This week I indulge myself with a show for my very own birthday. In the past I’ve played tracks recorded on Feb. 4, including Miles Davis Milestones. But two years in, I’ve dipped into that well too often. So this year, the focus is on the year I was born, 1953. As I say on the Podcast, it was a very good year for jazz and boys from Queens. Also a great chance to focus on 10-inch records from the collection. Featured artists include Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Percy Heath, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Curley Russell, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Shavers, Ray Brown, Herb Ellis, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Dodge, Ron Crotty, Jay Jay Johnson, Jimmy Heath, Gil Coggins, Tadd Dameron, Clifford Brown, Lou Donaldson, Gigi Gryce, Charlie Parker, Red Garland, Roy Haynes, Chet Baker, Russ Freeman, Carson Smith, Larry Bunker, Shelly Manne, Art Pepper, Bob Cooper, Jummy Giuffre, Bob Enevoldsen, Marty Paich, Curtis Counce, Phil Woods, Jon Eardley, George Syran, Teddy Kotick, Nick Stabulas.

This week’s theme: It’s summertime, and we are focusing on live recordings made at the Newport Jazz Festival, covering the years 1956 to 1968. Featured artists include Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Rouse, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Lambert Hendricks and Bevan, Count Basie, Jo Jones, Roland Kirk, Herbie Mann, Chick Correa and many, many more.

This week’s theme: Juxtaposing some nice Paul Desmond with some nice Cannonball Adderley. Featured artists include Paul Desmond, Cannonball Adderley, Jim Hall, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Percy Heath, Connie Kay, Wendell Marshall, Gene Cherico, Nat Adderley, Junior Mance, Sam Jones, Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly, Vic Feldman, Louis Hayes, Dave Brubeck, Joe Morello, Joe Zawinul, Vic Gaskin, Roy McCurdy, and more.

You don’t see too many Gerry Mulligan records in triple figures, but here’s an interesting one: Gerry Mulligan Quartet, Fantasy 3-6. This is an original 10-inch record with red vinyl. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover is EX.  Bidding is in the $130 range and there are already 42 bids. The auction is closing within a few hours of this posting.

Finally, I am preparing to record my Christmas radio show/podcast this week and this record caught my eye: Vince Guaraldi, A Charle Brown Christmas, Fantasy 85019. This seems to be an original stereo pressing, although I don’t know enough about it to confirm that this is an original. The seller has it listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover.  The start price is $450. I had never owned a copy of this record until the past few months. It didn’t seem like a real jazz record to me.

However, doing my radio show last year, I discovered I had a dearth of good Christmas music to play. So, when I saw a reissue of this record sitting on the shelves for $20 at Spike’s Record Rack in Catskill, NY a couple of months ago I figured, what the hell, here’s some more music to play on my Christmas show. What I didn’t know at the time was that this record is the second highest selling jazz record of all time, with more than 5 million copies sold, behind only Miles Davis Kind of Blue. Having listened, it’s also a pretty good record. I guess because Vince Guaraldi was so popular with the Peanuts soundtracks and the Cast Your Fate to the Wind record, he was probably underrated as a jazz player. It’s a bit of a takeoff on he old Yogi Berra line about a restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.” Am I tempted to get an original copy of A Charle Brown Christmas? Not at all. The reissue I own is just fine.

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.

This week’s theme: Thelonious Monk Plays Standards. Featured artists include Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Wilbur Ware, Art Blakey, Charles Rouse, Oscar Pettiford, Kenny Clarke, Gerry Mulligan, Shadow Wilson, Butch Warren, Ben Riley.

This week’s theme. Various jazz vocals on vinyl. Artists include Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Quincy Jones, Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Ben Webster, Helen Humes, Carmen McRae, Duke Ellington, Annie Ross, Gerry Mulligan, Billie Holiday, Rosemary Clooney, Maxine Sullivan, Cannonball Adderley, Helen Merrill, Clifford Brown.

These week’s theme: Classics from the jazz standards songbook. Featured artists include Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Wes Montgomery.

Ella and Louis, Verve 4003.

From the same seller: The Immortal Charlie Parker, Savoy 12001. This was an original deep groove pressing with the blood red label. The record was listed in VG condition and the cover was VG+. The final price was $247.50. I had thought the market for Bird on Savoy had peaked years ago. A resurgence, or is the high tide lifting all boats, including the one with Ella and Louis? And the one where Gerry Mulligan Meets Johnny Hodges, Verve 8367. This was an original trumpeter label in M- condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $247.50. And one more: The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume 2, Blue Note 1504. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing, listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. Based on the pictures, the cover looked to be in great shape. The final price was $1,500.

Another auction closed from one of the regular sellers on eBay, Vinyl-House-UK, including Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048. This was on original deep groove West 63^rd Street pressing. The record was listed in EX+ condition and the cover in EX condition. The final price was $1,127. Also, Jackie McLean, Bluesnik, Blue Note 4067. This was also an original deep groove, West 63^rd Street pressing, also in EX+/EX condition. The final price was $1,155.

It was probably mid-November when I made my way north to Dee’s. She lives up, up, up a mountain and, with the early snow in that part of the world, I was fortunate to have a four-wheel drive vehicle, otherwise there may have been no story to tell at all. Dee has this fantastic house that she designed and helped build, with views overlooking the mountains, and everything in the home is bursting with creativity and creative energy, including furniture that she also designed. Not to mention the vinyl.

Dee and I got along right off the bat, as you can probably tell. We’re around the same age and we both love jazz, so that was a good start. She told me a bit of her life story, I told her a bit of mine, we chatted, I got a brief tour of the house and then we went to the room with the records. There were 5-6 long shelves with records, I guessed about 1,000 or 1,200 records in all. They were not all jazz records. There were classical, a little rare gospel and blues, and a big section of contemporary Latin and Brazilian – her own carefully curated collection.

I told her I needed to check the records for condition and to determine whether they were original pressings. Otherwise I wouldn’t know if I wanted them, the value, etc. I told her I didn’t needed to look at each record, but the ones on Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, etc. would be of most interest to me. She wanted to be the one to initially handle them for my  evaluating their condition, and clearly expressed feelings of protective care, as the  “friends and relations” she had so long considered them to be. She had not only personally spoken with and known many of the artists, but had either photographed or played music with some.

So we came up with a plan. I would pull the records I was interested in so that they were sticking out on the shelf. She would handle them to show them to me and I would write down details, i.e., whether it was an original pressing, condition, etc. I was fine with that. I started in the Monk section and pulled out a bunch of records, Riversides, two Prestiges, both Blue Notes. The pianists were grouped together, and there was also a Bud Powell Blue Note and a few interesting Bill Evans Riverside. Some of the covers weren’t in great condition, but most were fine.

Gradually I came to another shelf and spotted Blue Train. As I pulled it out, I mentioned that this could be a really good one if it was an original. Then I came to the Clifford Brown Memorial album on Blue Note and said the same thing.  From then on Dee (grinning with mischievous glee!) wanted me to say “ding, ding, ding!” whenever I pulled out one of the higher value records. So I started doing that. Now, when I’ve told this part of the story to my friends and family, they thought it was funny, me standing there pulling records and going “ding, ding, ding!” For me, however, it didn’t feel unusual and I was happy to do it. It had the added value of giving me a sense of how many “ding, ding, ding” records I might be interested for myself.

We came to the end and there were probably about 50 records total that I had pulled out. We sat down for tea and amiably chatted some more. That’s when told me more about her photos (and showed me) and how she had access to all of those great musicians.

Loyal readers will probably find it hard to believe what happened next, but it’s true: I only pulled out five records for myself. They were a Freddie Hubbard on Blue Note, a blue label of Monk’s Brilliant Corners, the Kenny Burrell/Jimmy Raney on Prestige and a couple of others. I made a fair offer for these records and Dee accepted it.

The Blue Train was West 63^rd with no New York 23, so it was an early pressing, but not a first pressing.  The Clifford was also a West 63rd second pressing. They were both in nice condition. There were also original pressings of several other top-flight records, but I already owned copies. I was very happy to give Dee a sense of their retail value so she didn’t get ripped off by somebody else.

I took my five records and left, driving four hours straight home.

But that’s not the end of the story.

To be continued, but before doing so, a quick note about the photos: These are all Dee’s, all originals, all personal. I’m posting pictures of a lot of them, but there are more at her web site: creativemusicphotography.com. Also, I’ve updated Part One of this tale with a more complete set of the Count Basie autographed pictures, so you should pay another visit to Another Adventure, Part 1: Ornette, Monk, Dee and Me to see those.