M’Boom, John Gordon and Other Rarities from Jazz Record Center
Greetings all – Al should be back posting soon as I think he’s nearly back from holiday, but it’s been fun writing up various eBay shenanigans while he’s been out. The Jazz Record Center had a number of interesting items up last week, mostly 70s jazz on the Strata-East label, and I actually completely let these records slip notice until they were done for. A few titles in the list I might’ve gone toe-to-toe on but likely would’ve been taken to the cleaners anyway, starting with this one:
M’Boom – their self-titled debut, issued on Strata-East in 1973, went for a whopping $1,592. It’s probably the rarest Strata-East album by a long shot and certainly one of the scarcest in Roach’s discography. My memory is foggy on the details, but I believe that Roach decided he wanted the record pulled right after Strata-East released it and most copies were destroyed. Maybe he had a falling out with Tolliver and Cowell? A few leaked out, though, and it was bootlegged on CD in Japan several years ago (that’s what I’ve got). It’s probably their strongest album, and percussion ensembles are (for me) usually a pretty engaging listen. This one was M- for both record and cover.
Trombonist John Gordon’s Erotica Suite is another rare Strata-East title, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen it go for quite this much. Sealed and presumed Mint, this copy went for just shy of $1,000. It’s a nice, funky post-bop record with reedist James Spaulding, drummer Frank Derrick and trumpeter Waymon Reed. Gordon has another nice record on Strata-East that doesn’t usually go for nearly as much – in fact, it attracted no bids at the opening price of $75 and was also sealed.
Here’s a rare one – pianist Enrique Villegas’ trio featuring Paul Gonsalves and Willie Cook, titled Encuentro, on the Argentine label Trova (which also issued a nice record by pianist Alberto Favero called Suite Trane). Fred showed it to me in the shop at one point though I wasn’t feeling like spending $250 that day. Someone got lucky and was able to get it for $91 at auction. The record was listed as M- and the cover was probably a strong VG++. I like those later Gonsalves LPs and wouldn’t mind having this one in the collection at some point.
Until next time, happy bidding and happier listening…
thanks Clifford for your excellent job during Al’s absence.
Are there any tell-tale signs to what makes a 1st pressing on Strata-East? I see them occasionally but don’t know enough.
Thanks for filling in for Al and changing it up.
RIP Mark Murphy
Sure thing – this has been really fun.
Yes indeed, sad to hear about Murphy’s passing, as well as Don Rendell’s.
Re: Strata-East, black-white labels tend to be a pretty good indicator, though I have a feeling that several titles were pressed multiple times with the same stampers and label design. There are some later Audio Fidelity pressings with light blue labels that on the whole sound pretty crappy. The 8000 series has these labels and I’ve seen earlier Tolliver albums with these labels as well. Most of what Fred was selling looked to be original and some of those really obscure titles can’t have been pressed more than once.
Ahhh, fond memories. Back when I was first getting into jazz, into mainly spiritual/free jazz and this M’boom album was all over the sharing blogs I frequented then as an unheard ‘holy grail’. Then, one day, some guy started a new blog and this was his first post. The blogs went crazy. Fun times those were.
Lots of nice Strata East LPs in that auction. I love the cover of “The Waterbearers” – surely one of the most excellently Strata-East-y covers of all.
yeah, it is really nice – like a lot of those mossy private jazz LPs of the era.
I still ‘need’ a copy of The Liberation of the Contemporary Jazz Guitar.
clifford:
i have that album, and it is worth the wait. got lucky and got a sealed original for peanuts!
Really enjoyed the coverage. Exposed me to a few albums I hadn’t heard of before.
Side note, anyone see this John Coltrane Live at Birdland go for over $350? Big price jump.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262094064505?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Nice – I didn’t see those. Would like to upgrade my copy of Stone Blues at some point.
Yes, it’s been interesting having another perspective — free jazz and avant-garde — on things. Do carry on when you have time, please.