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: Ella
This week’s Theme: The BeBop Songbook
This week’s theme: “Live Jazz.”
Someone asked me the other day about listening to vinyl versus other formats. I said, whenever I want to listen to music and be completely mindful and do nothing else, then I will only listen to vinyl. I will pay careful attention, I will listen for nuances that I may have never heard before. This happened the other night. I was sitting with The Lovely Mrs. JC and she said, why don’t you put on a record. Now, in my house, the statement “why don’t you put on a record” is not a simple task, at least when the statement is sent in my direction. There are, after all, 8,000 or so records from which to choose. Which is the right record for the moment? Is it an old reliable favorite? Is it an old favorite I haven’t listened to in years? Is it something I have perhaps never listened to at all because there are for more of those among the 8,000 than I would care to acknowledge? In this particular moment, the situation was complicated by the fact that the record also had to appeal to The Lovely Mrs. JC, since it was she who was making the request. I asked, jazz, jazz vocal, something else? Jazz vocal was the answer. I went into the other room and came back with two records, both old reliable favorites that are certainly among the top 10 jazz vocal records that I have listened to in my lifetime. They were: 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.
Pardon the interruption. Since I last posted, I’ve driven back and forth to Chapel Hill, written about a dozen papers for work and even tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. It’s been busy here and I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time on my records or on Jazz Collector. Having said that, I plugged back into eBay this morning and pulled a few records to share with you, starting with Kenny Drew, This is New, Riverside 236. This is an original white label pressing and it looks to be in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. This is a nice quartet/quintet record featuring Donald Byrd and Hank Mobley. Put it on Blue Note with this personnel from this era and you have a record that would be a regular in the $1,000 bin. On Riverside, the bidding is in the $275 range with the auction closing later today. Read more
Now that I have no election to obsess over, and I don’t yet have the appetite to read about what will happen next to my wonderful country, I have more time to listen to records, read about jazz and look at the always interesting activity on eBay. So, perhaps, I will do more Jazz Collector posts and finally set aside time to put into the Jazz Collector Price Guide, which can really use an update. Look for the silver lining, as the wonderful song says.
Anyway, here are a few of items that recently sold on eBay, starting with Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, Blue Note 1530. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover, with some visible staining on the back cover that could be a turn off for some buyers, but obviously was not that big a turn off for the buyer of this copy, who paid $2,850.88. In fact, looking over the cover pictures again, it looks like VG+ is a pretty generous grade. I have an absolutely clean version of this record that I purchased from the Bruce M. West collection in Baltimore, thoughts of which always put a smile on my face.
I’ve been off eBay for a few days recovering from my Bronx adventure, so today I will go back to my watch list and take inventory of what I have missed, starting with The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 2, Blue Note 5041. This was an original 10-inch pressing listed in near mint condition for the record and probably M- or VG++++ for the cover. It had a start price of $595 and did not get any bids. On the one hand I’m surprised because you just don’t find many 10-inch Blue Notes in this kind of condition. And this is a great record, with a great cover. On the other hand, $600 is still a lot of money.
Everybody’s favorite, bobdjukic, was back with some auctions and, as usual, some hyperbole. This was a highlight from Ella Fitzgerald, and I will give the full title because it is quite a weird mouthful: Miss Ella Fitzgerald and Mr. Gordon Jenkins (with His Orchestra and Chorus) Invite You to Listen and Relax, Decca 8696. According to the listing this is “Easily and By Far Ella Fitzgerald’s Rarest Studio Album in Existence!” I love that stuff, and then it gets topped off with the old standby “ultra-rare.” Somehow this stuff actually works. The record and cover were graded VG++, although the description makes it clear that VG++ for the cover is a wild stretch, since there is actually a partial seam split. Anyway, some how, some way, someone bid $259 for this record. I think I got my copy, in better condition, for $5 at a record show, which was not far from the going rate a few years back. Read more
I recently picked up a batch of European — and South African — pressings of original jazz records from the ’50s and ’60s. Being American and a New Yorker at that, I’ve always had access to the U.S. pressings and, frankly, never had interest in the European pressings. I’m now listening to a Brubeck Columbia, CBS actually, with the heavy vinyl, red label, deep grooves. It has the soft cover and, now that I look at the cover, is actually from South Africa. There’s a note at the bottom: “Everyday is somebody’s biirthday. Give a national record gift token exchangeable anywhere in Southern Africa.” I just took off the Brubeck and am now listening to Ella Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook. All of this is leading to a point and some questions. For those who follow these things closely, is there a noticeable difference in sound quality between the American and European pressings?In listening to the Ella record now, the pressing, quite frankly, sucks. Really bad. The Brubeck was much better. How do you feel about the soft covers? And for those of you who were actually buying records in the era — Rudolf? Michel? — were you content to have the European pressings, or did you focus on the U.S. pressings? Just curious. Not sure what I’m going to do with these European pressings I now own. There’s something nice about having them, knowing they were issued at the same time as the U.S. versions, but I do have U.S. pressings of most of these. Oh,the challenges of being an obsessive collector. I hate to get rid of anything, even if I have it.
