Guest Column: A Score For the Ages

8 comments

We haven’t had a guest column in a while, but here’s a good one from a reader who asks that we refer to him simply as Scott. Enjoy.

It started with a broken turntable. The new turntable my wife bought me at the HiFi shop some three years ago sat unused, not properly set up, broken. I know, I know. Just too busy.  High stress military career, moving, a combat tour in Iraq, and two teenage boys got in the way of my budding interest in vinyl. The day finally came and the turntable was fixed.  Off I went to the estate sales as usual. Not to find vinyl, but to search for tube HiFi gear or vintage speakers.

This particular sale — just last week — was in a 1930s Tudor of perhaps 3,500 square feet.  The owners had obviously lived there since the ‘50s. A sweep of the house revealed no tube equipment, no speakers, and nothing much else of interest. I did note several stacks of records against the wall of one of the bedrooms upstairs. I now had a turntable so I went to look.  I sat on the floor next to another fellow and asked him what was good. He talked about the Riverside label and we chatted. He picked out several and cut his stack to ten records, paid, and left. The stacks were almost all ‘50s jazz with hip covers.  I selected ten, paid the lady the two bucks a record, and went home and played one.

The first record I put on was Helen Merrill (yeah that one). I loved it. I put on another. This one a Blue Note. Wow. Cool. Remember, I didn’t know a Blue Note from a blue bird, but I do know what I like. I went back and bought another 18 just because I liked them including 11 first-issue deep-groove, Blue Notes including BNs 1509, 1518, 1537, 1578, 1537, 1540, 1513, 1545, 1560, 1544, 1560, 1562. Remember, I have no idea what these LPs are selling for. Read more

French Zoot, Miles Smiles & An LP That Is Hipp

8 comments

After all these years of collecting and visiting record stores, I still get a kick out of seeing records I’ve never seen before. Case in point: Zoot Sims All Stars, Barclay 84019. This looks to be an original 10-inch French pressing with a really nice looking cover and label. The seller describes the vinyl as being in M- condition, and the cover is probably VG++. The start price is about $200 and there are five days to go.

Speaking of European pressings, I had never seen this cover of Miles Davis, Porgy and Bess, CBS 62108. Think about how many candid shots of Miles you’ve seen where he’s actually smiling. Here’s one. Very nice cover. This is a stereo pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and cover. So far there are no takers at a mere $19.

From the time I saved the record to when I started writing this post, a gap of about 15 minutes, the price of this record shot up by several hundred dollars: Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House Volume 1, Blue Note 1515. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record is in VG condition and the cover is VG++. The price is now more than $600 and will probably keep on rising.

Catching on On Some Interesting Jazz Vinyl

5 comments

When I last left eBay, about a week ago, here were some of the items I was watching:

Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners, Riverside 226. This was an original pressing with the white labels. It was listed in VG+ condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover and I recall the seller as being very reputable from previous dealings, as buyer and seller. As I was packing my records to move, I noticed that my copy of Brilliant Corners was a blue-label pressing and it was in maybe VG+ condition. I put this one on my watch list to potentially bid on it, not just as potential fodder for Jazz Collector. I think I would have gone to at least $180 for an original pressing. This one sold for $100, so I missed out.

I also had my eye on this for my own collection, but I knew the price would go way beyond my comfort zone — and it did: Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing and the vinyl was in M- condition. The cover was VG+. It sold for $1,475. One of these days I’ll find a reasonable copy for the right price. Right?

Read more

Back In the Business of Jazz Collector

14 comments

Sorry I haven’t posted all week. I have moved, once again, this time in the city and I’ve been quite busy, as you can imagine, packing and unpacking records. We have moved from one small place into another small place and decided to keep just one record cabinet with room for about 1,500 records.  You can see it in the picture, and perhaps make out a record or two — I see Jackie McLean, Lights Out and also the Cecil Payne on Signal. Anyway,  I had to go through the process of weeding out and deciding which records to keep in the apartment, and which to move to other locales. I decided to keep the collection in the city focused primarily on original pressings from the 1955 to 1970 era, and to weed out some of the vocals to make this portion of the collection more bop/hard-bop specific. I also had to remove some of the traditional artists, such as Louis Armstrong and Count Basie, in order to have enough room for the records I wanted to keep here. I also nixed the idea of organizing the records by label and continue to have them alphabetically by artist. This way I’m less compelled to keep around records and artists in which I have less interest, either musically or as collectibles. Anyway, I don’t want to get into all of that, just wanted to explain why I’ve been absent from my post and my posting at Jazz Collector. But I’m back now, ready to once again explore, unearth and expound upon the hidden and not-so-hidden treasures of the Jazz Collector world.

A Piece of Silver, A Tuba and Two Guitars

8 comments

Here’s some of the jazz vinyl we’re watching on eBay, starting with: Horace Silver Quintet, Blue Note 5058. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing that looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. We’ve seen this one sell for as much as $537 in worse condition in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. This one has a start price of $99 and it also has a reserve. So far there are no bidders and there are only two days to go. I imagine someone will take a chance on this great record, but who knows.

Never figured out why there wasn’t more of a market for this one: Ray Draper Quintet Featuring John Coltrane, New Jazz 8228. This is a nice record, with Coltrane doing Sonny Rollins’ Paul’s Pal, which appears on Tenor Madness, which also features Coltrane. Perhaps it’s the idea of a tuba player as the lead artist. This one is an original pressing and it is listed in M- condition for the record and the cover. The current price is $111 and there’s only one bidder.

Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Raney, Two Guitars, Prestige 7119. This is an original New York yellow label and it looks to be in VG++ condition for both the record and the vinyl. Wouldn’t mind having a copy of this one, but the price is already out of my range at $292.

 

A Little Bird, A Little Philosophizing

21 comments

Glad to see there is still some collector interest in Charlie Parker. I had heard this theory, and once discussed it here, that there’s a window of about 50 years for interest in a performer/musician and after that period the people who actually could remember him are no longer around and the influence that he or she engendered, no matter how profound, would eventually fade or be forgotten in the afterglow of artists who succeeded them. This seemed particularly apt in the case of popular artists — a Bing Crosby or Fred Astaire, for example — but it also seems to have impacted the jazz world as well. You don’t get the sense that collectors and even aficionados today have the same esteem for, say, Duke Ellington or Count Basie or even Lester Young that collectors and aficionados had 20 years ago. I think about this a lot and wonder, not just about my collectible records (and their value), but about how history will treat earlier artists and whether their contributions will be remembered in the perspective of their era and the eras that came subsequent to their contributions. Artists like, say, Johnny Hodges or Art Tatum or even Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz (and no, I’m not just focusing on the Verve label, although those provide good examples). This came to mind because

Read more

Tracking Some Original (And Not) Jazz Vinyl

11 comments

Here’s an update on some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay:

Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original pressing with the purple label and deep grooves. The record was listed in M- condition, unplayed, while the cover was VG+. The price was $1,691.78, relatively low for this record considering the condition of the vinyl.

Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Bag, Blue Note 4051. This one was listed as an original because it had the ear and Van Gelder stamp and West 63rd address. However, there were no deep grooves. Original? I think not. So what is it worth in VG++ condition where it’s a sort-of-but-not-quite-original? This one sold for $231.38.

Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone AUL 207. This is another one that looks sort of close to original but may not be. From the picture it does not look like colored vinyl to me, which would add value to this record, right? This one was in VG++ condition for the record and cover and sold for $455. With colored vinyl it sells for over $1,000 and sometimes more than $2,000.

Jazz Vinyl Today: Signal, Norgran, New Jazz

One comment

Here’s some jazz vinyl we’re watching on eBay that is not Blue Note, starting with: Duke Jordan, Jazz Laboratory Series, Signal 101. This is an original pressing that looks to be in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. You don’t see these too often. This one is priced at about $130 with a couple of days to go.

Here are a couple of nice Norgrans: Lester Young, Lester’s Here, Norgran 1071. This is an original yellow label pressing and it is listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The current price is about $180. Then there’s this gorgeous one with the David Stone Martin cover: Lester Young, Norgran 1022. This one is also an original yellow label pressing and is in VG++ condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The price is about $160. I do have one small nit-pick for the seller, who I believe is Looney Tunes up in Boston, where I have spent many an idle afternoon and many a dollar. I wish they would use the whole picture of the cover, back and front, on their listings. I get the sense the use a scanner, which doesn’t show the whole image. I’d prefer seeing the whole thing as a potential bidder and also, as Jazz Collector, I’d like

Read more

Blue Note Gapping With (And Without) Thad Jones

One comment

So here’s the problem with organizing all of my original Blue Notes in catalogue order. I have the first 12, even the Jimmy Smith,  either original or in one case a West 63rd. So now there’s this gap at 1513. And here, on eBay, is this: That Jones, Detroit-New York Junction, Blue Note 1513. And look at the condition on this one: Beautiful, near mint, with a cover that looks the same. The start price is $700 and it will probably sell for quite a bit more than that. So when I look at my collection, I don’t see the first 12 pressings, all I see is the missing gap, the 1513 hole, and the temptation to throw a bid out on this one is quite appealing. But I won’t. Patience will out. From the same seller, another gap for me: The Magnificent Thad Jones Volume 3, Blue Note 1546. This one is also an original, but the condition is not quite so nice, in the area of VG and VG-. Still, the start price is $250. If I were to fill the gap, and pay close to dollar, I’d want one in better condition.

Some Jazz Vinyl For the $1,000 Bin

6 comments

Yesterday we talked about some lower priced collectibles: Today, let’s go in the opposite direction.

Donald Byrd, Byrd Jazz, Transition 5. This was an original pressing that looked to be in M- condition, although the seller described it as being in very good condition. He seemed unfamiliar with the grading system most of us use. The record sold for $2,370.67, so others expected that it is in M- condition as well.

Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original pressing in M- condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,915.

Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This was an original pressing in VG+ condition for the record and VG++ condition for the cover. It sold for $1,650.

Sonny Rollins Plays, Period 1204. This one was in M- condition for the record and VG for the cover. It sold for $1,191.88. I think this is the only Rollins record from the 50s I don’t own in an original pressing. Hopefully one day we can correct that oversight. But not for $1,200.

1 … 108 109 110 111 112 … 212