News travels so fast these days: I go on Facebook and there are notes from a bunch of people that Les Paul has died. He was not a great jazzman, but he was an innovator and certainly influential. Now that I convinced my friend Dan Axelrod to write something about Tal Farlow, I will ask him to do something about Les Paul, because I know he has a few personal stories.
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal the other day entitled “Can Jazz Be Saved?” It cites a bunch of statistics showing that the audience for jazz in the U.S. is both dwindling and aging, which is not a good combination. It’s somewhat of a sad commentary on the state of the jazz scene in America, but it does ignore the other reality that jazz is still revered and treasured to a much greater degree in Europe and Asia. It also talks about jazz following the route of classical music, in the sense that it is now viewed a an art form of high culture. I thought it might be interesting to share with everyone. In a way, the article supports what we’re seeing in the jazz collectibles market — the belief that jazz is a high art form and its history should be cherished and preserved: Thus, the subsequent rise we’re witnessing in prices for the original artifacts.
We’ve gotten so tied up in the J.R. Monterose stuff the past couple of days, we forgot to go back to eBay to catch up on all of those hot records we were watching last week. So we just took a look and, WOW! The prices are quite staggering, and we will be adding more records to the $1,000 bin — and $2,000 bin — and $3,000 bin — than we have ever previously added at one time. Here’s the list:
Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This was an original pressing with the red vinyl. It was in M- condition, both the record and cover. It sold for $3,059. The seller was Herschel78, who had a bunch of hot records last week, a few more of which will appear in this post. I had tried to reach out to Herschel78 to find out more about these beautiful records, but he never replied. Perhaps I’ll try again.
Cliff Jordan, Cliff Craft, Blue Note 1582. This was an original pressing in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $2,303.
Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. This was another original pressing in M- condition. It sold for $1,692. A second copy of this record, this one in VG+ condition for the record and the cover, sold for $676.
Lee Morgan Volume 3, Blue Note 1557. This was a Mint copy, sold by our friend and Read more
OK, here’s an audio track from the J. R. Monterose acetates. He’s doing “I’m Confessin’ That I Love You” and he sounds pretty darn good. If this is really 1944, then he would have been 17 at the time. Enjoy. sample-jr-monterose-1944
Okay, I promised you something cool on J.R. Monterose. I got a note the other day from a guy who has one-of-a-kind aluminum core acetate recordings J.R. made as a teenager. He got these from the estate of J.R.’s wife. They are 78s, of course, from the mid-1940s, and there are 12 altogether. Well, I’ll just let you read the note he sent me:
“Hello. A few years ago I attended an estate sale in Utica NY of the late wife of JR Monterose. I purchased a stack of old records and in them were some aluminum core acetate (Wilcox Gay recording) albums of JR playing when he was a teenager. These are the only recordings of their kind for this artist (app.1944) I took the recordings to Syracuse University Belfer audio lab where they
Got two notes recently from Jeff Barr, a long-time jazz writer, DJ, collector, producer and seller of rare vinyl. The first note was asking to inform my readers about his site, www.jazzrecordscene.com, which is worth checking out because there’s some very nice vinyl there. I’ve added a link to this site from Jazz Collector, so you can find it easily from the home page whenever you come to visit it, which we hope is quite often. Jeff also posted a comment giving some more history on the J. R. Monterose In Action LP that I wrote about last week. Here’s Jeff’s comment, which will also come up as a comment on the previous item:
“Peter Jacobson and Jeff Barr started VSOP in 1980 in Washington DC, where Barr was a jazz disc jockey and record seller, and Jacobson was on the staff of the Smithsonian as a legal consultant. The deal to acquire the license to reissue J. R. Monterose, on the Studio 4 label, was reached after contacting Jimmy Sota, the original producer of the LP. Jimmy was coming off a run of semi-successful low-budget spaghetti westerns in Italian with subtitles, and was glad to let us have the deal…we paid $1750.00 to get the rights and the tape, and, oh by the way, two boxes of unused originals…which in 1980
Time to catch up on some of the items we were watching earlier in the week. We’ll do another of these catch-ups tomorrow or Monday when some of the high-tagged Blue Notes close.
We don’t often see Dizzy Gillespie among the higher-priced LPs, but here was a nice one that was sold earlier this week by Euclid records: Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge, Roy & Diz #2. This record was in M- condition, both record an cover, and sold for $145. No doubt helping the value of the LP is the great illustration by David Stone Martin.
Also featuring a David Stone Martin illustration is The Tal Farlow Album, Norgran 1047. This was also sold by Euclid and was also in M- condition. It sold for $83, not bad for a quality record like this in today’s market. Seems that within the Norgran/Clef/Verve pantheon there are still bargains to be found. Also, please take a look at our earlier post on this album Today on eBay: Tal, Drew, Kenny Dorham, True Blue. I had mentioned that my good friend Dan Axelrod was a good friend and protege of Tal, and he shares some personal insight about the album that’s worth reading.
Speaking of Kenny Drew, that copy of The Kenny Drew Trio, Riiverside 224, that
When Dexter Gordon first came back and recorded for Blue Note in the 1960s, his first two dates were Doin’ Allright and Dexter Calling. His next recording was as a sideman. To whom was he a sideman, and what was the name of the LP? Extra credit: Who were the other musicians? You can look it up, but it’s more fun if you don’t.
We had a couple of hours to kill last night, so we did something we used to do every day: Scroll through a full 24 hours worth of jazz records listed on eBay. It was good timing, because we found some nice items for our Jazz Collector readers and one item we plan to bid on for ourselves.
Our friends at Euclid Records have a nice batch closing today, including: Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 224. This is an original white label pressing and is listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The current price is $1,256, so, Kenny Drew, welcome again to the $1,000 bin. Also from Euclid is The Tal Farlow Album, Norgran 1047. This is the 12-inch version with the beautiful cover by David Stone Martin. It is in M- condition for both the record and the cover and is currently in the $60 price range. My friend Dan Axelrod, who was Tal’s good friend and protege, swears that the 10-inch version of this record offers far better sound quality than the 12-inch version. I suppose that’s why he has more than a dozen copies of the 10-inch version. Nonetheless, the 12-inch Tal Farlow Album is quite lovely to listen to and quite collectible and is certainly a worthy addition to any collection.
It always pays to read the eBay listings carefully. Here’s an example why:
Is it possible someone could be reading Jazz Collector and not own a vinyl copy of John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things? Perhaps we’ll find out, because this is the prize in our next free collectible contest. We have a beautiful near mint later stereo pressing of My Favorite Things, Atlantic 1361, which we will be giving away to one fortunate reader of Jazz Collector in two weeks. This, of course, is a classic record and should be a staple of any jazz collection, even if your jazz collection consists of only five records. But maybe there are readers of our site who are newcomers to jazz and coming to learn, or who have somehow missed out on this record, or who would like a second copy to put in another room of their home, or perhaps one to frame and hang somewhere for perpetual inspiration. I, for one, have copies of this record in at least three different rooms in my house, plus another in my lake cottage. But, of course, I am certifiably insane. Nevertheless, if you would like to win a copy of My Favorite Things for any reason whatsoever, all you have to do is . . .
