This week’s theme: Exploring instrumental and vocal performances from the Jazz Standard Songbook, including Yardbird Suite, A Night in Tunisia, Round Midnight, Jeanine, Dat Dere, Afro Blue, Waltz for Debby and more. Featured artists include Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Phineas Newborn Jr., Sheila Jordan, Oscar Brown Jr., Eddie Jefferson, Richie Cole, Benny Golson, Abbey Lincoln, Kenny Dorham, Winton Kelly, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, JJ Johnson, Curtis Fuller, Ella Fitzgerald and many, many more.

This week’s theme: A tribute to the late Benny Golson. Featured artists include Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Lee Morgan, Harold Mabern, Bobby Timmons, Addison Farmer, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Curtis Fuller, Barry Harris, Jamie Merritt, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Abbey Lincoln, Percy Heath, Ray Bryant, Winton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Charlie Persip, Gigi Gryce, Sahib Shihab, James Cleveland, Julius Watkins, Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Art Taylor, Jimmy Cobb, Grachan Concur III, Roy McCurdy.

This week’s theme: Random Sonny Rollins, circa 1956, 1957, 1958. Other featured artists include Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Ray Brown, Shelley Manne, Richie Powell, George Morrow, Kenny Dorham, Abbey Lincoln, Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Wade Legge, and more.

This week’s podcast: Various jazz vocals, including Ray Charles and Betty Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Oscar Brown Jr., Abbey Lincoln, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Anita O’Day, Rosemary Clooney and Scott Hamilton, Chet Baker, and more.

This week’s theme: Riverside Records, Part II

This week’s theme: The Riverside Label, Part I

It was a Thursday when I went to Dee’s, the week before the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. Before I left Dee’s with my five records and four-hour drive, we had one last conversation as I was getting into my car. For a variety of reasons, Dee needed to sell the records by the Spring, hopefully in the May/June time frame. She was concerned that Spring would come and she would still have the records. I told her not to worry; if she still had the records in the Spring, I would drive back, pay her a fair price and take the records so she wouldn’t have to be concerned. She offered on the spot for me to take them all, sell them at my own pace and then pay her later. She was obviously comfortable placing a lot of trust in me, but I politely declined. I didn’t want that much responsibility, tempting as it may have been.

So I reiterated my offer to come back in the Spring, if necessary. I was hoping to be Plan B, and she would find another buyer in the meantime. I would like to think that my motivation in making this proposal was just to help her out; but, perhaps, there was a part of me that just really wanted the records. Who in his right mind passes up a clean copy of Blue Train in our weird world of Jazz Collectors?

On Friday, The Lovely Mrs. JC was taking the train up from New York, as she often does, because I like to spend as much time in The Berkshires as possible, and she has a full time psychotherapy practice in New York. We went out for dinner and I told her about Dee. I said I was concerned because she was very particular about handling the records and that she had a beautiful home and, no offense to any of you out there, I wasn’t all that confident other record guys would be as sensitive and careful as I had been.

Just saying.

Then I told The Lovely Mrs. JC about that last conversation, the one about driving back in the Spring, and she had an idea. If Dee was concerned about the records, why didn’t I just offer her the same amount I would offer in the Spring and take the records now. I realize that this qualifies the Lovely Mrs. JC for the Wife Hall of Fame, but it really did happen this way, or close to this way. Maybe it was my idea to get the records now and she approved it? In any case, I walked away from dinner with a plan.

I sent Dee a note the next day and she was, in her words, “rendered speechless, almost unheard-of!” Clearly, she was in favor of the idea. So the following Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, there I was, once again in my car, this time with 20 empty record boxes and a pocketful of cash, heading back to her rural Vermont mountaintop, prepared to drive back home with 20 full record boxes.

I realize, as I am telling this story, that there is one aspect I’ve left out. Dee had lived with Ornette Coleman for many years of her childhood. She was the inspiration for the song “Dee Dee” on the Blue Note Album “Live at the Golden Circle, Stockholm, Volume 1.” Many of these records belonged to Ornette. It was hard for me to tell exactly which ones, because some were Dee’s records, some were Ornette’s and some belonged to Dee’s mother. In any case, there were multiple copies of many of Ornette’s classics, including “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” “Change of the Century,” “This is Our Music,” and many others, including both volumes of “Live at the Golden Circle.”

I also have to tell you that I had no intent or interest in making money on this collection. I am not on eBay and haven’t sold records for years. My real writing job keeps me busy enough, too busy most of the time. My goal was to take a few records for myself and sell the rest. I hoped and expected to get back the money I had given Dee. I also told her that anything above that, I would not keep for myself but would give to her. She insisted that I take whatever I deemed was fair compensation for my time/expenses/efforts. She also shared that she’s always been squeamish about receiving “gifts,” including innumerable refused attempts by Ornette since she’d known him (beginning in approximately 1960).

Anyway, the day before Thanksgiving, late in the evening, I found myself with crates of records sitting in my home here in The Berkshires with no particular plan for what I was going to do with them. What happened next? Stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy a few more great autographed photos from Dee’s portfolio.

1. Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby, Riverside 399

2. Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, Know What I Mean?, Riverside 433

3. Benny Golson, The Modern Touch, Riverside 256

4. Cannonball Adderley, Live at the Lighthouse, Riverside 344

5. Abbey Lincoln, That’s Him, Riverside 251

Just to confirm my picks, I looked over the Riverside discography, and I’m still comfortable with my selections. My honorable mentions are The Unique Thelonious Monk; Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners; Presenting Ernie Henry and Ernie Henry Seven Standards and a Blues; several more by Evans, most particularly Moonbeams; several more by Adderley, most particularly the Quintet in San Francisco; Wes Montgomery and Milt Jackson, Bags Meets Wes; Johnny Griffin, Studio Jazz Party. I think I’ll leave it at that, lest I include the whole catalogue.

A fun exercise. I invite you all to join in.

Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, Mercury 60134. This was an original stereo pressing in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $410. I’m not going to comment on the prices of the records I’m listing here. They tend to speak for themselves, no?

John Coltrane, Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311. This was not an original pressing. It was a fairly common mono pressing with the red and purple labels and the white fan logo. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $142.50.

Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto, Verve 8545. This was an original stereo pressing. The record and cover were probably in M- condition. The price was $361.

John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse 32. This was an original orange label pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $410. Our previous high price for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was $205.

Joe Henderson, Mode For Joe, Blue Note 4227. This was a Liberty pressing. Liberty Pressing. It was in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $154.02.

Enough for now. Here are a couple of other auctions we were watching.

We started watching this when there were about two hours to go on the auction and there were no bids at a start price of about $100: Donald Byrd, Byrd’s Word, Savoy 12032. This was an original pressing with the blood red label and heavy vinyl. It looked to be in VG++ condition all around and sold for $125.55. We thought it would get more play. Perhaps if it were offered by a different seller and labeled as insanely rare . . .

Abbey Lincoln With the Riverside Jazz Stars, Riverside 251. This was a stereo pressing with the black label. Haven’t seen it like this in stereo before with the word “stereo” prominently displayed over the title. This one looked to be in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $128.70.

We need a new explanation for this one: Horace Silver, Song For My Father, Blue Note 4185. Admittedly this is a great, classic record and this was an original mono pressing in near mint condition for both the record and the cover. Why is there a new explanation needed? Conventional wisdom has said that because of the initial popularity of this record, there has always been a relatively abundant supply of original pressings in decent condition. Conventional wisdom may be changing. This particular copy sold for $405. Our previous high for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was $334 and, at the time, we considered that to be an aberration. What’s this?

And this? Gene Ammons, Blue Gene, Prestige 7146. This was from the same seller and it was also in near mint condition for the record and the cover. You’d normally expect this in the $40-$50 range, maybe a drop higher because of the condition. This copy sold for $164.50.

This next one got quite a high price, but not a surprising one:

Hank Mobley, Hank, Blue Note 1560. This was an original pressing listed in near mint condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $2,480.

This one, from the same seller, broke its way into the $1,000 bin for the first time: Dexter Gordon, Daddy Plays the Horn, Bethlehem 36. This was also described as being in near mint condition. It sold for $1,325.

I always liked this record: Abbey Lincoln with the Riverside Jazz Stars, Riverside 251. This one features Sonny Rollins and Kenny Dorham in nice support roles. The record was listed as VG+ and the cover as VG++, but the descriptions/picture might make you a bit wary, especially a mention of “feelable” marks. It sold for $177.50.