I’m always looking for information on records I see on eBay that I haven’t seen before, either online or in real life. I’ve been collecting jazz records for more than 35 years and have spent thousands of hours poring through record stores all over the U.S. and in parts of Europe, yet I still come across items that are new to me. Here’s one from eBay the other day: Eric Dolphy, Conversations, FM 308. This was a sealed Stereo pressing sold by Atomic Records for $317.90. It had five separate bidders and was sold to ondemand12, one of the big eBay jazz buyers.For more information on this album, I consulted The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord.  I have Version 3.3. on CD-ROM. It’s a valuable tool if you’re looking for historical information or to accurately find out sidemen on just about every track in jazz history. You can contact them directly at lord@lordisco.com and please tell them that you heard about the Discography at Jazz Collector.

 Anyway, as far as I can tell, the music is from a few sessions in New York in June or July of 1963, about a year before he died in Berlin on June 29, 1964. FM was a small label: I also have a couple of Chris Connor LPs, but not that much more. Interestingly, if you look at the liner notes for Out To Lunch, Blue Note 4163, you’ll note that it states: “Eric Dolphy performs courtesy of FM Records.”

 Anyway, this FM record is also known as Iron Man and is available on CD. Players include Woody Shaw, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Simmons, Prince Lasha, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis, Eddie Kahn, Charles Moffett and J.C. Moses. According to The Penguin Guide To Jazz on CD, these recordings were “unattractively packaged and of less than pristine sound quality. They are, however, key works, paving the way towards his great late masterpiece and important in setting him in larger-than-usual ensembles.”

 So now, having done all of this research, yes I do know this record: The music was issued on Everest Records with no descriptions of the musicians and no indication of where it came from. I’ve had the record for years and always liked it. Great music, particularly the version of Fats Waller’s “Jitterbug Waltz.” Now I can begin my hunt for the original but, hopefully, not for $317.90.

See you tomorrow with a full newsletter. — Al

As we go through records preparing to sell them on eBay, we always seem to find a few that fail to list the accompanying musicians. When this happens, we go through our source material to try to fill in the blanks. Among the resources we use most often are The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, which we have on CD-ROM; various Internet sites, such as The All Music Guide; plus several discographies we have in our collection, including those for Blue Note, Savoy, Prestige, Verve, Clef and Norgran.

Whenever we find this information we will post it on the Website. So here are some of our recent findings:

Billie Holiday, Songs for Distingue Lovers, Verve 8257

Sweets Edison, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell, Alvin Stoller

 Georgie Auld in the Land of Hi Fi, Emarcy 36060

The trumpet players are Maynard Ferguson, Conrad Gozzo, Mannie Klein and Ray Linn; the sax players are Willie Schwartz, Ted Nash, Babe Russin and Chuck Genry; the trombone players are Tommy Pederson, Frank Rosolino and Si Zentner; the pianist is Arnold Ross; the guitarists are Al Hendrickson and Barney Kessel; the bassists are Joe Mondragon and JoeComfort; the drummer is Alvin Stoller. The source of this information is The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, Version 3.3. If you’re a serious collector, the CD-ROM version is definitely a worthwhile tool.

 Taft Jordan, The Moods of Taft Jordan, Mercury MG 20429

The album consists of Jordan backed by a quartet as well as an orchestra. The names of the orchestra members are probably lost forever. The quartet consisted of Everett Barksdale on guitar; Dave Martin on piano; Joe Benjamin on bass; and Chink Martin on drums. The session was recorded in 1958 and at this point is not available on CD.

Tony Scott, The Touch of Tony Scott, RCA 1353

The album was recorded by three different bands on three dates in 1956. First was the orchestra on July 3. It consisted of Jimmy Maxwell, Jimmy Nottingham, Idrees Sulieman and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Rex Peer and Bart Varsala on trombones; Gigi Gryce, Sam Marowitz, Seldon Powell, Zoot Sims and Danny Bank on reeds; Bill Evans on piano; Mundell Lowe on guitar; Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums. Scott played clarinet. The tentette was recorded on July 5, 1956 (they took a holiday on July 4). It consisted of John Carisi and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Cleveland and Green on trombones; Bank on sax; Evans on piano; Barry Galbraith on guitar; Hinton and Johnson. The quartet was recorded July 6, 1956. It consisted of Scott on clarinet; Evans on piano; Les Grinage on bass and Lennie McBrowne on drums.

 That’s it for today. We’ll be back on the Web tomorrow and with our next newsletter on Friday. See you then. — Al

We all appreciate knowledgeable dealers who understand what they’re selling and can provide us with insight about the collectibles market. Here’s an example: I was recently looking through eBay and saw a Charles Mingus record I had never seen before. The title is “Music Written For Monterey, 1965. Not Heard … Played In Its Entirety at UCLA,” East Coasting 12.001.

 The dealer offering this LP was Stereojacks, which I happen to know through my many travels to Boston.  Stereojacks is based in Cambridge and is one of the more reputable and knowledgeable dealers in the country. This is their explanation of the record:

 “In 1966 Charles Mingus offered four privately released LPs on his Charles Mingus label through mail order. Three of them were subsequently re-released nationally by Fantasy, but this one never was. Reportedly only a few hundred of the UCLA album were sold. In the early 1980’s, East Coasting’s Fred Cohen collaborated with the Mingus estate to make this album available once again, albeit very briefly. In addition to reproducing the original cover art (and a gatefold cover not on the original), a 7″ EP of “They Trepass the Land of the Sacred Sioux,” recorded at Monterey 9/18/65, and never released elsewhere, was included. The performance features Mingus rehearsing the ensemble and performing the pieces “Meditations On Inner Peace,” “Once Upon a Time There Was a Holding Corporation Called Old America,” “Ode To Bird and Dizzy,” “They Trespass the Land of the Sacred Sioux,” “The Arts of Tatum and Freddie Webster,” “Don’t Be Afraid The Clown’s Afraid Too,” and “Don’t Let It Happen Here.” The band includes Lonnie Hillyer, Hobart Dotson, Jimmy Owens (trumpets), Howard Johnson (tuba), Julius Watkins (French horn), Charles McPherson (alto sax), Charles Mingus (bass & piano), Dannie Richmond (drums). This is a fascinating and essential document of the true original that was Charles Mingus.”

 The record sold for a price of $92. Here’s the original listing and our thanks to Stereojacks for the insight.

 In the same spirit, we were listing some records yesterday and ran into gaps in our knowledge. One was a simple fix. The record was Billie Holiday, Stay With Me, Verve 8302. As sometimes happens with the Verves, the musicians were not listed. We consulted with The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord for the answer. Accompanying Billie on this date are Charlie Shavers, Tony Scott, Budd Johnson, Billy Taylor, Billy Bauer, Leonard Gaskin and Cozy Cole. Here’s the listing.

 The other record that tested our knowledge was called The Blues, Mamie Webster Sings W.C. Handy, Cub 8002.  Not only had we never heard of Mamie Webster, we’d never even seen a record on the Cub label. We did a few searches on the Internet for answers.

 Mamie Webster, it turns out, was a pseudonym for the blues singer Big Maybelle. Big Maybelle’s real name was Mabel Louise Smith, so how she because Mamie Webster is anybody’s guess. But, apparently, it’s a name she used more than once. The Cub label, from what we can tell, was a subsidiary label to MGM. We could only find a list of nine LPs, plus 78s and 45s, mostly early rock and R&B. We tried to find other copies of the record on eBay, but there weren’t any. We were able to locate one copy on GEMM, which was being offered for $150. We put a start price of $30 on our copy, with no reserve. Here it is if you want to see what a Cub record looks like.

 That’s it for today. See you tomorrow with a newsletter and our weekly give-away. — Al

Yesterday we answered some questions from readers. Today we have a question we would like to throw out to the community and see if anyone else has the answer. We’re starting to get a little action on the forums, so if you have questions like these please put them there and we can start building a clearinghouse of information for collectors.

On to today’s question, from Pete aka “Bongo Pete the Drummer”:

 “Hello. I have for years owned a 45-RPM EP on Clef Records called Introducing Barney Kessel and have never found any info on it. I also own the 10-inch LP Barney Kessel Volume 1 on Contemporary, which mentions in the liner notes that it is Barney’s first album – but that’s what it says on the back of the Clef 45. I know Barney just passed away on the 6^th of this month. Do you know anything about this Clef EP? I picked it up about 30 years ago when I was 14 years old for $1 or $2. It is in pretty nice shape. I have played it two times in 30 years, as I have it on tape.”

Can anybody out there help Pete?

eBaying

 Here are some of the interesting items that sold the past couple of days on eBay:

 Zoot Sims at Ronnie Scotts, Fontana 5176, in M- condition. Price: $660. The dealer described this as one of the rarest jazz LPs from the U.K. We’ve never seen it before and the price certainly justifies that description.

 Two Jackie McLean Blue Note LPs also went for high prices yesterday:

 Jackie’s Bag, Blue Note 4051, in M- condition. Price: $675

 New Soil, Blue Note 4013 in M- condition. Price: $325

Quotebook

“To me, reaching people is the most important thing. Otherwise, you just lock yourself in a room and play for yourself – that’s all. But if you’re going to work in a club and people are paying money to see and hear you, you should try to establish some kind of contact with them. What I try to do when playing in a club is to present different things, so that no matter who comes in, there’ll be something for everybody, rather than just playing one kind of thing and telling people: ‘If you don’t like it you can split!'” — Chet Baker from the liner notes to the album Baby Breeze, Limelight LM 82003, issued in 1964

Dan, if you’re watching today, Happy Birthday. See you all tomorrow with a newsletter. — Al

Today we answer a couple of questions from readers and keep our ongoing eye on eBay.

 Q. It always drives me crazy when records don’t list all the musicians. I was recently listening to a copy of The Touch of Tony Scott on the RCA label. The pianist sounded like Bill Evans, but I wasn’t sure. Can you please tell me who is on this album?

A. Good ears. The pianist is Bill Evans, very early in his career. You can hear him very effectively on “Round Midnight.” The album was recorded by three different bands on three dates in 1956. First was the orchestra on July 3. It consisted of Jimmy Maxwell, Jimmy Nottingham, Idrees Sulieman and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Rex Peer and Bart Varsala on trombones; Gigi Gryce, Sam Marowitz, Seldon Powell, Zoot Sims and Danny Bank on reeds; Evans on piano; Mundell Lowe on guitar; Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums. Scott played clarinet. The tentette was recorded on July 5, 1956 (they took a holiday on July 4). It consisted of Scott plus John Carisi and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Cleveland and Green on trombones; Bank on sax; Evans on piano; Barry Galbraith on guitar; Hinton and Johnson. The quartet was recorded July 6, 1956. It consisted of Scott on clarinet; Evans on piano; Les Grinage on bass and Lennie McBrowne on drums.

 Q. I own the LP Georgie Auld in the Land of Hi Fi on the Emarcy label. The liner notes don’t list the musicians. Could you please tell me who plays on this album?

 A. Yes. The trumpet players are Maynard Ferguson, Conrad Gozzo, Mannie Klein and Ray Linn; the sax players are Willie Schwartz, Ted Nash, Babe Russin and Chuck Genry; the trombone players are Tommy Pederson, Frank Rosolino and Si Zentner; the pianist is Arnold Ross; the guitarists are Al Hendrickson and Barney Kessel; the bassists are Joe Mondragon and JoeComfort; the drummer is Alvin Stoller. The source for both of these questions is The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, Version 3.3. If you’re a serious collector, the CD-ROM version is definitely a worthwhile tool.

 A lot of interesting 10-inch LPs were sold on eBay the past couple of days. One dealer, Jazz Record Revival, had a group of records that were from the collection of the pianist Roger Kellaway. They looked to be in very nice condition and sold for pretty high prices. Here’s a sampling:

 Charlie Mariano, Fantasy 3-10, in M- condition. Price: $99.99

Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins, Prestige 187, in M- condition. Price: $157.50

Clifford Brown with Art Farmer, Prestige 167, in M- condition. Price: $115.49

Russ Freeman Trio, Pacific Jazz PJ-8, in M- condition. Price: $160.50

 That’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll do another update on the Website. See you then. — Al