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Let The Insanity Continue

March 17, 2015 Al 29 comments

Forty-eight comments (and counting) on the last post. And the traffic on Jazz Collector has been as high as normal. Thank you all for keeping the discussion going while I was pre-occupied last week with doing my real job, the one that pays for the mortgage and the Blue Notes around here. This week I will be under similar pressure, so please feel free to comment on this post and take the discussion wherever you would like. I see that a lot of the previous discussion was a reprisal of a familiar theme, the ability of one particular seller, bobdjukic, to get prices that seem otherworldly to the rest of us in the Jazz Collector world. I personally have no beef with him, never met him, never dealt with him. He does seem to have some magic formula for getting top prices, but I imagine his customers are satisfied because the only way to get those prices is to have repeat business. In any case, after reading the comments, I took a look at his latest auction results to satisfy my own curiosity. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye:

Verve

Catching Up on Jazz Vinyl Auctions

February 27, 2015 Al 2 comments

I’m actually cleaning out my eBay watch list in preparation for finally doing a modest updating of the Jazz Collector Price Guide. So, as I clear out records, I will just post some random results for the next couple of days, starting with one for the $1,000 bin: Paul Chambers Quintet, Blue Note 1564. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The record looked to be in VG++ condition and the cover was probably VG. It sold for $1,203. This came from the same seller: Kenny Burrell at the Five Spot, Blue Note 4021. This was an original West. 63rd Street pressing that looked to be in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $334.

Another Blue Note: Horace Parlan, Headin’ South, Blue Note 4062. This was

A Diversion Into the World of 78s

February 18, 2015 Al 8 comments

My eBay watch list is overflowing and there are some interesting items we don’t often see here, including some 78-RPM records. Let’s start with Charlie Parker, The New Sounds in Modern Music, Savoy 510. This is a boxed set of Charlie Parker 78s. Unfortunately, the seller doesn’t say which ones, although if I were interested (as I may be) I would at least attempt to pose the question. The records — can’t call them vinyl — are in VG+ condition and the cover is probably VG or VG+, depending upon the condition. I am probably one of the few among us who still collects 78s. I’ve had the good fortune to run into a few inexpensive collections, and then I was very fortunate with the 78s I purchased in the infamous Baltimore collection. I probably have about 1,000 78s, with probably about 40 Parkers on Savoy, Dial and Mercury, but a Bird Savoy boxed set would make a nice addition to the collection. There is a big concern with buying 78s on eBay, because

The Stupid List

February 15, 2015 Al 35 comments

I was watching that Clifford Brown autograph (as well as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, et al), but didn’t have enough interest to actually bid on it. To my surprise, there were only five bidders altogether, which would seem to indicate minimal interest at that price, which turned out to be $482.11. I did casually mention when I wrote the earlier post that Clifford was probably among my top five musicians of all time and that I would ponder that and do another post on it this weekend. Sometimes, as we all do, I say and do stupid things. It was stupid to even suggest that I could create a list of top five favorite musicians, when there are so many musicians I love and each musician brings something different and special to my life and my enjoyment of music. Last night I was listening to the Dexter Gordon record, Getting’ Around, Blue Note 4204, and I was thinking about how much I love Dexter and how much I treasured seeing him as often as I did in the early and mid-1970s, particularly his very first club date when he began playing again in the United States. And, goodness, what an amazing ballad performance on “Who Can I Turn To.” And then I put on two Miles Davis records, Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain, and I thought

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More Collectible Jazz From eBay

September 9, 2014 Al 12 comments

To catch up on a few lingering items. That Charlie Parker Limited Edition Swedish record from The Jazz Record Center wound up selling for $248.50. I promised to check my collection to see if I have a copy and, alas, to my pleasant surprise, I do. I usually know all of my records, but having bought a couple of collections in the past two years has left me with many items unawares and unplayed. This one, I recall, came from the Irving Kalus collection, still very near and dear to my heart. My copy of the Bird record seems to be an original in every way, except it is not a numbered edition. It still describes it as a “Limited Edition: This Record is Issued in 1000 Copies. This is Copy.” And there’s no number after that. Anyway, I have it on the turntable now. The fidelity is not great as you would expect, but the music is great. Bird started out with Anthropology, on which he played a very energetic and imaginative solo. Next is Scrapple From the Apple. Yeah, definitely some nice Bird. Really nice Bird. Ooh, now he’s playable Embraceable You. Great.

Also from that auction: John Wright, South Side Soul, Prestige 7190. This was

Prestige

A Rare Bird, Indeed

September 5, 2014 Al 8 comments

Wow — 49 comments and counting on the previous post. Glad you all have been keeping the conversation going while I’ve been out making a living. Been gone so long my own Web site wouldn’t let me back on without having to sign up. So much to catch up on, and I will start with the current auction from The Jazz Record Center.

Charlie Parker in Sweden, Limited Edition, Sonet SLP 27. This is, apparently, a rare limited numbered edition, of which this copy is number 734. Until reading this listing I wasn’t aware that there was a limited edition of this record. I’m pretty sure I have some copy of it, but I will have to look to see if mine is numbered. This one looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. There are about three days left in the auction and the bidding is nearing $200.

Beverly Kenney With Jimmy Jones and the Basie-Ites, Royal Roost, 2218. This is a nice record and I could use a clean copy, which this is, at least for the vinyl, which looks to be M-. The cover looks to be about VG or VG+ depending upon how you feel about tape stains, about which I personally don’t feel to good. This one is in the $60 range.

Here’s an interesting package of Hank Mobley records on Blue Note:

Blue Note

Some Surprises From Jazz Record Center Auction

March 23, 2014 Al 17 comments

Our friends at the Jazz Record Center had an auction last week and here are some of the results:

Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges, Verve 8367. This was an original pressing with the trumpeter logo and it was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. I was surprised to see this one sell for $148.37. Neither Hodges nor Mulligan is typically all that collectible, and this is one of the later Verves among those with the trumpeter logo. Any theories as to why this would sell for nearly $150? Is the market shifting back to Verves a little?

I’ve never seen this one before: Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, A Nite at Carnegie Hall, Black Deuce. This was the full set of 78s capturing the historic September 29, 1947 concert. As noted in the listing, this was a pirated record release, but it was the first of the issues in any form. The set looked to be in excellent, near mint condition. They sold for $688.

This one almost made it into the $2,000 bin:

Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Baltimore Part 7

December 6, 2013 Al 20 comments

So I was back on the phone with Dan and poring through a box of Charlie Parker 78s. There were a bunch of Dials, some Mercurys and Savoys. I had never had much luck securing Charlie Parker Dials, so this would be a very welcome addition to my collection. Then I went into another one of those Capital mailers and it was filled with Blue Notes. A bunch by Miles Davis and Lou Donaldson, including “If I Love Again,” which Dan put on in the background to accompany me. These, too would be a welcome addition to the collection and they made me realize how pleased I was that this collection ended up in my hands because I would really treasure and appreciate these records. There aren’t that many people who collect and appreciate 78s anymore and I, fortunately, happen to be one. They also seem to fit quite nicely into my collection, filling in a lot of the gaps.

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Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting, Baltimore Part 6

December 4, 2013 Al 15 comments

So now some of the best records from the Uncle Bruce Baltimore collection were in my apartment and it was about 1 in the morning and, of course, I couldn’t sleep knowing the records were sitting there waiting to be perused. I moved the records from boxes to crates and began just looking through them one more time, this time with no hurry, no rush. It was a great moment, a man, a dog and his score. I didn’t listen to any of the records at this point. There was just something about keeping them as a whole and letting the feeling linger that I didn’t want to disturb.

When morning came I had to get ready for the WFMU Record Fair. I already had 14 boxes of other records in my cramped apartment. I started looking through the Baltimore collection to see if there was anything obvious I could pull out and possibly sell at the record show. I found a few items: There were three Sonny Rollins Blue Notes I now had in triplicates; the copy of Mating Call was an upgrade from my copy; I already had two mint copies of Study in Brown, so I could sell a spare. Same with John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, Prestige 7123, and one of the Bud Powell Blue Notes

Another Teaser (Sorry)

November 26, 2013 Al 9 comments

Sorry to keep teasing this, but I have been so busy with my real work, trying to make deadlines before the Thanksgiving holiday, that I haven’t been able to sit down and write the story of my latest score. To be fair, I have also been busy going through records. As part the collection, there were three boxes of 78s that the guy didn’t realize he had. I opened one box, saw that the record on top was a Prestige and said, “Oh, I’ll be happy to take these as well.” I just got those boxes out of the car. To give you a sense: In one of the boxes, there was an old mailing carton from Capital records. On the box, the owner had written: “Chas. Parker, Assorted Mercury, Dial, Savoy, 1-1-54.” The carton was full. Each record was unplayed. I promise to begin telling the whole story by the end of the week.

78-RPM Records

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