This week’s theme: Part two of our exploration of jazz tracks that have the name of a woman in the title. Featured artists include Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Ray Charles, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Art Blakey, Eddie Jefferson, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Benny Golson, Billy Taylor, Stan Getz, Al Haig, Jimmy Raney, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, Barry Harris, Jimmy Rushing, Coleman Hawkins, Jackie McLean, Freddie Redd, Tina Brooks, Nat King Cole, Sweets Edison, and more.

This week’s theme: Selected tracks from the Prestige Swingville label. Featured artists include Claude Hopkins, Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Tate, Bud Johnson, Keg Johnson, Shorty Baker, Doc Cheatham, Clark Terry, Paul Quinichette, Buck Clayton, Nat Pierce, Jimmy Hamilton, and many more.

This week’s theme: Songs from the Ellington Songbook, vocal and instrumental versions. Songs include Cottontail, Lush Life, In a Sentimental Mood, In a Mellowtone, Come Sunday, Take the A Train, Just Squeeze Me, and more. Artists include John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O-Day, Johnny Hartman, Mahalia Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Wes Montgomery, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, Elvin Jones, Coleman Hawkins, Clark Terry and more.

Following up on some of the jazz vinyl auctions we were watching on eBay. Here are a few from the Jazz Record Center auction

Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. Original pressing, M- or VG++ for both the record and the cover. Final price $3,839

Lee Morgan, Indeed!. Blue Note 1538. Original pressing. Probably M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. Starting price at $2,000 and did not sell.

Lee Morgan, City Lights, Blue Note 1575. Deep groove, West 63^rd Street pressing.  Probably M- for both the record and the cover. Final price $1,600.

Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. Lexington Avenue pressing. Probably VG++ for the record and M- for the cover. Looked new in the pictures. Final price $2,682.69.

Lee Morgan, Lee-Way, Blue Note 4034. Original West 63^rd Street pressing, review copy. Probably M- condition for both the record and the cover. May VG++ for the cover, depending upon the anality of the buyer. Final price $1,160.

This is one I was watching that also did not sell: Charlie Parker, For Collectors Only, Alternate Masters, Volume 2, Dial 905. This one looked VG for the record and the cover. Opening bid price was $900 and the buy-it-now price was $1,170. This is another Bird Item I would like to have in my collection. Someday, if the price is right . . .

This week’s theme: Welcoming in 2025. Artists include Coleman Hawkins, Oscar Brown Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Lou Donaldson, Wynton Kelly, Herbie Harper, Charlie Mariano, and many more. The conceit is records that have 25 in the catalog number.

This week’s theme: Two-tenor LPs. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Rouse, Ben Webster, Sonny Stitt, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Gene Ammons, Dexter Gordon, Paul Gonsalves, Hank Mobley.

This week’s theme is blues-influenced jazz and jazz-influenced blues. Artists include Lavern Baker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Count Basie, Lambert Hendricks and Ross, Joe Williams.

I was surprised this one didn’t sell: Art Taylor, Taylor’s Wailers, Prestige 7117. This was an original New York yellow label that looked to be in VG+ condition for the record and probably VG+ for the cover as well. I think it was posted originally at $250 and failed to attract a bid. Now it is priced at $34.99. I think it will sell this time. I wrote about this record a few weeks ago. Terrific session and it usually sells for big bucks. The copy I was watching at the time fetched more than $715. This seller’s rating is 98.3 percent. I wonder if that has anything to do with the minimal interest at the higher price tag. Based on the number of sales he has, that’s only one complaint, so I’m not sure if that is the issue. The same seller has this record and is not getting any action either: Art Taylor, AT’s Delight, Blue Note 4047. This also looks to be an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address and deep grooves. The record is described as M- and the cover is VG+. The start price is $450. If I didn’t have a nice copy of this record (autographed), I’d potentially be in the hunt for this one.

I got to the house in Massapequa at the appointed time, put my dog Marty in a carrying bag and was greeted at the door by a muscular young man who let me in and told me his name was Adam and it was his grandfather’s collection. And then Adam’s mother appeared, and she was the one I had been e-mailing with, and introduced herself as Karen. I assumed Adam was there to ensure that I wasn’t some wacked out crazed record collecting nut, which seemed like a reasonable expectation at the time and I thought this was a wise decision on their behalf. Karen appeared to be a few years younger than me, but of my generation, and we started chatting and we had a very nice rapport because we had in common, among other things, fathers who were obsessed with jazz music and jazz records.

After chatting for a few minutes I said I was ready to see the records and Karen and Adam led me into a room towards the back of the house. In the room were four distinct record cabinets, one on each wall. I put Marty’s carrying bag on the floor and completely bypassed the cabinet to my left, not even looking at it, and went straight ahead to the largest cabinet, the one directly in front of me, because it was not only the largest of all the cabinets but it contained several records with the familiar orange and black, thick spine of the Impulse label. And when I saw the Impulses I had some hope that, perhaps, there were records of interest to me in this collection.

I went right over to the Impulses and pulled them out. They were all Coleman Hawkins. I looked at the labels: Orange. Good sign. Also, the records were in immaculate condition. On the same shelf there were a bunch more Hawkins records, mostly reissues. But it was a start. I took a glance down. Aha, I thought, the records are in alphabetical order and in the shelves under the Hawkins records were the M’s, meaning Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean. If there were to be original Blue Notes or Prestiges now we were cooking.

I bent down. Found the Mobleys. Oh, goodness: Every single 1500 Blue Note. My heart began racing. I pulled out the first one: Blue Note 1568. But as soon as I felt it I knew it wasn’t an original. It was just too thin. I looked at the back: Toshiba-EMI. A Japanese pressing. I pulled out all of the other Mobley Blue Notes. Same story. Either Japanese or United Artists.  Lee Morgan, same deal. Jackie McLean, same deal: All great records, all great music, but, alas, no original pressings, nothing of any value to a collector of originals, which I am. Then I looked back up: Billie Holiday Verves. I pulled them off the shelf: Each one an MGM pressing. I looked down: Ben Webster and Lester Young Verves. Each one an MGM pressing. Not a single original in the bunch.

I started thinking: If this guy was collecting from the 1950s, why didn’t he have more original pressings. Then it hit me: Red Carraro. All of the records here I had basically seen in the same form at Red Carraro’s house – the MGM Verves, the UA Blue Notes, they all came from Red. I even saw on the back of some of the records the familiar handwriting of Red, in the upper left corner on the back, in pencil, describing the condition of the records. It was possible that the owner of these records had done what other collectors had done: Trading original pressings to Red and getting 2-3 later pressings in return. I also figured if the owner of these records dealt with Red, at some point we might have crossed paths.

Then Karen came into the room to check on my progress and to tell me something she had just remembered: Her father used to deal with some guy, buying and selling and trading records. She didn’t know his last name, but she heard her father refer to him as “Red.” Now the collection was starting to make sense: A collection of great music, great records, great artists, but not a collection of significant monetary value to me or to any collector or dealer because it was not a collection filled with original pressings.

Then I glanced over to the other side of the room, at the cabinet I bypassed on my way in. And from across the way, I could see even more Impulses, and they were all together on one shelf and there were at least a dozen of them and I knew in an instant what they were: They were the Coltranes. And I said to Karen that I hadn’t really found any records of significant value yet, but there was a ton of great music and great artists and her father had great taste in music and I’d like to keep on looking. And she said sure and walked out and then I crawled across the floor over to the other side of the room and grabbed at the Coltrane Impulses.

What happened next? You’ll have to wait for Part 3. But here’s a hint of what’s to come.