The Bird and Diz Discovery

Three friends called on Monday to ask if I’d seen the article in Sunday’s New York Times about the discovery of the concert by Bird and Diz at Town Hall in New York from June 22, 1945.  Check it out here: Bird Lives! The Birth of Bebop, Captured on Disc. So I get the calls on Monday, rush home, read the article and then head out to my local Tower Records to pick up the CD. Alas, no CD. Also, no CD at Borders, Barnes & Noble or Best Buy.  So I ordered on Amazon. Still waiting for delivery. Which is a roundabout way of saying that I’m delaying the next newsletter a week, till I get back from vacation and have a chance to listen to this CD so I can share my thoughts with you.  I’ve got plenty of other stuff to write about, plus an updated Price Guide, so stay tuned on August 15. I’ll be offline till then, traveling in Europe. Have fun and happy record hunting.  – Al

Some Interesting 10-Inch LPs

So this is what my life has come to: It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and I am sitting in front of my computer entering record prices into a database. The things we do for love. Or obsession. Sometimes I have trouble telling the two apart.

 

Anyway, here are some of the items I’ve been watching on eBay the past few days:

 

Billie Holiday, At Jazz At The Philharmonic, Clef 169. This is a 10-inch LP with a beautiful cover by David Stone Martin. This copy was in M-/M- condition and sold for $610. This is a higher price than I’ve seen this record sell for in the past and I’m wondering if there’s anything about this record, aside from the condition, that drove the price up. There’s one Billie record that supposedly had an illustration by Andy Warhol, but I don’t think this is the one. Does anyone out there want to speculate on an answer?

 

The dealer selling the Billie Holiday LP had a batch of other nice 10-inch records as well. He had a mint copy of Bird and Diz, Clef 512 that sold for $200. I would have loved it, but I’ve just been spending too much money lately. Maybe some other time. The other ones that caught my eye were: Read more

Original Pressings, Reasonable Prices

Back from the weekend, so it’s time to catch up on eBay. Here are some of the records we were watching.

 Donald Byrd Sextet, Transition 5. This was an original pressing in what seemed to be M-/VG++ condition. The LP had the booklet and sold for $300.

Eric Dolphy at the Five Spot, Volume 1, New Jazz 8260. This was an original pressing with the purple label. The seller listed it in M-/M- condition, although there seemed to be ringwear on the cover, based on the photo. Still the price was $278.99. Read more

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