Another Story

So I said there would be another birthday story from yesterday and here it is:

About a week ago, you may recall, I posted an item about a lovely Phil Woods 10-inch record on the New Jazz label (Of Prestiges and Great Tenor Records). I mentioned that this would be of particular interest to a good friend, who has a passion for both 10-inch LPs and Phil Woods. That friend is the oft-mentioned Dan Axelrod and when he saw that post he emailed me a listing of yet another 10-inch Phil Woods record from the same era, and that was called Encores, the Phil Woods New Jazz Quintet, Prestige 191. And Dan told me that this is the record that has been at the top of his want list for years, and that it should also be at the top of my want list. Why? Well, in looking longingly at this record over the course of many years, Dan discovered that it was actually recorded on February 4, 1955. That was the exact date of my second birthday. Which was cool enough. But, in addition, there was actually a song on this record called “Toos Bloos.”  Get it: Too’s Blues and I was two on the day it was recorded. Well, to be honest, that coincidence didn’t do all that much for me, but for Dan it was a sign. I had to own this record. It was “my” record. And, if I had even one shred of a doubt, Dan told me one more fact that seemed to be the clincher that this was, indeed, a signal from a power far greater than any of us that this was “my” record and I must, at any cost, own it:Dan had been searching for the record for years, he said. It had only come up on eBay one or two times in all of that time. Now, he said, not only was there a copy on eBay right at the exact moment that he was sending me the email, but the auction for that particular copy on eBay was closing exactly on February 4, my birthday. For all he knew, it may have been closing 58 years to the moment when the record was actually being recorded on my second birthday. Now Dan can be quite insistent and he insisted that I do what I needed to do in order to procure this record and ensure that it was sitting on my shelves. I told him that I trusted his instincts, and his passions, and I would place a bid of $225 for this record, which seemed to be more than enough to make the record mine. After all, there were five days left on the auction and the price was still only in the$10 range. But Dan said the $225 was not enough — he insisted that I place a bid of at least $300 and he would pay for any difference between my top bid and the eventual sale price. Well, this was an offer I could not pass up, so I went to the snipe site and raised my bid to $300 and waited. And waited. And I went to bed last night, and I woke up early this morning, and I went right to my computer and looked to see if, indeed, this was my record. And, ta da, it was indeed. It is indeed. I won the auction for a price of $168.50. Now, every time I look at this record – Phil Woods New Jazz Quintet, Encores, Prestige 191 — I will recall my 60th birthday, and my second birthday, and I will know that the destiny of this particular copy of this particular record pressed sometime in 1955 was to eventually, 58 years later, end up on a shelf in my home in my collection. Thanks, Dan, for looking out for me, and thanks, Phil Woods, for recording “Toos Bloos” on my second birthday.