This week’s theme: Composed by Dizzy. Featured artists include Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Clyde Hart, Remo Palmieri, Slam Stewart, Cozy Cole, Al Haig, Curly Russell, Sid Catlett, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Barretto, Ray Bryant, Tommy Bryant, Charles Persip, Charles McPherson, Cliff Jordan, Barry Harris, George Tucker, Alan Dawson, Junior Mance, Les Spann, Sam Jones, Lex Humphries, Chino Pozo, James Moody, Kenny Barron, Chris White, Rudy Collins, Red Garland, John Coltrane, Donald Byrd, Arthur Taylor, George Joyner, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Pierre Michelot, Kenny Clarke, Double Six of Paris, Supersax.

Meanwhile, back in the world of eBay the pickings are slim among high-end collectibles. I’m watching just a few, including Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048. This is an original West 63^rd Street deep groove mono. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition. The bidding is in the $160 range with more than five days left on the auction. Also Mal Waldron, Mal/3 Sounds, Prestige New Jazz 8201. This is a purpose label mono pressing, but I’m not seeing deep grooves in the picture so not sure if it is an original. The record and cover are listed in VG+ condition, but the picture of the cover looks VG top me. The bidding is in the $215 range with about a day left on the auction.

Finally, I see the mentions of the death of Bob Koester. He received quite a nice obituary in The New York Times. I was about to tell the story of when I went to the Jazz Record Mart for the first time in the mid-1980s and wound up with a suitcase-full of Prestige 78s. I just counted and reorganized them and the final number was 130, which was a bit more than I remembered. In any case, here’s a link to the story: End of An Era.

He has always had a decent stock of  jazz records at fair prices, so I was curious what might strike my eye. I have also recently set my sights on upgrading my Beatles collection. A couple of years ago, I purchased reissues of some of the U.K. Parlophone records, which I did not own growing up in Bayside, NY. Some of the later pressings were issued as “audiophile” issues and they sound fine, but the reissues of the earlier Parlophones sound like crap and I have decided I want to have original pressings. I know I diverge from the theme at Jazz Collector and, for those of you who didn’t realize that I am also an avid Beatles fan, now you know. Also, for the record, James Taylor.

Anyway, Spike and I were both wearing masks, although Gordon, being a canine, was spared. No original Beatles Parlophones in Catskill, NY, but I found a vinyl copy of the Beatles Anthology 3, which I don’t own, so that made the pile. In jazz, I pulled out a VG++ copy of Cannonball Adderley and the Poll Winners to upgrade the condition of my record, but somehow I left it behind. I did take a few jazz records, including an original Buddy Rich on Norgran because the copy was really clean, the personnel was strong including Sonny Criss and Ben Webster, and, frankly, the sight of the yellow label Norgran was just too compelling to pass up for $15. I also grabbed a couple of Riversides, Paul Serrano and Don Friedman, because the condition was strong and the price was right and I don’t own these records and because, fundamentally I like buying records and I want to support stores I like. Will I ever listen to the Buddy Rich, Don Friedman or Paul Serrano records? I am going to make a concerted effort to do so.

I did pass up some decent collectibles, mostly because I already own them and I already have more duplicates than I would like. There was a Gene Ammons on Prestige, as well as one of the early James Moody yellow label Prestiges. There was Jimmy Smith House Party, a couple of nice Monk records, a couple by Roland Kirk. There were more, but they all didn’t register because I didn’t buy them. And, of course, Cannonball Adderley and the Poll Winners, which I expected to see in my pile when I got home but somehow had left behind in the store. I want to blame Gordon the dog, but he insists he had no role and was locked in a traveling bag the whole time. I guess it means I’ll have to make a return appearance to visit Spike in the near future.

This one was on the Jazz Record Center auction: Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This was an original RVG-stamped “P” pressing on the New York 23 labels, quite rare. The start price was $3,500, but the record did not sell.  There was a copy of Sonny’s Crib that sold a few weeks ago for $1,100, which was in much lesser condition and had one original label and one West 63^rdStreet label. Also not getting any bids was that James Moody 10-inch record we were watching on the Vogue label. For that one, the start price was in the $190 range.

Here’s another that’s new to me: Chet Baker Sings and Plays With Len Mercer and His Orchestra, Angel Eyes, Celson LPQ 25005. I guess I’ve spent too much time focusing on American pressings and not looking carefully at European records. In any case, this one is in VG+ condition for the record and Ex for the cover. Based on the seller’s description of the vinyl, I would tend to downgrade it. “Occasional clicks and pops” is a bit of a warning sign for me. The start price for this record is about $420 and so far there are no bidders with about two days left on the auction. This record has sold for a top price of $600 in the past, according to Popsike, but that one seemed to be more the exception than the rule. Plus, it was in better condition than this copy.

But I knew the music wasn’t going to knock my socks off and it didn’t. I had a much better experience with the Mulligan Plays Mulligan record on Prestige, which I probably hadn’t listed to since I first purchased it more than 30 years ago. Great record, both sides, the tentette as well as the quintet/sextet. It’s hard to believe the ensemble sides were recorded in 1951, they still sound so fresh and innovative. And Allen Eager was a mother. It was eye-opening to sit back and really listen to him play. So that inspired me to put on a bunch of other ensemble records, including Miles Davis Birth of the Cool and Benny Golson The Modern Touch, two of my favorites. All in all, I spent a couple of days listening to new records, sorting out duplicates and following the inspiration from discovering a new record then moving to a record in my collection and generally having a good old time just listening.

This, of course, inspired me to take another trip back to Spike’s Record Rack to see what I may have missed and that was the inspiration behind the second story I posted on Jazz Collector, Feeding the Obsession, Yet Again, in which I wound up reorganizing all of my 78-RPM records and my 10-inch records and generally making a mess of things, what with slicing the paper sleeves of 300 78s and stuffing the records onto my shelves. The second visit to Spike’s brought a new round of records, including the 10-inch Blue Note James Moody and His Modernists, as well as a few others that filled gaps in the collection. Writing about the trips to Spike’s Record Rack also elicited an invitation from the owner of another record store in the general area, Hudson Valley Vinyl in Beacon, NY, and, of course, how could I pass I an invitation to a record store I had never before visited, particularly one that had previously been recommended to me by our friend and sometimes contributor Clifford Allen.

So a few days later I was back in the car with Marty the dog on my way down the Hudson River to lovely Beacon NY to look at more records, the results of which can be seen in the picture at the beginning and end of this post. For me, the highlights of this excursion were the Gene Ammons Prestige and the Dave Brubeck Plays Leonard Bernstein. The Ammons was only $8, which felt like a bargain, considering that the condition was excellent. It is one of the only records that features John Coltrane on alto sax and, for that reason alone, is a worthy addition to any collection. I listened to that one first when I got home and was also pleasantly surprised. Coltrane on alto is quite interesting, and you can hear that he kind of approached it the way he later approached the soprano, with a lot of energy, hard blowing and a lot of notes. He doesn’t really sound like any other alto player you could readily identify.

I was pleased to get a copy of the Brubeck record because 1: It was an original pressing and sealed and 2: It has become one of my favorite listening records, the side with the West Side Story music, and I wanted to have a copy for my studio apartment in New York. Call me greedy, what can I say. For $20 it was well worth it. I’ve become swept away by the creativity of Paul Desmond’s playing over the past few years and he has become one of my absolute favorite artists, and he shines particularly well on this record. I also want to commend the owners of Hudson Valley Vinyl – nice store with an excellent collection of jazz vinyl at fair prices. I would recommend that Jazz Collector readers go there, although that belies my general instinct to keep these places to myself, although in this case I know it’s way too late to harbor any such illusions. Seems like I’m the last one to know about this store.

I am now a couple of weeks past these sprees and I have many more records to place on the turntable and perhaps I am not done yet with this latest round of purchsasing. There is still the local guy with 1,500 records who is not returning my calls and a collection of 10-inch LPs and 78s somewhere in the middle of the country that may have some promise. Stay tuned.

the provenance of this one was extremely appealing. It had the note from Alfred Lion to Leonard Feather, asking him to write the liner notes. Talk about a one-of-a-kind item. Plus it had the stamped Blue Note address, the big Plastylite label and the strange letterhead from Alfred Lion that for some reason says: “Alfred W. Lyons.” What is that? Just writing about it now fills me with regret at not having won it, although I am sure I will survive I did have the dubious honor of placing second in the auction. I bid $621.11 and it sold for $631.11. There’s no knowing just how how high the other bidder would have gone, so I’ll never know how close I came, unless the winner is a Jazz Collector reader and chooses to come forward.

Between the Jazz Record Center auction and a couple of others I was watching, it was, indeed, a day for heavy hitters on eBay. Here are some of the other results for those of you keeping score at home.

From JRC:

Louis Smith, Smithville, Blue Note 1594: $2,000

Ike Quebec, Test Pressing of Easy Living, which wasn’t actually released until 1987: $2,025

John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573: $1,749.74

Jackie McLean, Swing, Swang, Swingin’, Blue Note 4024: $898

Don Cherry, Complete Communion, Blue Note 4226: $465

James Moody With Strings, Blue Note 5005: $177.50

Non-JRC:

Donald Byrd, Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill, Transition 17: $2,449

Donald Byrd, Byrd-Jazz, Transition 5: $1,875.55

Jazz By Sun Ra, Transition 10: $2,800

And the final tally is: WOW!

Not only do I have a copy of the Prestige 78 recording of James Moody’s “I’m in the Mood For Love,” I actually have a copy of the 78 autographed by the late James Moody himself. How I came to own this collectible, I have no idea. I don’t remember when or where I bought it and I know I didn’t personally bring it to Moody and ask him to sign it because that is not something I do. In any case, it is here, as you can see in the picture, and I have no doubt that it is genuine. If you were to have any item autographed by James Moody, this would be the one, right?

Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This is an original deep groove pressing that is in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It has a start price of $750 and already has a bidder, so you can expect that this one may be headed for the $1,000 bin.

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note 1518. This is a West 63rd Street pressing, whereas the original first pressing would have been Lexington Avenue. I’m curious about this second press Blue Notes, which many of our readers think of as originals, because their prices have gone up quite a bit recently. I just bought a West 63rd copy of the first Miles Davis Blue Note, which I’ll be selling at some point, either on eBay or from my basement. This one is in “near-new” condition and already has a bidder at $100.

I’ve always liked this record and I do, fortunately, have an original pressing: Lou Donaldson, Swing and Soul, Blue Note 1566. This one is also in very nice M- condition and has a bidder at a $350 start price.

R.I.P James Moody: James Moody, Wail Moody Wail, Prestige 7036. This is an original New York pressing with the yellow label and deep groove. It is also in M- condition. For some reason, the market for Moody LPs has never been quite as strong as for other artists of the era. Not sure why, but it has enabled me to build a nice collection of Moody LPs. This one has no bidders at a start price of $75.

Fred has this one listed as a second pressing, although I haven’t bought his book yet and don’t quite understand why. This one has one sided deep groove and I had always thought that was the original pressing: Kenny Drew, Undercurrent, Blue Note 4059. This one is a review copy and is in M- condition, perhaps unplayed. The start price is $250 and there are no bidders yet.