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.

Didn’t realize this one was a $100-plus record: Curtis Fuller, Soul Trombone, Impulse 13. This is an original pressing with the orange label and RVG in the deadwax. It is listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover and the current price is a bit more than $100, closing fairly soon.

Here’s an original Blue Note in not-such-great shape at a pretty reasonable price: Hank Mobley, Roll Call, Blue Note 4058. The record is listed in VG with “generally unobtrusive surface noise”  and the cover is VG+. The “generally” is the key here, since the implication is that there will be surface noise at times that will be obtrusive. I bet it’s a listenable copy. It’s at about $135 now. I don’t have an original pressing in my collection. Is this worth a shot? Perhaps. I bet it goes for more than $200, even in this condition. What do you think?

This one fetched quite a nice price: Thad Jones, Mad Thad, Period 1208. Admittedly, this is a hard to find record, but I haven’t seen it often go for this price. The record was in VG++ condition and the cover was VG. The price was $610 and there were 27 bids, which is a pretty high number.

This one would typically get a higher price, but the listing wasn’t very complete, so purchasing the record was a gamble:

Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Bag, Blue Note 4051. The seller used the word “original” in the listing, but there was no mention of a deep groove or an ear or a Van Gelder stamp/signature. So who knows if it was original. Also, instead of VG+ or VG, he described the vinyl as being in “decent” condition, which is not a ringing endorsement. This one sold for $165.40. What do you think?

This a great record that sold for a pretty hefty price: Oliver Nelson, The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Impulse 5. This one had the original cover, which is hard to find, and it was in M- condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. It sold for $317.34.

Hank Mobley, Roll Call, Blue Note 4058. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street logo. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $677.

Webster Young, For Lady, Prestige 7106. This was an original New York pressing in VG+ condition, both record and cover. The price was $296. Great record.

John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse 32. This was a mono pressing in M- condition, both

record and cover. The price was $113.50.

Grant Green, Green Street, Blue Note 4071. This was an original pressing with the New York USA label. The record was M- and the cover was VG+. The price was $304. 

Johnny Griffin, The Kerry Dancers, Riverside 420. This was an original blue label pressing in M- condition. The price was $231.50. 

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Miles Davis, Blue Haze, Prestige 7054. This is an original New York yellow label Prestige. It’s in VG+ condition, and sounds quite nice. We put a start price of $30 and it’s already received a bid, so we expect there to be some action.

We also put up a nice-sounding original copy of Clifford Brown, Jam Session, Emarcy 36002. This also has a start price of $30. It’s a great record, with a lot of positive energy. 

As you may have noticed on the Jazz Collector site, we’ve been going through some old Downbeat Magazines, looking for collectibles (we’re even giving one away). We’ve put a few up for sale in our eBay story, and we put a very interesting one up for auction yesterday. It is:

The April 8, 1965 issue of Downbeat with a cover story on Ornette Coleman. What we found most interesting as we perused the issue as a collector, was the original review of John Coltrane’s classic LP A Love Supreme, Impulse 77. The reviewer was Downbeat editor Don DeMicheal, who gave the record five-stars and was able to see that this was a milestone record. We put a price of $12 on the Downbeat and we think it’s a nice collectible to own. We’ll see what happens.