This week’s theme continues the random playlist from the Clef, Norgran and Verve catalogues. Some of the featured artists are Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, Art Tatum, Johnny Hodges, Oscar Peterson, Stan Getz and many, many more.
This week’s theme is a random playlist from the Clef, Norgran and Verve catalogues. Artists include Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Tal Farlow, Buddy DeFranco, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Count Basie and many more.
This week’s Theme: The BeBop Songbook
Chick Corea, Return to Forever, 1973
In the fall of 1973, when I was 20 years old, I had the chutzpah to strut into the offices of the Syracuse New Times in Syracuse, NY, and inform them that I should be their new jazz critic. Although I was a journalism major at the Newhouse school, I had never published anything before in my life, not a word in my high school paper, not a syllable in my college newspaper. Not even an exclamation point anywhere! It was only by sheer luck that I was in the journalism school at all. My first two years in college were mostly a total waste. I didn’t get in to any of the schools to which I applied, so I had to go to Queens College, which was a couple of bus rides from my home in Bayside. I was still living with my parents for those two years, sharing a tiny room with my younger brother and sister, spending a lot more time at the race track and the poker table than in school, or anywhere else for that matter. Read more
On Feb. 4, 2023 I turned 70 years of age.
Yada, yada, yada . . . on Feb. 7, 2023 I sent an email to Carolina Soul Records to see if they would be interested in buying a portion of my collection. So, yeah, you could say turning 70 was a bit of a tipping point for me. Why did I reach out to Carolina Soul as my first choice? We’ve all been watching over the past few years as they have come out of nowhere to be one of the premier sellers of jazz vinyl on eBay. They seem to grade the records fairly, they must have a strong coterie of loyal customers, they get good prices, and they keep getting these pretty amazing collections of jazz records. I also figured, with the money they’ve collected in some of these auctions, they might have the wherewithal to actually pay cash up-front for the records. Plus, there were a few comments on the Jazz Collector site that pointed me in their direction, alluding to their reputation for being “very favorable” on consignment payouts, as Clifford mentioned the other day a comment on the first article in this New Adventure in Jazz Collecting. Read more
Pardon the interruption. I decided to take a much needed vacation. Hopped in the car with The Lovely Mrs. and headed south. Ended up in the northern part of Florida, with a small Airbnb located right on the ocean. Damn, a fellow could get used to that. Didn’t think about work, didn’t think about records, didn’t think about much of anything. I’m back now and there’s still snow and ice on the ground and the winds were howling at about 40 MPH overnight and into this morning. Of course, you are not here for a weather report but for information about rare or not-so-rare jazz records. Let’s hop on over the eBay for the first time in a couple of weeks and see what is going on, shall we? We can start with Newk: Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Esquire 32-045. This looks to be an original UK pressing. The seller describes it as EX with a lot of plus signs, so I would take that to be M- or so for the record and the cover. The bidding is in the $300 range and the auction closes later today, so by the time many of you see this, the bidding will be finalized and someone will be anxiously awaiting their copy of this very cool record. The music isn’t bad either. Read more
Ella and Louis, Verve 4003. This was an original pressing with the orange and yellow label. It was listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The seller was Carolina Soul. The final price was $465, the highest we’ve ever seen for Ella and Louis. Music doesn’t get any better than this, IMHO. Pretty good cover too, wouldn’t you say? I didn’t realize this had become this highly valued as a collectible but, hey, if I didn’t have a copy of this record I’d be fine to pay the going rate. Maybe even sell one Blue Note and get two or three copies of Ella and Louis, just in case.
Last week I posted that video of the guy who bought George Benson’s record collection (In The Mailbox: Yikes, Yowzas & George Benson’s Collection). Now we are starting to see some records from the collection coming onto eBay, starting with Dexter Gordon, A Swingin’ Affair, Blue Note 4133. This is an original New York USA pressing featuring Sonny Clark on piano. The record is listed in VG condition and the cover looks to be about VG+. The bidding is in the $125 range with eight days left on the auction. There are already 16 bids and 83 watchers, which will surely increase with this post. It’s a great record and a nice collectible: Does the fact that it was probably owned by George Benson have an impact on the price? If you were considering buying this record, would it matter to you? Read more
Back on eBay and here are a few that caught my eye: Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights Volume 1, Blue Note 1596. This is an original West 63rd Street, deep-groove pressing and, of course, it has the Andy Warhol cover. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover is VG++. The bidding closes in about a day and the price is at $405. The seller is one of my favorite record stores, Round Again Records in Providence, RI. My son went to undergraduate and grad school at Brown, so I used to visit the store quite often and always had a nice conversation with the owner Steve, and always walked away with a few nice records. It’s been a while – Michael finished grad school in 2010 – so it’s nice to see that Steve is still buying and selling records and finding those occasional lovely Blue Note scores. Makes me think about taking a drive over there. Hey, it’s only a couple of hours. One of these days. Read more
I heard back from the reader who sent me the original link to the auction for the autographed copy of John Coltrane Ballads, Impulse A-32. The one that sold for more than $5,000 a few weeks ago. His name is Bill and, it turns out, he has a passion for collecting autographs—as well as an impressive collection. With his permission, here is a copy of our correspondence after I replied to his initial note.
Al:
My jazz collecting the past 25 years has morphed mainly to jazz autographs. There is something about a genuine signature that makes an item come alive: This was actually in the hands of Billie, Bird, Trane, etc. One must be careful to not obtain a fake, but I have mainly dealt with reputable dealers, and over time, I have become more savvy in finds on sites such as eBay.
I did bid on this Coltrane item, but exited the bidding when it went above $2000.
The prizes of my collection are signed photographs, some contracts, some personal letters, etc. To give you an idea of some of my prized items, here is a partial list: Read more
