Tag: Billie Holiday

Rare Jazz Rediscovered and Donated

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CeeDee beat me to it, but there’s an interesting article in today’s New York Times: Great Jazz, Long Unheard, Is Rediscovered. It is the story of an audio engineer named William Savory, who recorded live radio broadcasts in the late 1930s. What is particularly compelling is that he used 12-inch and 16-inch disks and even used the 33-1/3 RPM format so he could record extended performances and solos that were much longer than the standard three minutes or so that were captured at the time on  a 78. The music has been donated to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and presumably will make its way to the public, although there are questions raised in the article about copyright and ownership. Among some of the performances mentioned are a live version of Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit” and a six-minute Coleman Hawkins solo on “Body and Soul” It’s worth a read. The article includes audio clips.

Adventures in Jazz Collecting: Red Carraro, Part 1

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There was a time, before the Internet and eBay, when jazz record dealers would amass hundreds of collectible records and compile them in lists and send those lists all over the world so that collectors could bid on them, blindly, hoping they would make the top bid and receive a shipment of rare jazz vinyl several weeks later. One of the leading and last practitioners of this fading art was a gentleman, and I use that word purposefully, by the name of William Carraro, known to all as “Red.” I am sad to report that Red passed away in his sleep yesterday morning.

I will tell you more about Red in a subsequent post, but first let me tell you the story of the first time I met Red. It was back in the early 1970s and I had just started collecting jazz records. I was 19 years old. My good friend from childhood Dan Axelrod had also begun collecting jazz records at the same time and Dan was far more obsessive about it than I was, so he was always finding scores before me. He’d call from Philadelphia or Miami, out of breath, describing beautiful Blue Notes

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A Little Clef, A Little Norgran, A Little DSM

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Trying to get off Blue Note a little bit and infuse some variety to our posts. Yesterday we added some Prestige and New Jazz jazz vinyl to the Jazz Collector Price Guide, today let’s look at a few from the Norman Granz pantheon.

This one has a very pretty, simple cover design by David Stone Martin: A Recital By Tal Farlow, Norgran 1030. This was an original pressing with the yellow label and the trumpeter logo. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $122.16.

This one also has a nice Stone Martin Cover: Anita O’Day, Collates, Clef 130. This was a 10-inch LP and it was listed in M- condition for both the vinyl and the cover. The price was a very reasonable $82.

Here’s another nice 10-inch LP:

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Sealed Giant Steps? $2,025? Huh?

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I know this is going to give some of you a heart attack: That sealed copy of Giant Steps of unknown provenance sold for $2,025.55. What happens with something like that? Does the buyer even open it? If he does, what if it’s just a standard red and green label? What happens? I think it’s amazing that this seller is able to get these prices for some of his offerings. But I do wonder if there’s an alternate reality going on that we’re not aware of, like whether there is one set of buyers that are completely rapt by his marketing wizardry and only bid on his stuff and are not bidding on any other records. Here are a couple of other auctions we were watching from him: Louis Armstrong at the Crescendo Volume 2, Decca 8169. This is a pretty routine record that you could probably find pretty regularly for $10 or $20 at a weekend record show. This one sold for $103.50. How about: Billie Holiday, Lady in Satin, Columbia 8048? This was a 6-eye stereo pressing. Nothing special, right? This one sold for $157.55. As I was copying the picture of Giant Steps, I took another look at the listing. Someone asked about the label and this was the seller’s reply:

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Billie Holiday At Carnegie Hall: The Winner Is . . . .

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Time to give away the Billie Holiday record: The Essential Billie Holiday Carnegie Hall Concert, Verve 8410. This is an original pressing with the MGM label and the gatefold cover. It’s an interesting piece in that it intersects Billie’s singing with a narrative from her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues. The goal with this give-away, as with all of our give-aways, has been to encourage people to comment on the Jazz Collector site. The good news is that the tactic seems to be working: Since we began this particular contest we’ve had 22 separate people posting comments on the site, which is our high mark for a two-week period. So thank you to everyone for contributing. OK, rather than list everyone’s name — you know who you are — we will just delve into

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Win A Free Record: Billie Holiday at Carnegie Hall

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Okay, it is time for our next Jazz Collector free collectible give-away contest. We always try to find interesting items for you, and this time we are offering up this: The Essential Billie Holiday Carnegie Hall Concert, Verve 8410. This is an original pressing with the MGM label and the gatefold cover. The record is in nice condition, although there are some marks at the end of side two. It’s an interesting record in that it was recorded in 1956 and issued here in 1961 as part of Verve’s Essentials series, which were tributes to jazz greats on the Verve labels, several of whom, unfortunately, had died. These included Lester Young and Charlie Parker. This LP was recorded live at Carnegie Hall as part of a concert in which Holiday sang and in which she also  had several sections of her autobiography, Lady Sings The Blues, read aloud to highlight various aspects of her life and to

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Updates: Thad, Beverly Kenney, Evans, Arte & Billie

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Here’s an update on some of the records we’ve been watching:

The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was in VG+ condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $336. A second copy of this record also sold in the last couple of days. The seller described the vinyl as VG to VG+ and the cover seemed to be about VG+. The price of that one was $199.99.

Beverly Kenney Sings For Playboys, Decca D8743. The record was in M- condition — probably unplayed, according to the seller — and the cover was VG+. The price was $399.99, the highest price we’ve seen for any Beverley Kenney record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide.

Bill Evans, New Jazz Conceptions, Riverside 223. This was an original pressing with the white label as well as the first cover. The vinyl was in M- condition and the cover was listed as VG+. The price was $709.99.

We had mentioned yesterday the Arte Shaw LP on Clef:

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For the Price Guide: Chambers, Nichols, Criss, Trane

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Time again to catch up on adding some new items to the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Here are a few of the records we’ll be adding. 

Paul Chambers, Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1569. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The record was VG++ and the cover was VG+. The price was $660.

John Coltrane, Lush Life, Prestige 7188. This was an original pressing with the yellow label and New Jersey address. It was in M- condition, both record and cover. The price was $274.99

Yusef Lateef, Prayer to the East, Savoy 12117. This was a second pressing with the maroon label. The record was M- and the cover was VG++. It sold for $255. This is the second time we’ve seen a maroon pressing of this sell for well more than $100. Is there something about this record we don’t know?

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For the Price Guide: Sonny Clark, Dizzy Reece, Monk

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Since we work during the week, we often use the weekend to update the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Here are a few of the items will be adding after we complete this post:

Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This as an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and so was the cover. The price was $747.

Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Contemporary 3532. This was an original yellow label mono pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was VG+. Price: $240.50

Hank Mobley, Workout, Blue Note 4080. This was a mono pressing with the New York USA label. The record and cover were M- and the price was $335.

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More on the Great eBay Debate

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Jazz Collector Newsletter, June 2002

 

We have some positive changes coming at Jazz Collector. We’re updating the Jazzcollector.com Web site and starting Monday we’ll be posting new items each weekday. Plus, we’ll be giving away free collectibles from the site periodically. Finally, we’re going to post more articles and commentaries from readers and increase activity on the site’s Forum. The hope is to create a hub for the Jazz Collector community, so please use the site and offer up any suggestions. The site upgrade won’t affect the newsletter, which will still come out once a month. We have more than 800 subscribers now and the roster keeps growing. Obviously, jazz vinyl is alive and well.

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