Dealing With a Case of Vinyl Envy

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Sometimes I get vinyl envy. I see a record on eBay, one that I don’t have as an original pressing, usually a Blue Note, and I think my collection isn’t complete until I get that record. But then, if I get it, there’s always another to remind me that the collection will never be complete. So I think the vinyl envy is not such a bad thing. What would be the fun of collecting if there was nothing more to collect? So this is a record that gives me vinyl envy: The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527. I have a United Artists pressing and I’ve probably never even listened to it, so I’m not even sure of the quality of the music, although I bet it’s great: It’s really that Lexington Avenue label and cover in the pictures that does it. You can almost feel the cardboard and the heavy vinyl. Anyway, this one is in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover and it is approaching $300 and will probably sell for closer to $1,000, so it will not be added to the Jazz Collector collection.

This is a cool one I’ve never seen before:

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Watching Rare Jazz Vinyl In Tip-Top Condition

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We’re watching the latest auction of jazz vinyl from the Jazz Record Center, which closes in a few days. Here are some of the highlights:

Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This is an original New York pressing that looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. This one is in the $900 range. I am happy to say, I recently purchased a near mint New York copy of Colossus in the Irving Kalus collection, which I will be writing about as soon as I get a chance.

Hank Mobley Quintet, Blue Note 1550. This is an original pressing in beautiful M- condition for both the record and the cover. This price is already more than $1,800 and at the rate it is going you would expect that it may even top $3,000.

Kenny Burrell, Blue Notes Volume 1, Blue Note 1596. This is an original pressing and of course it has the Andy Warhol cover. This one is also in beautiful condition and is currently at $500. I’d expect this do break into the $1,000 bin, wouldn’t you?

A couple more:

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Tracking Some Very High End Jazz Vinyl

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While we were busy buying the Irving Kalus collection, a lot of rare and valuable (and high priced) jazz vinyl was being sold on eBay. Here are some of the high-end items we’ve missed.

Tommy Flanagan, Overseas, Prestige 7134. This is one of the major rarities and it sold like one. The record and cover were both in M- condition. The price was $3,216.66. That’s the first time we’ve seen the record surpass the $3,000 mark in the Jazz Collector Price Guide.

While we’re on the topic of $3,000 records: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This was an original pressing listed in M- condition for the record and the cover. This is the listing that mentioned Jazz Collector as a pricing/value source, which we appreciate. The sale price was $3,600.

This didn’t quite make the $3,000 bin, but it gave it a good run: Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original purple label pressing in near mint condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $2,650. Do you think there’s a distinction between a record described as “near mint” versus one described as “mint minus?” Just thought I’d ask. “Near mint” has a nicer ring to it, IMHO.

One more:

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Tales of The Hunt, Redux

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Remember our old friend Nick from Brooklyn? He’s the guy that told us a bunch of stories about his record-hunting days under the general heading Tales of the Hunt. There was the one on Meeting and Idol, A Spree Grows in Brooklyn (my headline) and several others. Do a search on “Tales of the Hunt” and they will all come up. Fun reading, again. Well Nick is back. He contacted me a few weeks ago, said he had several boxes of records, and he’s looking to get rid of them before he moves. I popped over to his place in Brooklyn (where else?) yesterday and walked away with some fairly nice records, including an original blue-label pressing of Waltz for Debbie and Lou Donaldson Swing and Soul. I didn’t bring all that much cash and, having just purchased a collection, I didn’t want to take too much. So I left a lot of really nice jazz records behind. Nick said I can post his phone number on Jazz Collector if anyone else wants to venture to Brooklyn and peruse the records and make a fair offer. So I will. The number is 718 219 8892. Perhaps you will have your own Tale of the Hunt.

A Jazz Vinyl Quartet

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Very busy with real work this week, but there’s always time to take a look at eBay for interesting jazz vinyl. Here’s some of the records we’re watching, starting with: Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523. This looks to be an original Lexington Avenue pressing listed in VG+ condition,. The start price is around $250 and so far there are no bidders. You’d think there would be bidding for an original Lexington Avenue pressing at $250: Perhaps it’s condition. The seller mentions “minimal light surface noise” and states “No Skips!” with an exclamation point. I think it’s the NO SKIPS PLUS EXCLAMATION POINT that would have me worried as a bidder. The least you’d expect out of a VG+ record is no skips, right? This one is from the same seller, also has the NO SKIPS! in the listing and also has no bidders: Freddie Hubbard, Open Sesame, Blue Note 4040. This one is listed as VG+++ condition for the vinyl and G for the cover. The start price is around $650.

Atomic Records has some nice vinyl on eBay this week, including:

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Moving On: A Trio of Blue Note LPs

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It was an interesting week on Jazz Collector following the chronicles of my purchase of the Irving Kalus collection and the subsequent comments, which are ongoing as I type this. Later in the week, when I have time, I will do an epilogue and I will also put all of the posts together in a single story, which will be downloadable as a PDF. The whole thing will probably read a bit like novel all at once. It’s a marvel of our era that through the Internet we could give life to a college essay written more than 60 years ago and create a living online legacy for a man who had passed in relative obscurity, except, of course, to his beloved family and friends. I certainly feel honored and blessed to have been able to play a part in that, so the gift to me is not just Irving’s records but the psychic reward of having done some good work. For all of the time and effort and money I’ve put into Jazz Collector for the past 10 years, this is a real nice payback.

Having said that, let’s move back on the mundane business of watching collectible jazz vinyl on eBay. Here are some items of interest this week:

Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. Irving did not have an original pressing of this, just a blue label Liberty. However, I was fortunately able to pick up an original in a previous collection I purchased. For that whole story you’ll have to wait for the Jazz Collector book, which is still a vision in my brain at this point. This original pressing of Cool Struttin’ is in beautiful M- condition for the record and the cover and is currently priced at more than $2,000. Even at that price it may not sell: It has not yet reached the seller’s reserve.

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Guest Column: Ornithology, By Irving Kalus

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As promised, here is the paper written by Irving Kalus on Charlie Parker, dated December 22, 1949. I have to really admire that Irving caught on to bebop so quickly and ardently, and he recognized the genius and contribution of Bird. You can see that this paper is written with tremendous passion and feeling and probably some hyperbole that can be easily excused by the exuberance of youth. As Irving’s son Gary told me, Irving was a fan of Benny Goodman . . . well, read it and see. I’ve reprinted the entire paper below and I’m also attaching it as a downloadable PDF (Ornithology). It’s remarkably similar to the article I wrote in 1975, when I was 22 and had the benefit of 20 years of history after Bird had died. You can find my article here: An Old Jazz Collector Tribute to Charlie Parker. Irving was neither a writer nor jazz critic by trade, but he certainly had a gift for both and, from now on, perhaps forever, whenever anyone does a Google search linking on Irving Kalus, the names Charlie Parker and Irving Kalus will be inextricably tied together. It’s a nice thought and a pretty apt tribute, wouldn’t you say?

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In Memory of a Jazz Collector

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Irving Kalus

Irving Kalus was 82 years old when he died on December 22, 2011. It was early in the evening and he had just gone to the record store around the corner, Infinity Records, in Massapequa Park on Long Island. He bought a Miles Davis record and was crossing Sunrise Highway when he got hit by a car and was killed instantly. I didn’t know Irving Kalus personally, but I seem to know him quite intimately now, at least in connection with one particularly important area of his life: His love of jazz. It was Irving Kalus’ collection that I purchased a few weeks ago and I would like to share what I have learned about the man and his life-long passion for jazz.

Irving fell in love with jazz when he was a teenager. His son Gary remembers him telling stories about musicians he had met – the time Sarah Vaughan kissed him on the cheek, the times Dizzy Gillespie would talk with him outside a club before or after a gig. Bud Powell once fixed him a drink: “He called it a Joe Louis because he said it will really knock you out,” Gary recalls his father telling him. Irving picked up on bebop quite early and it clearly had a profound influence on his life.

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Still More Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 6

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When I left Massapequa on Monday Karen said she wanted to sell the records to me but it was not her decision alone, she would have to consult with her brother. She believed that he would also want to sell the records to me and they’d probably give me the go-ahead on Tuesday. When I didn’t hear from Karen by Tuesday evening I started getting a little nervous: Were they getting cold feet, were they shopping the collection around, was there suddenly going to be a slew of cutthroat record dealers sniping for the records? Just the normal paranoia, right? I wasn’t all that concerned because I believed that no dealer would come close to the offer I made because, well, for me it wasn’t a business decision but an emotional decision. If it was about business, I would have spent more than a half hour with the records in the first place, and I would have at least gone through them all to identify the ones of the most value and to figure out how to get rid of the ones I didn’t want. But I was just improvising and by this point it wasn’t about whether I had made the right decision to buy the records, it was just about closing the deal.

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Still More Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Part 5

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Have I ever mentioned that The Lovely Mrs. JC is a psychotherapist by profession? You’d think after 35 years of marriage to a shrink I’d have been somewhat cured of my vinyl obsession by now. Anyway, The Lovely Mrs. JC returned home from her practice that Monday evening and we sat down to have a quiet dinner and chat. We had many things to talk about and the record collection wasn’t foremost on her mind and, in fact, I had made such little light of the prospects for this collection that it seemed to have slipped her mind completely. So I had to bring it up.

“You know I saw that record collection today,” I said, quite casually.

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Anything of interest?”

“Yes, it was pretty interesting,” I said.

We sat in silence for a few seconds.

“There’s a chance I may be buying it,” I finally said.

She stared at me in stunned disbelief.

“How many?”

I smiled a sheepish smile and held up three fingers.

Her eyes popped out of her head. “Three hundred records! How can you buy three hundred more records!”

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