part 3: Ornette, Monk, Dee and Me

Dizzy

It was a Thursday when I went to Dee’s, the week before the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. Before I left Dee’s with my five records and four-hour drive, we had one last conversation as I was getting into my car. For a variety of reasons, Dee needed to sell the records by the Spring, hopefully in the May/June time frame. She was concerned that Spring would come and she would still have the records. I told her not to worry; if she still had the records in the Spring, I would drive back, pay her a fair price and take the records so she wouldn’t have to be concerned. She offered on the spot for me to take them all, sell them at my own pace and then pay her later. She was obviously comfortable placing a lot of trust in me, but I politely declined. I didn’t want that much responsibility, tempting as it may have been.

So I reiterated my offer to come back in the Spring, if necessary. I was hoping to be Plan B, and she would find another buyer in the meantime. I would like to think that my motivation in making this proposal was just to help her out; but, perhaps, there was a part of me that just really wanted the records. Who in his right mind passes up a clean copy of Blue Train in our weird world of Jazz Collectors?

On Friday, The Lovely Mrs. JC was taking the train up from New York, as she often does, because I like to spend as much time in The Berkshires as possible, and she has a full time psychotherapy practice in New York. We went out for dinner and I told her about Dee. I said I was concerned because she was very particular about handling the records and that she had a beautiful home and, no offense to any of you out there, I wasn’t all that confident other record guys would be as sensitive and careful as I had been.

Just saying.

Then I told The Lovely Mrs. JC about that last conversation, the one about driving back in the Spring, and she had an idea. If Dee was concerned about the records, why didn’t I just offer her the same amount I would offer in the Spring and take the records now. I realize that this qualifies the Lovely Mrs. JC for the Wife Hall of Fame, but it really did happen this way, or close to this way. Maybe it was my idea to get the records now and she approved it? In any case, I walked away from dinner with a plan.

I sent Dee a note the next day and she was, in her words, “rendered speechless, almost unheard-of!” Clearly, she was in favor of the idea. So the following Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, there I was, once again in my car, this time with 20 empty record boxes and a pocketful of cash, heading back to her rural Vermont mountaintop, prepared to drive back home with 20 full record boxes.

I realize, as I am telling this story, that there is one aspect I’ve left out. Dee had lived with Ornette Coleman for many years of her childhood. She was the inspiration for the song “Dee Dee” on the Blue Note Album “Live at the Golden Circle, Stockholm, Volume 1.” Many of these records belonged to Ornette. It was hard for me to tell exactly which ones, because some were Dee’s records, some were Ornette’s and some belonged to Dee’s mother. In any case, there were multiple copies of many of Ornette’s classics, including “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” “Change of the Century,” “This is Our Music,” and many others, including both volumes of “Live at the Golden Circle.”

I also have to tell you that I had no intent or interest in making money on this collection. I am not on eBay and haven’t sold records for years. My real writing job keeps me busy enough, too busy most of the time. My goal was to take a few records for myself and sell the rest. I hoped and expected to get back the money I had given Dee. I also told her that anything above that, I would not keep for myself but would give to her. She insisted that I take whatever I deemed was fair compensation for my time/expenses/efforts. She also shared that she’s always been squeamish about receiving “gifts,” including innumerable refused attempts by Ornette since she’d known him (beginning in approximately 1960).

Anyway, the day before Thanksgiving, late in the evening, I found myself with crates of records sitting in my home here in The Berkshires with no particular plan for what I was going to do with them. What happened next? Stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy a few more great autographed photos from Dee’s portfolio.

Steve McCall

Charlie Haden

Abbey Lincoln Aminata Moseka

Gato Barbieri