Updating Some Jazz Vinyl Auctions

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Tough to follow up on that great story by Rudolf, so we will just go back to watching eBay and catching up on some of the items we were watching last week, starting with: Paul Quinichette, On the Sunny Side, Prestige 7103. This was an original New York yellow label pressing in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. When we were watching it last week it was in the $230 range and it wound up selling for $328. If you ask me, that’s a bargain for a nice original Prestige from the 7100 series. Of course, not as big a bargain as Rudolf may have paid, but a bargain nonetheless.  From the same general area was John Coltrane, Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. This was also an original New York pressing that looked to be in M- condition for the record and cover. It sold for $399.97. One more from that group of Prestiges: Eric Dolphy, Far Cry, New Jazz 8270. This was an original pressing that looked to be in beautiful M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $880.

Here’s a Blue Note that did not sell:

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Guest Column: Treasure Hunt — Prestige

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Miles Davis at Prestige in New York

So Don Lucky was asking me offline about something to do with Prestige, and I suggested he contact Rufolf, and Rudolf replied with this fascinating tale of how he ended up at the Prestige warehouse, and Don Lucky and I said Rudolf you have to write this up  for the rest of the Jazz Collector audience, and Rudolf said sure, and here it is. Enjoy.

Treasure Hunt — Prestige
How a Courtesy Call Turned Out to be the Discovery of the Cave of Ali Baba

By Rudolf Flinterman

In the ‘50s/early ’60s a simple catalog of say Prestige, Blue Note or Contemporary could be of invaluable worth. Without, one simply could not know what was in the market. There were no discographies like Jepsen and Ruppli and no Internet, of course. At the time I would regularly write to Prestige, Pacific Jazz, Blue Note, Atlantic and Contemporary requesting to send me a catalog, which they all did. Lester Koenig always wrote a kind letter. Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic was so kind to send me copies of deleted items, for free!

In 1959 Prestige sent me an offer to become a free member of their Jazz & Folk Record Club in Teaneck, N.J. The formula was simple: Pay for two, receive three. Especially for New Jazz, with a list price of $3.98, that was an interesting proposition. I still have the box of the first shipment from Prestige. For three records I paid 2-X-$3.98 plus 89 cents postage, i.e. $2.95 per album, which was the equivalent of 10,75 Dutch florins. At the time the list price in Holland was 18 Dutch florins. No wonder that I became a frequent buyer at Prestige throughout the ‘60s, despite the fact that the sea transport and customs took more than two months.

In 1969 I made my first trip to the U.S. We stayed for one week in Manhattan. I travelled with the then-Mrs.-Rudolf. The first day we made a boat trip with the Circle Line to have a general idea of the city. I then proposed to her to make a courtesy call to a certain Mr. Bob Weinstock – “who would be most happy to make our acquaintance,” I assured. She could hardly object to this great idea. So the next day she found herself in the bus at the Port Authority to go to Bergenfield, N.J.

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. . . And a Few More Non-Blue Notes

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Funny that I did the post yesterday about non-Blue Note jazz vinyl and then noticed an e-mail from the Jazz Record Center with an auction consisting of non-Blue Note jazz vinyl. And then CeeDee sent me a separate note about a New Jazz Eric Dolphy LP fetching quite a high price. To wit:

Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot Volume 1, New Jazz 8260. This was an original purple label pressing with the deep grooves. The record was only VG+ condition and the cover was M-. The price was $887. We’ve seen this record sell for more than $900 previously in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, so it’s not unprecedented. But VG+ vinyl? Per CeeDee: New JAzz — the new Blue Note?

Some of the Jazz Record Center items: Bill Evans, Interplay, Riverside 9445. This is an original stereo pressing with the black label. It looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The start price is $100 and there is already a bidder so it will sell. Charles Mingus (et al), Newport Rebels, Candid 8022. This is an original mono pressing that looks to be in M- condition all around. The start price is $75 and so far there are no bidders. I always thought this would be a record more prized by collectors, given the additional presence of Kenny Dorham and Eric Dolphy, among others, and also the unusual circumstances that led to the recording. But, it doesn’t usually get top dollar. This is another one I have to put on the turntable again, since I haven’t listened to it in years.

Top Prices Are Not Limited To Blue Note

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Sometimes you think it’s only — or mostly — the Blue Notes that are going up in value, but it’s quite a bit broader than that. Here are a few cases in point of jazz vinyl for sale on eBay now:

Eric Dolphy, Far Cry, New Jazz 8270. This is an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It is quite a lovely record, and rare, and the condition is great, and the picture with the add is quite nice as well. Still, the highest price we’ve ever recorded for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide is around $230. This will sell for quite a lot more than that. The current price is $515 and there’s nearly a day to go.

Blue Mitchell, Blue’s Moods, Riverside 336. This is also an original pressing, with the blue label and the deep grooves. The record is in VG++ condition and the cover is VG+. The current price is around $400 and there are still four days to go before the auction closes.  This one will also set a new record for the Jazz Collector Price Guide. 

And here are a couple of nice Prestiges:

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Listening is Part of Collecting Too, Isn’t It?

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Here’s some jazz vinyl we’re watching on eBay:

Gigi Gryce and the Jazz Lab Quintet, Riverside 229. This is an original white pressing that is in what looks like M- condition for the record and probably VG++ for the cover. I’ve had this record for about 25 years and it’s always had a prominent place in my collection, but I can’t recall listening to it more than once, probably 25 years ago. I know one of our readers had commented earlier that it wasn’t all that great. Perhaps today is the day to finally put it on the turntable and judge for myself. It’s not just me, right? We all have nice collectible records that we’ve either never listened to or listened to just once? This one closes in a few hours and is in the $350 price range.

Dizzy Reece, Star Bright, Blue Note 4023. This looks to be an original deep groove pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The seller has created his own grading schema. If I were to judge the descriptions based on the grading system used by most of us, and certainly used by us here at Jazz Collector, I would guess that this one is in VG+ condition. It closes in a couple of days and is already at around $400.

Here’s a seller offering some nice 10-inch LPs, including:

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No Economic Crisis In Collectible Jazz Vinyl Market

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Now that I have that Bird article out of my system, it’s time to get back to the task at hand, watching rare jazz vinyl on eBay. Here are some of the items we’ve been watching:

Phil Woods, Woodlore, Prestige 7018. As you may recall, this one was sitting at $200 with no bids and I was considering taking the plunge myself. Glad I didn’t. The record wound up selling for $527 — way beyond my comfort level — and, to make it worse, there is now a dispute about the sale, as you can see on the Jazz Collector site under the earlier post. From the same seller was: Charlie Rouse, Yeah!, Epic 16012. If you look at the listing, you’ll have a hard time figuring out the record’s condition. It says both ex+ and ex- and it talks about light scratches that will sound on both sides. Hmm. Someone paid $538 for this record. We’ll see if there’s a dispute about this one as well.

Wow — didn’t expect this record to reach the $1,000 bin: Hank Mobley, Workout, Blue Note 4080. This was an original New York USA pressing, with the RVG and ear in the deadwax. It was in beautiful M- condition for the record and cover and sold for $1,009.99.

This one also entered the $1,000 bin, but not all that suprisingly:

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An Old Jazz Collector Tribute To Charlie Parker

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This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. When I was breaking in as a journalist my first job was as the jazz critic for the Syracuse New Times, an alternative newspaper in Syracuse, NY. I did a bunch of interviews — Charles Mingus, Chick Corea, Larry Coryell, among others — record and concert reviews and other features. I once posted my Mingus Interview here at Jazz Collector. Most of the articles are long gone, not in my files, certainly not saved in any digital format — this was the early 1970s, nothing was digital then. However, I did save a copy of an article I wrote about Charlie Parker, which was timed to coincide with the 2oth anniversary of Bird’s death in 1975. I recently dug up the article and painstakingly retyped it into my computer and now it will be saved digitally forever and ever. And now, when people do a search of Charlie Parker and Al Perlman, I will forever be associated with Bird. It’s enough to put a big smile on my face, that thought. Me and Bird. I like it. Anyway, it’s a pretty well written article, if I must say so myself, but there are clearly youthful indiscretions and probably a little too much borrowing from Ross Russell’s Bird Lives, including the opening scene and some idle speculation that Bird got his nickname because he loved fried chicken. There are many stories to go with this article and how it got published — and how I got away with using the word “motherfucker.” But those are for another day. Oh, and I didn’t put that stupid headline on the article nor did I get to approve it. I’ve attached the article as a PDF to download for simple viewing. Here it is: Charlie Parker Article. I’m also going to see if I can post it below here without screwing up Jazz Collector and, to prove there really was an article to begin with, we have a picture of the original, from April 13, 1975. If you are going to comment, please be kind. I was only 22 years old at the time. Read more

A Pair of Jazz Vinyl For This Jazz Collector

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Here is one of the conundrums of doing the Jazz Collector Web site. I still collect records and occasionally buy them on eBay. So, when I spot a record that interests me, do I dare share it with the world? I usually do. Case in point: Phil Woods, Woodlore, Prestige 7018. This is an original New York yellow label pressing. The record looks to be in M- condition and the cover looks around VG+. This is a nice early Prestige I’ve only owned as a Japanese pressing. The auction closes tomorrow and there are no bidders at a $200 start price. I would pay $200 for this record. I could just lurk in the background, put in a snipe and hope no body else is interested, which I may, indeed, do. But I’d certainly have a better chance for success without blabbing about my interest to the whole Jazz Collector world out there, wouldn’t you say? Actually, I’m surprised there are no bidders yet for this one and there’s only one bidder for this record from the same seller: Lucky Thompson, Lucky Strikes!, Transition 21. This is an original pressing with the booklet. The record is in M- condition and the cover is probably VG++.There’s only one bid at $200 for this. To be fair, the highest price we’ve seen for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide has been a little more than $300, so perhaps the $200 is not so unreasonable. It just looks like a record that should sell for more, at least it does to this collector.

Watching Some Stereo Jazz Vinyl Sell (and Not Sell)

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I was just going through some old listings as I attempt to clean up my files so I can (finally) update the Jazz Collector Price Guide and noticed that eBay took the liberty of erasing all of my files that were more than six weeks old. This is a new thing they have done and I’d rather they didn’t, but I wasn’t given a choice. Anyway. Before they disappear into oblivion here are some items I had saved with the idea of either writing about them or adding them to the Price Guide:

Johnny Griffin, Studio Jazz Party, Riverside 9338. This was an original stereo pressing with the deep grooves and black label. The seller had a start price of $150 for this record, which was in VG++ condition and probably VG+ for the vinyl. I was watching it to see if it would sell and at what price. The mono pressings tend to be much more desired and desirable, right? This one did not sell. A mono pressing in that condition, at that start price likely would have sold. I always liked this record — it has the real feel of a party. Along the same lines and from the same seller was a stereo pressing of Johnny Griffin, The Little Giant, Riverside 1149. This one was in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover and it too had a start price of $150. Alas, there were also no bidders for this one.

This was a stereo pressing that did sell, and for a decent price:

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Rare Jazz Vinyl, Some With Autographs

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Sorry for taking such a long break over the Memorial Day weekend. But we are back to our post at Jazz Collector and ready to begin posting regularly again, starting with a catch-up of items we were watching last week on eBay.

First there was that copy of Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, Prestige 7150, that was autographed by Miles, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. It was offered by the Jazz Record Center so there was some level of credibility attached to the autographs, although the listing didn’t say anything about independent verification. The price for this was $4,305. It’s certainly a one-of-a-kind item, so there is probably no price too high to have surprised us. This seems pretty reasonable for such a rare item. Here are a couple more from the same auction: Art Pepper, Intensity, Contemporary 3607. This was not only signed by Art Pepper, he also put the date and his home address with the signature. The record and cover both looked to be in M- condition. This one sold for $150.27. This one was not signed: Johnny Hodges, In a Tender Mood, Norgran 1059. This was an original yellow label pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $161.50. I was watching this because I like to keep an eye on the original Norgrans, just to see that there is still a collector’s market for them, since they really reflect artists mostly from the pre-bop era, with a few exceptions, of course. This one also has that weird kind of cover from the era, with a picture of a white woman as the sole image on the picture of an album by a black male artists. Is it really possible that

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