Search Results for: jimmy smith

Guest Column: Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Atlanta Variety

27 comments

Jazz Collection AtlantaBy Dave S.

“Honey, how much money do we have in our bank account? I want to buy some jazz records.” That was what I asked my wife, the darling Mrs. JC-A, two weeks ago.

There was a rumor circulating around town that there was a pretty nice collection of records up for sale by a private seller. Seems he had spoken to all the record stores in the area. A few of them had been out to his house to inspect the collection, but no one was willing to either commit to what he was looking to get for the records or had turned him off. Imagine that. A record store employee with an attitude. A friend of a friend who worked at a local record store finally squeezed a phone number for the seller out of his boss at the store, when they also decided to pass. Over a thousand records in the collection, but no way for a record store to quickly get in and out of the transaction was the explanation. Atlanta is a mediocre jazz record town, with rock and southern blues (think the Allman Brothers) being the local taste. People like you and me are certainly the exception.

Read more

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (and More) About Blue Note 45-RPM Records

23 comments

Horace Silver copyYou will now be treated to a treatise covering more than you ever wanted to know about Blue Note 45s. So from now on, if you do happen to run across any interesting Blue Note 45s, you can do a search at Jazz Collector for this article and the shared knowledge of the community will be available for as long as I pay the bills to keep the site up and running. Here’s how I came by this newfound knowledge, which I wasn’t seeking, but which I will now share for others who may also not be seeking it. It started, as these things often do, with an e-mail inquiry, as follows:

Read more

A Day at the Town Dump, Redux

11 comments

Just to close the loop on yesterday’s post. Yes, indeed, I went back to the town dump to see if there were any more treasures to be found and to see if there was anything I had inadvertently left behind. There was nothing new there, but I did wind up taking a few more CDs, not just for myself but for a few friends as well.  I’m in a band up here with three other musicians and we had practice so I brought some CDs and told them they could take whatever they wanted. Some of the CDs, it turned out, were just the cases, but most of them had CDs, including all of the boxed sets. So, now that I’m settled in and had a chance to go through my score, here is the final tally:

Read more

Another Adventure, Part 5

6 comments

Garner copyWell, yes. Yes, I would be interested in the records at around the price that we had discussed nearly two months earlier. Now, recall, I had still never seen the records. They were in Toronto and I was in New York. The guy selling them admittedly didn’t know much about them, other than what he had gleaned from the Jazz Collector Web site and the Fred Cohen Blue Note book. He also told me that many of the records were from England and South Africa, which meant that it was still possible they were not original pressings. If it wasn’t a big investment for me, I wouldn’t have cared that much. But we were talking about a hefty hunk of change, a few thousand dollars, for essentially 25 or so records. This was definitely a risk on my part. So I made a suggestion: I would send him one third of the total price and he would send me 25 records, of which there would be at least 10 of the Blue Notes. If the records were as he said—original pressings, nice condition—I would then send him the rest of the money and he would send me the rest of the records. There were some more negotiations. Again, I won’t bore you with the details. Eventually we struck at deal. I took a deep breath, wrote out a check, put in the mail and waited.

Read more

Blue Note Records That Are, Ahem, “Essential”

28 comments
Zemanta Related Posts Thumbnail

Fats: Not Essential

I thought we might have some fun with this. As I mentioned in a previous post, Blue Note is issuing new vinyl releases to commemorate its 75th anniversary. I was perusing my online version of The New York Times last evening and came upon this article, asking “Which Greats Were Left Off the Blue Note 100?” I hadn’t realized the first time around that Blue Note was issuing this records in any particular order and I assumed all along (and still do) that it was mostly a commercial venture and they would be issuing those records that they believe will sell the most copies. However, you can see in The Times article that they are considering these albums to be “essential,” which, of course, is a marketing ploy — but also a chance for us to talk about some of the Blue Note records we consider to be “essential” that are not on this list. Somehow, I don’t see a lot of readers of Jazz Collector putting records from Brian Blade Fellowship, Robert Glasper, Stefon Harris or Madlib on our lists of essential Blue Notes, and that’s if we’ve even heard their music, which, I have to admit, I have not. Anyway, here is the complete list, following by a comment or two from me:

Read more

Soundin’ Off On Some Jazz Vinyl

26 comments

Dizzy ReeceI had a couple of hours to kill the other night and I spent them both on eBay, just perusing through the listings and looking for interesting stuff. I pretty much filled my watch list. Here are some of the items that caught my eye:

Dizzy Reece, Soundin’ Off, Blue Note 4033. This one looked quite promising with original shrink wrap. The record was in Ex or Ex+ condition and the cover VG+. But on close inspection, there were no deep grooves and no mention of an ear in the deadwax, so that probably wasn’t there either. Still, the record sold for $166.50. Would you think this was a Liberty issue with old labels, or would it be pre-Liberty? Is there any real way of knowing? It so happens there is a second copy of Soundin’ Off that looks to be an original pressing, ears and all. This one is in VG+ condition for the record and the cover and is currently priced at about $120 with well more than two days left on the auction.

This listing struck me because it seems pretty clear that the seller did not use a picture of the actual record cover and showed no pictures at all of the labels or vinyl:

Read more

A Question of Ridiculous-ness

9 comments

wes and jimmyI told you there’s always excitement when we’re watching the bobdjukic auctions. CeeDee is back with this note:

SUBJECT: who is paying this kind of bread for these readily found LPs?

BODY TEXT: Al, I give up. I thought I could figure out “what sells and what doesn’t” but I’m finding I have no freakin’ idea!

RECORD IN QUESTION: Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes, Verve 8766.

CONDITION: Sealed

PRICE: $455

So, for today’s quickie quiz: Which sale is more ridiculous, the Jimmy and Wes one above or the other one cited in the earlier post, namely John Coltrane, The Other Village Vanguard Tapes? This was also sealed and sold for $237.50. Or is there perhaps another that we missed? I vote for Jimmy and Wes being more ridiculous, although it was a close call. At least the Coltrane is a double record and sold for a price that was more than $200 lower than the Jimmy/Wes record.

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.

Guest Column: Review of Hank Mobley Bio

13 comments

Thanks to Mike Falcon for the following excellent book review.

Workout: The Music of Hank Mobley By Derek Ansell

A Review by Mike Falcon

Hank Mobley’s music is well documented.  Hank recorded a wealth of material that fans are still enjoying a half-century later, perhaps more than ever.  But, for a very long time, any fan wanting to know more about Hank’s life had a hard time finding anything.  Searching the Internet yields little.  Searching back issues of jazz periodicals looking for any interviews wouldn’t yield much.  Derek Ansell explains in Workout: The Music of Hank Mobley that Hank only gave one substantial interview throughout his career. The interview occurred in 1973 when his career was in a steep decline.  Other than this, Ansell was forced to piece together a picture of Hank from what little others had to say about him.

Read more

‘Tis the Season To Be Blue Note

11 comments

After mentioning some of the 4100 series Blue Notes yesterday, I perused the day’s listings on eBay and saw a number of other records from this generation that seemed to be getting quite a bit of action. Here are some of the results and I’ll also post the one that CeeDee pointed to in the earlier post that will certainly raise some eyebrows. Here goes:

Joe Henderson, Page One,  Blue Note 4140. This was an original New York USA pressing with the ear and the  Van Gelder stamp in the dead wax. The record was in VG+ condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $325.

Sam Rivers, Fuschia Swing Song, Blue Note 4184. This was listed as an original pressing with the New York USA label. The condition seemed to be somewhere around VG+, perhaps a little better, based on the seller’s description. The price was $278.

This is of a bit earlier era, but a surprising price (well, as much as any price can be surprising these days): Horace Silver, Blowing the Blues Away, Blue Note 4017. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd label. It was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover and sold for $202 with just one bidder.

This one got a huge price a few weeks ago, but not this week:

Read more

1 2 3 4