Four From The Jazz Collector Want List

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I had my eye on a couple of lesser-condition Blue Notes from my want list, starting with Cliff Jordan, Blue Note 1565. This was an original New York 23 West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG- and the cover was VG++. I’m always afraid of VG- because it often means I wouldn’t be comfortable putting the record on my turntable. This one sold for $687.54. I still have my 1970s UA copy to listen to. The same seller was offering Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. This was also an original New York 23 pressing. The record was also VG- and the cover was VG+. The final price was $408. Thank goodness for those UA pressings. Read more

The Rise and Rise of Blue Note Reissues

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I sometimes keep an eye out for the United Artists Blue Notes from the early/mid 1970s. I bought most of these releases when they first came out and my friend Red Carraro stocked them in his basement in Malverne, NY. I recall paying $10 each and I loved having them because they were able to fill in major gaps in my collection that I didn’t have the money to fill in with original pressings. I must have bought 20 or 30 of these pressings. I never thought they would be worth much money, being reissues, but I loved the music and they sounded fine, particularly on the inexpensive equipment I had at the time. It opened up a lot of music to me that I had never heard before, including the Thad Jones, Cliff Jordan, Johnny Griffin and Duke Jordan Blue Notes of the 1950s. Read more

The Jazz Collector Inbox: A New Vinyl Store, Dex Bio, Strayhorn, Etc.

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Being an infamous jazz vinyl maven and member in good standing of the Jazz Journalists Association affords me the pleasure of having my name appear on many mailing lists for press releases, other announcements and the very occasional free record, CD or digital download (whether I want it or not).  Which is a roundabout way of saying that I am going to use this post to clean out my inbox.

Most of my inbox is filled with releases from a guy named Jim Eigo at Jazz Promo Services, a service I used a couple of years ago to try to bring greater attention to the post I wrote after the election called Chasing Trane: A Review, an Appreciation, a Spiritual Awakening. It looks as if Mr. Eigo has taken the plunge that has often been a pipedream of my own and has opened a brand new vinyl record shop called Original Vinyl Records in Warwick, NY.

This is yet another town in the Hudson Valley of New York, which, for some unknown reason seems to have become a mecca for vintage vinyl shops. According to an interview in Goldmine, Eigo chose this location for a pretty simple reason: It’s a minute from his home and the price was right. Read more

True Blue, Sonny’s Crib and More

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Let’s catch up on a few other rare jazz records we were watching on eBay and, without expressing inordinate surprise, we will start with Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The seller did not follow established norms in his description, basically saying “amazing sound and few imperfections.” Imperfections, it seems, would be in the eye or ears of the beholder. The beholder, in this case, is the person who bid $2,025 for this record. As a point of observation, there were definitely imperfections in the cover, including a tape repair, that would probably put it in the VG category, maybe VG+ on a good day. Read more

Tracking Rare Vinyl From the Jazz Record Center

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Whilst we were away our friends at the Jazz Record Center had an interesting auction loaded with Blue Notes, including this one straight from my wish list: Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This was not only an original West 63rdStreet pressing, but it had a stamp on the label that read: PROPERTY OF DONALD BYRD, which you would assume would make it straight from Donald Byrd’s personal collection, unless you are a conspiracy theorist and believe someone nefarious would go to the trouble of creating a PROPERTY OF DONALD BYRD stamp and press it on an original Blue Note record to try to hike the value. As for me, I would trust the provenance of this record and would probably pay more for an LP with this stamp, because it’s kind of cool knowing that Donald Byrd owned the record. In any case, however, I would not pay the $1,600 price that this one sold for, albeit in M- condition for both the record and the cover. I did own an M- copy of this record once, which I purchased for $5 at the old Titus Oaks record store in a former Wetson’s fast-food hamburger joint in Hicksville. But, alas, I traded it for a few records of far less value more than 30 years ago, and have never been able to replace Out of the Blue  at a price I was comfortable paying. Read more

Two Rare Jazz LPs You Don’t Often (or Ever) Encounter

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It’s always fun to find records I’ve never seen before and, thanks to eBay, that happens more often than you would think, particularly since I’ve been scouring jazz vinyl bins for close to 50 years now (you can’t imagine how much it pains me to write that). Anyway, here’s one on eBay now: James Moody, Moody’s Mood, Vogue L.D. 018. This is an original French 10-inch pressing, with a very interesting cover. I’ve never seen a copy of this record before, although we have written about it before on Jazz Collector — actually, it was Rudolf who wrote about it in the post A Comprehensive Guide to French Vogue back in 2010. This copy looks to be in VG- condition for the record and VG for the cover. It has a start price in the $190 range and a buy-it-now in the $250 range.

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Top Prices for Jazz Vinyl Rarities

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Back to the real world after a lovely Thanksgiving break, which means it’s time to look at auctions of rare jazz vinyl on eBay, starting with Jerome Richardson, Roamin’ With Richardson, New Jazz 8226. This was an original deep-groove purple label pressing listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,575, in what looked like a bidding war between two buyers who must have really wanted this record. Taking a quick look at Popsike, the previous high price for this record was in the $640 range. I owned a copy  for about two weeks after I purchased a small collection back in 2009, which I wrote about here at Jazz Collector. I wanted to sell a few of the records in order to make my money back quickly, and this was one of the ones I sold, probably for about $250 or so, back when I was still selling records on eBay and trying to get traffic to the Jazz Collector web site. There are very few records with Richardson as the leader, so I guess it has some cachet for that and for the fact that it is an original New Jazz. But nearly $1,600 for a VG+ copy seems like a bit of a stretch.

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Tracking Another Great Record Score (Not Mine, This Time)

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Time for a guest column, this one from our friend and frequent contributor Gregory the Fish.

By Gregory the Fish

I love jazz and I love collecting jazz records. Everyone reading this does. But none of us is rich enough to buy every record we want whenever we want to. We’ve all read stories about buying collections, and it seems so rewarding… you buy a big fat stack of records for a great bulk deal, keep some real treasures, make your money up selling the doubles, and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But how does one go about finding these collections? We don’t all have big websites like this one that pull in the e-mails. Read more

Have I Ever Mentioned That I Like Buying Jazz Records?

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Time to close the books on the latest round of stories and sprees that sprung from my first visit to Spike’s Record Rack in Castkill, NY a few weeks ago. You may recall that I purchased about 15 records, which I somehow found to be more than somewhat rejuvenating in terms of listening to music and appreciating the breadth and depth of my collection. After I got home from that first visit to Spike’s with the 15 records, I did what I typically do, which is clean the records, listen to a few and sort out which ones may be duplicates with records I already own, so as to ensure that I keep the copy in best condition for my own collection. In this case, I was surprised to see that I did not have a copy of Oscar Peterson Plays Irving Berlin on Clef. Certainly I’ve had one in the past, but I must have weeded it out based on the condition.  I gave it a quick listen and it was about what would be expected, perhaps even a bit better because the sound quality was quite good and the condition was excellent.

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Random Thoughts, Random Rare Jazz Vinyl

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Here’s some random rare jazz vinyl from the stuff we are watching on eBay, starting with Charlie Parker Sextet, Dial 207. This is an original 10-inch pressing listed in VG condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. There are nearly six days left on the auction and the bidding is in the $200 range. One reason I’m watching this is because, after all these years of collecting jazz (we are now somehow approaching 50), and even the years that my father collected before me, I still don’t have any of the original Bird 10-inch Dials. It’s certainly not for lack of scouring for them, but I haven’t been inclined to pay top dollar and the only time I’ve ever seen them in nice condition would have required me to pay top dollar. This one included because, to me, at more than $200 in VG condition, this has already exceeded my personal comfort level. So, the search continues.

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