Podcast: Jazz Vocals (With a Twist)

This week’s theme: Jazz Vocals featuring horn player accompaniment. Featured artists include Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dave Lambert, Joe Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Abby Lincoln, Kenny Durham, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, Clark Terry, Paul Quinichette, Lockjaw Davis, Annie Ross, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Helen Humes, Teddy Edwards, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and many more.

Podcast: A Dash of Duke

This week’s theme: Various artists playing songs from the Ellington catalogue. Featured artists include Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, John Coltrane, Ben Webster, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Lawrence Brown, Quentin Jackson, Jimmy Hamilton, Russell Procope, Harry Carney, Tyree Glen, Clark Terry, Sonny Greer, Sam Woodyard, Cat Anderson, Ray Nance, and many more.

Podcast — Unsung Artists: Paul Quinichette

This week we do the first in a new Unsung Artists Series, focusing on the Vice President, tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Charles Rouse, Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Herbie Mann, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Brooks Kerr, Gene Ramey, Sam Woodyard,Jimmy Jones, Joe Benjamin, Roy Haynes, Webster Young, Mal Waldron, Joe Puma, Earl May, Ed Thigpen, Count Basie, Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, Gus Johnson, Al McKibbon, Walter Page, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne, Thad Jones, Nat Pierce, Joe Newman, Paul Chambers, Wynton Kelly, Charlie Shavers, Clark Terry, Jimmy Cleveland, Jimmy Cobb, Barry Galbraith, Cecil Payne, Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Sweets Edison, Snooky Young, and more.

Podcast: Sarah Vaughan Centennial

This week’s theme: Sarah Vaughan Centennial. Featured artists include Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderly, Paul Quinichette, Clark Terry, Jimmy Jones, John Malachi, Joe Benjamin, Roy Haynes, Richie Powell, Herbie Manne, Bill Eckstine, Ernie Wilkins, Wendell Cullen, Frank Wess, and more.

Jazz Record Centering

Last week when I was on eBay I was watching an auction from the Jazz Record Center. The auction has since closed, but it’s always fun and enlightening to keep an eye on their results, so here are a few rare jazz vinyl items that sold last week, starting with Harold Vick, Steppin’ Out!, Blue Note 4138. This looked to be an original mono pressing with the New York USA label. Never had this album, nor have I ever heard it. Not in my sweet spot with the organ instead of piano. This is a preview copy that looked to be in M- condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $521. Read more

Jazz Vinyl Auctions for the Road (And Beyond)

I’ll be off line for the next week so I won’t be able to post. Not that it will be any different than a normal period between posts, but this time my absence will at least be planned. Everything’s fine. Just enjoying a little holiday. In the meantime, I will leave you with a large batch of records to watch so you can all comment to your heart’s content. Let’s start with one of the records that would still be on my want list, if, indeed, I had a want list: Sonny Rollins Plays, Period 1204. This looks to be an original deep groove pressing listed in M- condition for the record and EX+ for the cover. Bidding is in the $200 range with almost three days left on the auction. I have no idea how this record has eluded me all these years, but it has. Read more

Serenade to Some Rare Jazz Vinyl

Clark Terry Jazz Vinyl copyHere are some of the results from the Jazz Record Center auction that closed the other day, starting with Charles Mingus at the Bohemia, Debut 123. This was an original pressing that looked to be in M- condition for the record and probably VG+ or VG++ for the cover. When we first observed this record a few days ago, there were no bids at a start price of $200. We expected that the action would get hot and heavy and it did. The record wound up selling for $1,333.

Clark Terry, Serenade to a Bus Seat, Riverside 237. This was an original pressing with the white label. This is another great and underrated record by Terry, who died last week (the funeral is today in harlem, by the way). I thought I had this record, and I’m pretty sure I did have it at one time, but I don’t think I have it anymore. I was looking for it to review the liner notes. I had never thought about the title of the record before,

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Clark Terry, RIP

clark copyWoke up this morning to the news that the great trumpeter Clark Terry has passed away at age 94. He certainly lived a full and fulfilling life, inspiring musicians right to the very end. If you want some inspiration yourself, I urge you to see the documentary Keep on Keepin’ On. The film is both a loving biography of Terry, with quotes and appearances from some of his proteges, including Quincy Jones and Miles Davis, and it is also a story of Terry’s ongoing passion for sharing and teaching the music — in this case his mentoring relationship/friendship with a young blind jazz pianist named Justin Kauflin. I saw the movie several weeks ago with The Lovely Mrs. JC and when we got home she wanted me to play some Clark Terry on the turntable. I took out the album Duke With a Difference, Riverside 246. I hadn’t listened to it in years and what a joy it was to hear it again. Great, great record with very interesting arrangements and terrific playing. Terry was one of the last links to an era in jazz that we’ll never see again. We were fortunate to have had him for so long as a player, teacher, mentor, innovator, ambassador and giant of the jazz world.

Odds & Ends From The Jazz Collector World

Barbara Lea copyLet’s catch up on a few odds and ends, starting with some of the promo records we’ve been watching on eBay:

John Coltrane, Coltrane, Impulse 21. This was a mono pressing with the white label promo label. It was listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. It wound up selling for $493.88. Wow. From the same seller was this: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Impulse 40. This was also a white label promo copy, also in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. This one sold for $282. Then there were the two on Prestige: George Wallington, Jazz For the Carriage Trade, Prestige 7032. This was an original New York yellow-label pressing with the “Not for Sale” stamps on the label and cover. It was listed in M- condition for the record and probably VG++ for the cover. The start price was $499 and it did not sell. Somewhat surprising, right? Then there was:

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What Makes a Jazz Hero? Our Readers Weigh In

In our newsletter last week we asked readers to tell us about their heroes. Here are some of the responses. We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to write to us.

“Please keep up the fantastic work with the newsletter…every one just gets better. As for heroes, I’d have to start with Art Pepper, then Dave Pell, Shorty Rogers, Zoot Sims and who can forget Cal Tjader? All mostly West Coast cats but they had ‘the sound’ and knew what we wanted. Guess I better add my most favorite and versatile sax man: Charlie Ventura. Man, could he wail! Read more