Finding a Rare Lee Konitz, Right On My Own Shelf
I have many hundreds of records I’m hoping to sell and on rare occasions someone may come to the house to peruse them. I don’t necessarily encourage this, but if I know you from Jazz Collector I’m generally OK with it. Anyway, the other night I had one of our readers come over and it turns out he was an alto player who was associated with the Lenny Tristano school and had played with Sal Mosca, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Billy Bauer and others. He went through the records I was selling and didn’t find anything he liked and asked if I had an 78s I’d be willing to sell. I do have more than 1,000 78s and I have been willing to pare this down and among the more than 1,000 78s I happen to have about 100 Prestiges in mint, unplayed condition. I purchased these Prestiges on
a business trip to Chicago 25-or-so years ago. They were sitting on a bottom shelf at the Chicago Jazz Record Mart and I was blown away and bought as many as I could fit into a carry-on suitcase, which I purchased especially for the transport of these records.
Anyway, I pulled out a few of these Prestiges from Lenny Tristano and Lee Konitz and said he could purchase any of them for $15. They all looked mint, but he wanted to hear what they sounded like and on my little Califone desktop school record player we placed a 78 with the Lee Konitz version of the Jerome Kern classic Yesterdays. I am not an expert in early Konitz so I was not familiar with this recording. My guest, however, was an expert and as soon as I put the record on the Califone he stopped everything he was doing.
“What is this?” he said.
“Yesterdays,” I replied.
“Yes it is Yesterdays. But I have never heard this version.”
I went to my 10-inch Lee Konitz Prestige and put on Yesterdays and, indeed, the version was completely different. The one on the 10-inch LP featured Miles Davis on trumpet. The one on the 78 was just a trio of Konitz, Sal Mosca on piano and Billy Bauer on guitar. My guest, who was, as noted, an expert on the music, had never heard the trio version. So we did what you would expect: We went to the computer, Googled Lee Konitz and made an interesting discovery: The version on the 78 was issued only one time, literally, on the 78 that was playing on my Califone record player. It was Prestige 755 and, really, I had no idea. My guest was quite intrigued at this rare find and I kept to my word and sold him the 78 for $15 and he was quite pleased to acquire this extremely rare copy of some pretty decent music.
Somewhere in here is a moral to this story, but I can’t figure it out now and I have to go because, believe it or not, there is another collector perusing my records right now as I type this. Who knows what we’ll discover this morning.
interesting stuff! did you know that the Prestige 25th anniversary album had takes issued on 78 rpm only?
Great story,Al-it’s a striking contrast to the usual “Well,pull something you want off the shelf and I’ll let you know.” Which would have made that $15 Konitz a cool $150,most-like-lee.
Rudolf — I did not know. But I imagine the Konitz trio version of Yesterdays was not on that LP?
Al: I am afraid I am unable to check.
re: Prestige 25 years LP: Konitz is on there, but with Lennie Tristano, playing ‘Progression’
(from PREP 1308 Lennie Tristano Quintet Featuring Lee Konitz)
If the best you can say about Lee Konitz’s playing on that 78 is that it is “pretty decent”, I’m glad you let someone have it who could appreciate its unique beauty.
Very intriguing. It is also listed as such at jazzdisco. Miles does not play.
However, I see at discogs that Miles Davis’ name is shown on this Prestige 755 label. Perhaps, by mistake Prestige wrongly used this take of Yesterdays, instead of the one with Miles as issued on the 10 inch record?
https://www.discogs.com/Lee-Konitz-Featuring-Miles-Davis-And-Billy-Bauer-Yesterdays-Duet-For-Saxophone-And-Guitar/release/11003180
Jazzdisco:
Lee Konitz Sextet
Miles Davis, trumpet #1-4; Lee Konitz, alto sax; Sal Mosca, piano; Billy Bauer, guitar; Arnold Fishkin, bass; Max Roach, drums #1-3.
NYC, March 8, 1951
1. 140B Odjenar New Jazz 853; Prestige PREP 1319, PRLP 116, PRLP 7013; New Jazz NJLP 8295; Prestige PR 7827
2. 141B Ezz-Thetic New Jazz 843; Prestige PREP 1319, PRLP 116, PRLP 7013; New Jazz NJLP 8295; Prestige PR 7827
3. 142B Hi-Beck –
4. 143B Yesterdays New Jazz 855; Prestige PREP 1319, PRLP 116, PRLP 7013; New Jazz NJLP 8295; Prestige PR 7827
5. 143 – Prestige 755
* Prestige PRLP 7013 Conception Featuring Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Zoot Sims, Sonny Rollins, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz
= Prestige PRLP 7013 (later); Original Jazz Classics OJC-1726, OJCCD-1726-2 Miles Davis/Stan Getz/Gerry Mulligan/Lee Konitz/Sonny Rollins/Zoot Sims – Conception
* New Jazz NJLP 8295 Lee Konitz, Miles Davis, Teddy Charles, Jimmy Raney – Ezz-Thetic
= Prestige PR 16011 Lee Konitz – Ezz-Thetic!
* Prestige PR 7827 Lee Konitz – Ezz-Thetic!
* Prestige PRLP 116 Lee Konitz – The New Sounds
* Prestige PREP 1319 Lee Konitz With Miles Davis
* New Jazz 853; Prestige 753 Lee Konitz – Indian Summer / Odjenar
* New Jazz 843; Prestige 743 Lee Konitz – Ezz-Thetic / Hi-Beck
* New Jazz 855 Lee Konitz – Duet For Saxophone And Guitar / Yesterdays
* Prestige 755 Lee Konitz – Duet For Saxophone And Guitar / Yesterdays