Autumn in New York From The Artistry of Tal Farlow

So I’d asked my friend Dan Axelrod to post a comment on Tal Farlow, and he did. It appears elsewhere on the site, but to simplify things, here it is:

“Yeah…the Artistry -later released as Autumn in NY. On that tune, Tal used a special tuning to achieve a 7 string sound, in which a low bass note replaced his 5th string. He recorded that chord melody section alone, knowing it would be inserted later with a tape splice. But he told me he’d spent so much time working out that detailed chord melody solo… that he didn’t realize that he neglected to ever blow over those complicated changes of the song…. and when the melody chorus ended and it was time to improvise, Tal suddenly realized that he didn’t know the chords! By the 7th bar, he didn’t know where the hell he was, he was completely lost and the tape was rolling! Not knowing what to do, he just listened to each piano chord and tried to fake his way thru a blowing chorus. A trained ear familiar with Tal in fact, could probably spot a bit more reticence and ’start and stop’ from him than usual in that solo -especially in contrast to the other clear and brilliant improvisations on that great record-”
Dan Axelrod

Rather than have you all hunt down your copies of The Artistry of Tal Farlow — those of you lucky enough to have copies of The Artistry of Tal Farlow — I decided to copy the track and put it here on the site. Enjoy. 

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Another Day on EBAY

While the past two days have been light on eBay, today is fairly loaded with interesting items. Here are a few to keep an eye on:

We’ll start with some nice jazz guitar records. Atomic Records has a pair of nice Tal Farlow records on Norgran: The Artistry of Tal Farlow, Norgran 1014. This is in nice shape and in the $100 range as of this post. Also, Interpretations, Norgran 1027. This seems to be in a bit better condition and is in the same price range. My good friend Dan Axelrod is loaded with personal anecdotes about Tal, and at some point I’m going to prevail upon him to share them on this site. Dan, are you out there? Read more

Catching Up on eBay

Time to catch up on some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay:

We predicted this record would sell for a high price, and it did: Lee Morgan, Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing in VG++ condition. Price: $1,325

Another high-end Blue Note: Curtis Fuller, Bone & Bari, Blue Note 1572. This was an original pressing in M- condition. Price: $676.77

That Joe Newman LP with the Andy Warhol cover went for a bit less this week than it did a few weeks ago: Joe Newman, I’m Still Swinging, RCA 1198. Price: $57.77

Remember that Zoot record that was priced at just $30 a few hours ago. It wound up selling for $337.90: Zoot Sims, Zoot!, Riverside228. Read more

eBay Today, Sept. 30

It’s another VERY slow day for high-end jazz collectibles on eBay. Is there something going on that we’re not aware of? Anyway, here are some interesting items of note that are closing today:

Joe Newman, I’m Still Swinging, RCA 1198. This is the one with the Andy Warhol cover. As we noted in an earlier post, this sold recently on eBay for $200. This one’s current price is $16.50.

Art Taylor, Taylor’s Tenors, Prestige New Jazz 8219. This is an original pressing with the purple label and it seems to be in nice condition. Offered by Atomic Records, which is one of the larger jazz dealers on eBay.

Zoot Sims, Zoot!, Riverside 228. This is an original pressing with the white label in nice condition. Current price is only around $30. That’s pretty low. It’ll be interesting to see how high it goes up.

Hank Mobley, The Turnaround, Blue Note 4186. This is an original pressing with the New York USA label.

Oh, and we almost forgot our own listings: 

The Complete Lee Morgan Fifties Blue Note Sessions, Mosaic MQ6-162.

Miles Davis, The Complete Plugged Nickel Sessions, Mosaic MQ10-158.

Price Guide Updated

We’ve updated the Price Guide in a number of ways over the past few days. We added about 35 new entries, including a copy of Louis Smith, Smithville, that sold for more than $1,500, a copy of Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’ that sold for 3,750, the Count Basie RCA record with the Andy Warhol cover and several 10-inch LPs that are making their first appearance on the Price Guide, including the Max Roach Quartet on the Debut label. To take a look at the most recent entries, you can sort by clicking the Timestamp button at the top right and making sure the most recent entries are on top, by the date on which they were posted.

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And The Winner Is . . .

Actually, no one. Two weeks ago we ran a contest to give away a free record. The instructions were simple: All you had to do was write a comment on this post.  No one did. However, in the interest of full disclosure, the collectible we were giving away wasn’t the most exciting, an OJC copy of The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer. Perhaps no one was interested. So, we’ll do it again this week, run a contest to give away a free collectible, and we’ll offer something a little better. And if no one responds this time, perhaps we’ll think of another format. In this case, we are going to give away the Bob Brookmeyer LP to our reader Rudolf A. Flinterman because he has been the most prolific and consistent commenter since we’ve re-launched the site. So, Rudolf, congratulations on winning the free record. I’ll send you a separate email to work out the details. For everyone else, keep an eye on the site today and tomorrow for our next attempt to give away a jazz collectible. Hopefully, it will be something that someone will want.

Upcoming on eBay, Sept. 29

I haven’t posted since Friday, so I took a look ahead to see what’s interesting on eBay today, just to catch up while I work on other aspects of the site. It’s actually a fairly slow day for high-end collectibles, but there are a few, mostly Blue Notes. Here are some to check out:

Hank Mobley and His All Stars, Blue Note 1544. This is a nice copy with the West 63rd Street address, which I assume is an original pressing. I have a copy of Sonny Rollins Volume 1, Blue Note 1542, with the Lexington Avenue address, and that’s the highest number I’ve seen for Lexington Avenue. Perhaps one of the Blue Note experts out there can weigh in on this. Anyway, this Mobley LP is being offered by Euclid Records, a reputable dealer and, as of this posting, is still reasonably priced at about $120.

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Today on eBay, September 26

Here are some other interesting items on eBay today. This first one is a beauty: Lee Morgan, Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing in very nice condition. The current price is $360, but it should go for quite a bit more.  Our friends at Euclid Records have a few nice Blue Note originals selling today, including this one: Jimmy Smith, New Sound – New Star, Blue Note 1512.  This one is an original Lexington Avenue pressing and is already more than $120. Here’s a seller with a large number of items, including this one: Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland Volume Two, Blue Note 1522. This is an original Lexington Avenue in VG condition. Price now is $56. When you look at this seller’s other items, make sure you check the condition. Finally, here’s one I like a lot, but doesn’t seem to be generating too much interest, based on the price and lack of bidding: Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Duke Ellington Songbook, Verve 4010-4. This is the boxed set edition, including four records and the booklet. Current price is $19.99.

Looking For Anything on Impulse?

If you’re looking for any records on the Impulse label, there’s a seller on eBay now who seems to be selling a very good portion of the catalog. Here are a couple of examples: Charles Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Impulse A-54.  This is selling more more than $40 at this point. John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse A-32. This is now at $61.  These are being sold by a dealer in Italy, who says they are the collection of a jazz journalist. If you click on either of these items, then view “seller’s other items” you can see the complete list, which looks to be 75 records total. Each of them seems to have a start price of $35. These auctions start closing in about five hours. Sorry for the late notice on this, but I’ve been away a couple of days, and now it’s the wee small hours here in New York and I can’t sleep so I figured I’d see what was interesting on eBay and I found this.

Mosiac Boxed Sets (Our Own) For Sale

As always, we try to keep an eye on interesting collectibles on eBay. We noticed last week that a couple of the nicer Mosaic boxed sets — actually, all of the Mosaics are nice — were available in nice condition and sold for pretty high prices: Lee Morgan, The Complete Fifties Blue Note Sessions, Mosaic MQ6-162, sold for $520 and Miles Davis, The Complete Miles Davis Plugged Nickel, Mosaic MQ10-158, sold for $565.35. Now, we are a big fan of the Mosaics, and have been collecting them since the company first launched. However, we are downsizing and trying to drive traffic to the site and trying to get some attention, so we thought, hmm, here’s a good opportunity to see what happens when we put some really good items on eBay. So we did. We put up our mint copies of these same records, The Complete Blue Note Lee Morgan Fifties Sessions and The Complete Miles Davis Plugged Nickel. Both are on eBay now and both have a start price of $300. Let’s see what happens.

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