For Blue Note, More Prestige Than Prestige

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Here are some nice records we’ve been watching. Each of these will be added to the Jazz Collector Price Guide.

Phil Woods, Pairing Off, Prestige 7046. This looked to be a beautiful copy of an extremely nice record and it was graded in M- condition for both the vinyl and the cover. The price was $344.90, which actually seems pretty low to us. By comparison, for example, look at this record: The Magnificent Thad Jones Volume 3, Blue Note 1546. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing from a reputable seller. The record was in VG+ condition, at best, for the vinyl and VG condition for the cover. The price was $800. Is there really that big a gap

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On EBay: A Few From Impulse

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We’ve been very busy with eBay the past couple of weeks — putting records on eBay is what we often do when we are procrastinating from other work, so this would be the evidence that we’ve been in heavy-duty procrastination mode. Anyway, our neurosis is your gain: This week we’ve had 70 items on eBay, several of which closed yesterday, many more of which close today, and a few more of which close tomorrow. Part of what we have up there now is a nice batch of Impulse LPs we’ve either pulled from our own collection, or pulled from the collection we purchased in Trenton back in May. Here are a couple of examples:

Archie Shepp, Four For Trane, Impulse 71. This is an original orange label pressing in nice VG+ condition. It is closing later today and is currently at $40.  Also from the same batch is this:

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

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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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A Few More Blue Notes For the $1,000 Bin

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The $1,000 jazz vinyl bin got a little bit more crowded over the weekend. Here are some of the additions: Clifford Jordan, Cliff Craft, Blue Note 1582. This was an original pressing that was listed in EX+ condition, which we translate into what we would describe as VG++. This one was among the nice batch sold by the seller JazzRecordRevival, which did quite nicely with its bit auction. This one sold for $1,273.

Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588, enters the $1,000 bin once again. This was a copy in VG+ condition for both the record and the vinyl. It sold for $1,548. For a

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Nautiluso Where Art Thou? No News, No Feedback

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It’s been more than a month since the now-famous — or perhaps infamous — auction from the seller Nautiluso. I use the words famous and infamous quite loosely, of course, but it was certainly a major topic here in our limited world of Jazz Collector. Anyway, there is no feedback yet from this auction. None, zero, nil. I reached out this morning to someone who knows someone who knows someone who won a record and the record has not yet arrived. Hmmmm. I know many of you were suspicious in the first place and I’m sure this information does nothing to dispel the whiff of fraud you perhaps had scented in the air. If anyone in our audience has first-hand knowledge of anything — a record that arrived, or a record that clearly didn’t arrive — please let us know. At some point, if there’s no information forthcoming, we will contact eBay directly and see what they may have to say about it. For those of you new to the site and unaware of this auction, just type “Nautiluso” in the search bar at the top right of the page and you’ll be able to see all of the articles and comments dating back to our first post on the topic from October 5.

Catching UP: Kenny Dorham, Johnny Griffin

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Time to catch up on some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching this week. Let’s start with a little KD: Kenny Dorham and Jackie McLean, Inta Somethin’, Pacific Jazz 41. The vinyl on this was in VG++ condition and the cover looked to be VG+. This is a nice record, but I’ve never thought of it as a high-end collectible. However, I will have to rethink that now that is has sold for $667.56. Also, there was this: Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 1535. This was an original

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Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Kenny Clarke on Savoy

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I was going through my records the other day and came up with this interesting discovery: This Savoy LP by Kenny Clarke featuring Cannonball Adderley was issued with two different covers. I discovered this accidentally because I had one filed under Cannonball and the other under Clarke. The one with the better cover — ‘better” in terms of a great picture on the front — is the one entitled Bohemia After Dark Featuring Cannonball. The other one is also titled Bohemia After Dark, but that’s just on the back cover: The front cover just lists it as The Jazz Corner of The Villiage, Cafe Bohemia, Featuring Kenny Clarke. Both are Savoy 12017 and both have the same tracks and liner notes. If I had to guess which was the first pressing, I would have said the second one, the one

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Rare Bird Nets $2,210. Yes, $2,210.

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Wow, there was a real bidding war for this one: Charlie Parker, Dial 203. This was a 10-inch pressing sold by Euclid Records. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++. What would you normally expect this to sell for? I’d have said $400, maybe $500. If you look at the Jazz Collector Price Guide the range is $300 to $500 depending on condition, with one previous copy selling for more than $700. The bidding for this one started getting intense between two buyers at somewhere north of $800 and it skyrocketed all the way to a final price of $2,210. Not bad. By contrast, Euclid also sold copies of the following 10-inch Dial records by Bird: Charlie Parker, Dial 207. This one

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On eBay: Mobley, Some 10-Inchers, Hawk & Dex

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Some nice items on eBay this week. Here’s one that’s about to enter the $1,000 bin: Hank Mobley, Peckin’ Time, Blue Note 1574. This is an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The vinyl is listed in M- condition and the cover is a combination of VG++ and M-, which means its pretty nice either way. it is closing soon, there are already 15 bids and the price is already more than $1,000.

Also ending today is some nice 10-inch jazz vinyl from our friends at Euclid Records. Here’s one: Dexter Gordon Quintet, Dial 204. This one is listed as M- for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The price is only $67. Perhaps we may throw in a bid on this one, since this is a record we don’t have and would certainly like to have, even in the face of our Jazz Vinyl Countdown.

Another major seller with some major items this week is the seller jazzrecordrevival. Here are a couple they have up:

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