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Heavy Hitters, Day Two

January 20, 2018 Al 13 comments

Let’s get right to it: The Hank Mobley Blue Note 1568 from the Jazz Record Center sold for $7,600. Is that a record for a jazz vinyl record? I think it is. There was an earlier copy of Blue Note 1568 that sold for $11,000, but we later ascertained that was a bogus bid and the sale didn’t actually go through as described. Unless I get better information from someone in the Jazz Collector universe, I’ll assume this is now our apex. Not a surprise, although I had the record pegged more in the $6,000 range. I actually placed a rare bid on the auction, not for the Mobley record, since I knew that would be WAY out of my price range, and it was. No, after seeing Joe L’s comment on the previous post I became somewhat enamored with the idea of owning that test pressing of Horace Silver, Finger Poppin’, Blue Note 4008. Test pressings have never been my thing, but

And Four Blue Notes, For a Price

September 28, 2017 Al 18 comments

Since I was away for so long, I’d like to catch up on some jazz vinyl auctions I missed, starting with a few from our friends at the Jazz Record Center. Let’s start with John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. This was an original pressing that looked to be in M- pristine condition. The final price was $1,382. This may sound weird, but that price seems a little low to me, considering the condition and the reputation of the seller. Just did a quick check over at Popsike and, indeed, this record has sold for more than $2,000 in the past. I have no theories to offer on this, particularly now that the Jazz Record Center accepts Pay Pal, but the market is the market and it often simple reflects who is bidding against whom at that particular time.

An Old Fashioned Jazz Vinyl Auction

June 21, 2017 Al 15 comments

Here’s an interesting opportunity: An auction house in the U.K. is auctioning a private jazz collection on Tuesday June 27 and there are options for individuals to bid live, either online or by telephone. The auction house is Omega Auctions and music is one of the areas in which they specialize. The collection belonged to a collector named B.W. Duncan and, of you are interested, you can read his bio here. As for the records themselves: There are quite a large number of Blue Notes, offered as individual pieces, such as Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch or Herbie Hancock My Point of View. There are also Blue Note packages sold in lots, such as an Art Blakey lot or a Horace Silver/Lee Morgan lot. Many of the records in the collection are U.K. pressings. It looks like there are 260 lots in all. It’s worth taking a look at the auction, but make sure to read the instructions if you want to bid because you have to set things up in advance and you have to pay some fairly hefty fees. Read more

Another Stupid List: Favorite Blue Note Tracks

August 5, 2016 Al 32 comments

This will be fun. Last night I had another one of those very pleasant listening sessions up in The Berkshires, fueled by a few beers, a few vapes and the knowledge that I could play my music as loud and late as I pleased with no neighbors or anyone else to complain. I was watching politics on television as I do so often these days, taking particular delight in the latest polls showing that the blowhard, maniac, crazy man at the top of the Republic ticket is in steep decline and, IMHO, may not even make it to election day without having some kind of collapse/mental breakdown, if, indeed, we could even tell the difference between a nervous breakdown and the behavior he exhibits every single day on the campaign trail. After a couple of hours of this I had enough and decided to enjoy some music. Read more

Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting: A Bronx Tale, Part Two

February 19, 2016 Al 16 comments

So, back in the Bronx, I had a pile of about 50 records. Of the records in that pile there were probably about 10 that I really wanted. But I sensed that the woman wanted to get rid of records and taking more seemed like the right approach. So I made an offer that I thought was fair, considering the condition of the records and the reality that many of the records in the pile were relatively worthless. The offer came out of my mouth and the words were still just hanging in the air when I could see the woman physically recoil as if she had just swallowed a platter full of insects. She repeated the number I had just said and gasped: “The Jackie McLean record alone is worth more than that!” Which, to be fair, would have been true if the Jackie McLean record was in excellent condition. But it wasn’t. Then she started going through a list that she had compiled with values for some of the key records. But there was clearly a disconnect. All of the values she had compiled were for records in M- condition. The records in the pile were not in M- condition. None of them.

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Another Adventure in Jazz Collecting: A Bronx Tale, Part One

February 18, 2016 Al 4 comments

OK, I have another story. This one starts, as usual, with an e-mail. The first e-mail came back in April 2015. I replied, but nothing ever came of it. Then, just a few weeks ago, there was another e-mail from the same person, totally of the blue. This was the text, verbatim:

“Top jazz artist’s

Cotrane , gerald wilson ,st you’d, ray brown, jimmy smith, felonious monk, Eddie Harris , carmen macrae, jazz laboratorylaboratory, gene Simmons, Dexter gordon , stan gets ext.

Give me good price I’ll sell.

‘Miles Davis,chico hamilton about 80 or more.”

I wrote back, asking for more detail and perhaps some pictures. The first photo came back and it didn’t show much at all. No valuable Coltrane, Stan Gets, or Felonious Monk in the picture. Instead there were a lot of records by Gloria Lynne. I wrote back asking for more details and pictures of the Coltrane or Dexter Gordon or Miles Davis. A few more pictures came back. This was the first one:

Obviously, my correspondent had done a little homework between the first few emails and this one. So, of course it is Jackie McLean, The New Tradition on Ad Lib, and yes my interest was piqued. Who would have thought, one of the rarest of the rare jazz LPs among a collection previously highlighted by titles such as Gloria Lynne Intimate Moments and Miss Lorraine Ellison Heart And Soul?

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Guest Column: Adventures in Jazz Collecting, Atlanta Variety

November 10, 2015 Al 27 comments

By Dave S.

“Honey, how much money do we have in our bank account? I want to buy some jazz records.” That was what I asked my wife, the darling Mrs. JC-A, two weeks ago.

There was a rumor circulating around town that there was a pretty nice collection of records up for sale by a private seller. Seems he had spoken to all the record stores in the area. A few of them had been out to his house to inspect the collection, but no one was willing to either commit to what he was looking to get for the records or had turned him off. Imagine that. A record store employee with an attitude. A friend of a friend who worked at a local record store finally squeezed a phone number for the seller out of his boss at the store, when they also decided to pass. Over a thousand records in the collection, but no way for a record store to quickly get in and out of the transaction was the explanation. Atlanta is a mediocre jazz record town, with rock and southern blues (think the Allman Brothers) being the local taste. People like you and me are certainly the exception.

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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (and More) About Blue Note 45-RPM Records

July 31, 2015 Al 23 comments

You will now be treated to a treatise covering more than you ever wanted to know about Blue Note 45s. So from now on, if you do happen to run across any interesting Blue Note 45s, you can do a search at Jazz Collector for this article and the shared knowledge of the community will be available for as long as I pay the bills to keep the site up and running. Here’s how I came by this newfound knowledge, which I wasn’t seeking, but which I will now share for others who may also not be seeking it. It started, as these things often do, with an e-mail inquiry, as follows:

Why a Monk?

July 12, 2015 Al 2 comments

Thanks to Lennib for spotting this one: Thelonious Monk Plays, Prestige 189. This was an original 10-inch pressing, listed among the very nice 10-inch records we mentioned the other day. This one was also very nice, probably in M- condition for both the record and the cover. Even in this condition, the price was quite a surprise, selling for $1,136.11. That has to be the highest price we’ve seen for a 10-inch Prestige and, frankly, there’s no explanation we can come up with, other than the likely reality that two people really, really wanted this record and the bid the bidding up. From what we can see, the other records in this batch sold for prices that you would typically expect, given the titles and condition, including:

Tracking Some Nice 10-inch Jazz Vinyl

July 8, 2015 Al 4 comments

I happened to notice some nice 10-inch jazz vinyl on eBay this morning, so let’s start today’s post with The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 2, Blue Note 5041. This is an original 10-inch pressing that looks to be in M- condition, although the seller is not a record person and didn’t actually attempt to grade it. It looks quite lovely in the pictures, and that is definitely one of my favorite Blue Note covers. The bidding is now in the range of $235 with more than two days left and I would expect this LP to sell for quite a bit more. The seller has several other nice 10-inch LPs for sale, including Horace Silver Quintet, Blue Note 5062. This is also an original pressing, and the description is similar to the Powell record, no actual grading, but an implication that this one is also in M- condition for the record and the cover. The current price is around $125.

While we’re on the subject of 10-inch Blue Notes, there is also:

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