On eBay Now: Webster Young, Pres, Jutta, KD

A lot of the big time sellers are up on eBay this week with some big time records. Here are some of the ones we are watching at Jazz Collector:

Webster Young, For Lady, Prestige 7106. This one is a personal favorite, very nice record if you’re not familiar with it. This one is being offered by Atomic Records and it looks to be in VG++ condition for both the vinyl and the cover. The current price is about $315 and there are a few hours still to go. The same seller has this item: Lester Young and Buddy Rich Trio, Norgran 1074. This is a black label pressing, which I usually assume is a second press, although I think this may be an original: I’m not sure when it was issued and if Norgran had switched to black labels, but I know the copy in my collection is a black label as well. This one is in M- condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The current price is about $75.

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Brubeck Honored: Kennedy Center & Jazz Collector

Time for our next giveaway. Here’s the record: The Dave Brubeck Quartet Plays Music From West Side Story and Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra, Columbia 8257. This is a reissue, very nice pressing, of the album Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein. We are offering it in recognition of Brubeck being chosen as a recent recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. The broadcast of the event will be tomorrow evening in the States, on CBS. They usually keep it a surprise as to who the performers will be, but CBS has put up a brief video on You Tube with Brubeck’s four sons playing Blue Rondo A La Turk from the seminal Take Five album. We’re sure it will be quite moving, especially since the actual event took place on Dec. 6, Brubeck’s 89th birthday. As for the Jazz Collector giveaway:

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New Ella, If You Can Find It

Have you read about the newly discovered and newly released Ella Fitzgerald Boxed Set from 1961 and 1962? It’s called Twelve Nights in Hollywood and it features 76 songs recorded at the Crescendo in Los Angeles. I read the article in The New York Times on Sunday and was pretty excited and I was a little down today and I figured, well, what could be better on a down day than Ella. There are plenty of places that sell CDs near where I live — I’m in the New York metropolitan area, so really, they’re all over the place, or at least they used to be. And it’s Christmas shopping season, so every place should be fully stocked, right? Well, so far I’ve called six different stores and not a single one is carrying this item. Zero. They all told me to go online and I could get free shipping. So why bother having a retail store at all?

Nautiluso: Starting To Assess The Damage

I just looked back again at the records we were watching from Nautiluso and the numbers are staggering. Here are some of the prices that we recorded:

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568: $3,805

Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588: $3,750

Tina Brooks, True Blue: $3,249.99

Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims: $3,242.99

J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536: $2,247.22

Tommy Flanagan Overseas: $2,247

Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby: $1,500

Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1540: $1,705

Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet: $1,175

That’s a total of about $23,000 for just nine records. Perhaps these were the ones that sold for the highest prices but, still, with 75 jazz records that week, you could still be looking at $60,000 or more. Maybe it’s not Bernie Madoff territory, but in our little world of Jazz Collectors it is quite a score if, indeed, the records don’t exist.

No, No Nautiluso: Buyer Opens Claim With eBay

A couple of readers have already pointed this out in various comments: The feedback is starting to come in on Nautiluso and it is not very promising. One buyer has issued two feedback reports, stating the same thing: “Records never delivered from Oct. 16 purchase . Have opened claim with eBay.” Both of these claims were for classical records, but the notes are ominous, as is the fact that so far there has been zero feedback from the huge jazz auction we were watching: Nothing at all. If you go back to our original report on this alleged Jazz Vinyl Collection, we had pinpointed about 75 records, in pristine condition, all among the rarest of the rare in the world of jazz collectibles: Jackie McLean on Ad-Lib, Tina Brooks True Blue, Hutta Hipp on Blue Note, and many, many more. We were somewhat skeptical and many visitors to Jazz Collector

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Free Jazz Vinyl, TAL: And The Winner Is . . .

OK, time to announce the winner of our latest give-away. This one is: Tal Farlow, Tal, Verve 8021. This is a nice Japanese pressing that is in beautiful condition and is being given away, frankly, because we found ourselves with an abundance of copies through a variety of mostly pleasant circumstances. Anyway, this record features Tal in a guitar-bass-piano trio with Eddie Costa and Vinnie Burke. It’s a superb record and of the era during which Tal was setting new standards for inventiveness on the jazz guitar. As usual, the record will go to someone who has commented on the Jazz Collector site these past two weeks. We may have a new record number of eligible contestants — 21 in all. Usually I mention everyone, which I shall do again, but I’m not sure if I should continue doing. If any of you has a feeling about this, and about having your name mentioned, please let me know. Anyway, the eligible names for the Tal record are:

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: John Coltrane, Ballads

No, I am not thinking about getting rid of one of my all-time favorite records. No, this is a question about what to do with multiple copies. As noted in the headline, the record is: John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse 32. I have had two original pressings of this record, one a mono and one a stereo. To me, this makes sense. But recently I purchased a second stereo copy of the record, this one a reissue. I have to be honest. The reissue sounds as good as the original. So I’m going to sell my original stereo pressing, and I’m going to first offer it here at the Jazz Collector site. It’s not a high-end collectible like Blue Train, but it’s a wonderful record, beautiful and romantic with a great selection of songs. It features Trane with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones.

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Billie Holiday At Carnegie Hall: The Winner Is . . . .

Time to give away the Billie Holiday record: The Essential Billie Holiday Carnegie Hall Concert, Verve 8410. This is an original pressing with the MGM label and the gatefold cover. It’s an interesting piece in that it intersects Billie’s singing with a narrative from her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues. The goal with this give-away, as with all of our give-aways, has been to encourage people to comment on the Jazz Collector site. The good news is that the tactic seems to be working: Since we began this particular contest we’ve had 22 separate people posting comments on the site, which is our high mark for a two-week period. So thank you to everyone for contributing. OK, rather than list everyone’s name — you know who you are — we will just delve into

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Jackie For Sale

We had mentioned seeing this record on eBay the other day: Jackie McLean Consequence, Blue Note King GFX-8172. This is a 1965 record that was not issued in the United States and was, in fact, issued on this Japanese pressing for the first time. It’s a nice record featuring Jackie with Lee Morgan, Harold Mabern, Herbie Lewis, Billy Higgins. The first track, Bluesanova, is slightly Sidewinder-like and there’s a nice medium tempo version of My Old Flame. We didn’t realize it was a valuable collectible until we saw the copy on eBay at more than $100: It eventually sold for $185.50. That copy was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. Our copy is M- for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover (there’s a little wear around the edges). In any case, we are going to try something a little different with this record: We are going to

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An Avalanche of Thousand-Dollar-Plus Jazz Vinyl

We’ve been off line for a couple of days, just got back, went to My Ebay and noticed that the auctions of the seller Nautiluso are now in the midst of closing. Wow! Wait till you see these prices. Here’s a start:

Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530. Like most of the others in this group, this was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $3,342.99.

J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. Condition: M- for record and cover. Price: $2,247.22

Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. Condition: M-. Price: $1,175

Hank Mobley With Donald Byrd and Lee Morgan, Blue Note 1540. Condition: M-. Price: $1,705.

Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. Condition: M-. Price: $2,247.

Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby, Riverside 399. Condition: M-
Price: $1,500.

As noted, this is just a small sampling. There will be more to come. It would be great if some of the winners of this vinyl will report back to us on the condition and whether these records are, indeed, as pristine as they seem.

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