No Holiday For Watching Jazz Vinyl

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It may be the holiday season around much of the world, but eBay never takes a vacation. Neither, apparently, does Jazz Collector. Here is some interesting jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay. We’ll start with the $1,000 been. This one is still for sale: Hank Mobley, Hank, Blue Note 1560. This is an original pressing that’s listed in near mint condition for both the record and the cover. The price is already more than $1,100 and there are still two days to go.  This is also a regular to the $1,000 bin: Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original pressing, deep grooves, purple label, and it was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,415. Merry Christmas for someone. John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. This was an original pressing that was either M- or very close to M-, based on the seller’s description. It sold for $1,156.99.

Here are a few interesting items closing in the next day or so:

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Clinton Toasts Rollins For Kennedy Center Honors

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One more reminder for our readers in the U.S.: The Kennedy Center Honors featuring the tribute to Sonny Rollins will be broadcast on Tuesday, Dec. 27, at 9 p.m. I’ll probably do one more reminder on the day of the broadcast. At one of the events, Sonny was toasted by Bill Clinton. I always figured that Sonny would have been honored while Clinton was President since he was a sax player would and have obviously known about Sonny’s importance in the history of jazz. But I don’t think the President actually has that much influence in who gets selected. In any case, Clinton clearly does know the music, as can been seen in the toast below:

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A Jazz Vinyl Auction To (Carefully) Watch

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Are there any gamblers out there? Here are some interesting items from a seller in Italy, including : Art Taylor, AT’s Delight, Blue Note 4047. The seller describes this record, as well as a bunch of other jazz collectibles, as being from his grandfather’s collection. There is no mention on any of these listings about some of the characteristics you’d want to see on a Blue Note to determine it’s provenance. No mention of deep grooves, addresses on the label, RVGs, ears, etc. Yet . . . if you look at the picture, you get the sense that perhaps they are originals. Or could they be someone else’s pictures? The seller does not accept returns. Perhaps we’re back to being skeptical again, since this is around the two-year anniversary of the great eBay Nautiluso fraud, from Italy. Clearly, others are skeptical as well, based on the price of this record and other listings from this seller. This one, listed in M- condition for the record and the cover, is now at $260. Here’s another from the same batch: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This is described as being in M- condition and a U.S. pressing, but all of the other important data is not included in the listing. The bidding on this has gone to $585 and the auction is closing in a few hours. Under normal circumstances, what would an M- copy of this sell for — $3,000, $4,000?

Blue Note Jazz Vinyl For the $1,700 Bin

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OK, so when did this become a $1,700 record: Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048? This was an original pressing and it was in M- condition. It was also a review copy. Who would have suspected it would get a top bid of $1,712? I certainly didn’t. Our previous high price for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was more in the range of $300.

From the same seller came a batch of other nice collectibles, also at top prices, including: Rocky Boyd, Ease It, Jazz Time 001. This was an original pressing. The record looked to be M- and the cover was probably VG++. It sold for $668. I owned this record at one time but don’t recall that I ever listened to it. I wound up trading it for something not nearly as collectible. I know this record benefits from the presence of Kenny Dorham, for both musicality and collectibility. How is the record and what can we learn about Rocky Boyd?

Also:

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Watching Some Prestige Jazz Vinyl

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

Tommy Flanagan, The Cats, New Jazz 8217. This is an original pressing with the purple labels and deep grooves. It is a relatively early John Coltrane record featuring Trane as a sideman, along with Kenny Burrell. The record and cover are both in M- condition and the price is in the $250 range, but it has not yet reached the seller’s reserve. My personal story with this goes back nearly 40 years when I was doing some record trading with a sax player named David Krieger and I had a broken leg and couldn’t drive and something came up and he had to leave so I was alone in his basement with his entire record collection, including some gorgeous Blue Notes. I could have taken off with a few gems but of course I did not. I can’t ever look at a copy of The Cats and not think of Dave who sadly passed away earlier this year.

This one is a pretty one right in the time frame when Prestige was doing some of its best work:

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Rare Autographs: What’s in a Name

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Perhaps I’m naive, but when I see an autographed record I always assume that it is legitimate and not a fraud. It seems kind of weird to me that someone would try to copy the autograph of a jazz artist to try to inflate the value of the record when, in many cases, the autograph actually devalues the record, another oddity that I will never understand. I was watching this record on eBay: Thelonious Monk, Work, Prestige 7169. This was a yellow label pressing and an “original” in the sense that it was the first pressing of this record, which is a reissue of an earlier record. Normally it would be worth about $50 or so, but this one happens to have signatures on it from both Monk and Sonny Rollins. To me, this is a gem, assuming the autographs are legitimate, which I do. I tend not to collect autographs, although something like this is tempting, so I passed the listing on to one of our loyal readers who does collect autographs. I see from the geography of the winning bidder that our friend did not bid for this. The start price was $500 and there was one bidder. Don-Lucky — what happened? Seems like a good price for this one.

Down By The Riversides (With A Blue Note)

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Here’s some more jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay.

It’s been a while since we’ve tracked a nice copy of Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This one was an original pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover. It sold for $1,913.

Here’s a nice Riverside: Ernie Henry, Last Chorus, Riverside 266. This looked to be an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $270.

While we’re on Riversides, here’s one two numbers apart: Johnny Griffin Sextet, Riverside 264. This one was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $349.95. My dad used to search high and low for the Riversides in the bargain bins of a couple of record stores along 8th Street in Greenwich Village in the ’60s. I wish he would have bought some of these, but he wound up with a lot of Cannonball, a lot of Wes Montgomery and some Bill Evans. No complaints, really. I still have many of those great records from my dad.

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A Tale of Two Sonnys

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I’m proud of myself. I’m up in the country and I have some time and it’s relaxing and I put a couple of records on. First I put on Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’, which is a great record that I hadn’t listed to for years. Then for some reason I put on Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter on Imperial (both reissues, unfortunately). And I was listening and it was right after Cool Struttin’ and I was thinking, hmm, the pianist on the Sonny Criss record sounds like Sonny Clark. So I looked on the liner notes and, zip, nothing. Oh I hate it when liner notes don’t list the musicians. Thank goodness for the Internet. I googled the record and within seconds I found out, indeed, it is Sonny Clark on piano. For those of you keeping score, the other sidemen are Larry Bunker on vibes, Buddy Woodson on bass and Lawrence Marable on drums. Nice record and I can’t tell if it’s my pressing, but the recording is very tinny. Any of you out there with the original?

Monday Morning Blue Notes

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Let’s catch up on some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay. I was up in Providence this past weekend and I held this record in my hands: Jutta Hipp At The Hickory House Volume 1, Blue Note 1515.  This was on auction from Round Again Records and it just closed. The record was in VG condition and the cover was VG+ to VG++. Although I have a copy of this record at home, and although I have many Lexington Avenue Blue Notes, there is definitely something magical for me holding one of these original pressings in my hands. It’s like a piece of rare art. This copy sold for $460. I’m going to keep an eye out for more records from Round Again. The store owner, Steve, says he’s trying to work on a deal with some guy who’s been buying records at garage sales for years.

Here are a couple of Blue Notes in better condition and thus in the $1,000 bin: Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing and it was listed in M- condition for the record and M- or VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,007. From the same seller came Curtis Fuller, Bone and Bari, Blue Note 1572. This was also an original pressing, also in M- condition for the record and VG++ or M- for the cover. This one has Sonny Clark on piano, so it sold for a bit more: $1,136.

 

Someone’s Getting Lucky This Week

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I had said earlier that it was a big week for jazz vinyl on eBay and there are still many nice items to watch from afar (or from up close, depending upon your point of view and/or eyesight). Among the items of interest to us:

Lucky Thompson, Accent on Tenor, Urania 1206. You don’t hear much about Lucky Thompson anymore, nor do you often seen Urania LPs among the collectibles we watch on Jazz Collector. Thompson was a nice tenor player, an early bopper who played on some of the earliest bop dates. If I recall correctly, Dizzy hired him so that there’d be a sax player on the stage when Bird would either be late or not show up at all. How much longer to you think there will be a collectibles market for Lucky Thompson? This one is in M- condition and is in the $350 range with more than a day to go.

The pianist Kenny Drew generally has more cachet as a collectible artist than Lucky Thompson, but this one suffers from condition issues: The Modernity of Kenny Drew, Norgran 1002. This one is listed in VG+ condition for the record and VG- for the cover, but the picture looks pretty decent. You’ll usually see these covers with some ringwear. It’s a great cover, isn’t it, straight out of the Norgran style of the ’50s. This one is around $80 and is closing today.

While we’re on the subject of  Kenny Drew:

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