The Lawrence Marable Quintet, Tenorman, Jazz West 8. The vinyl on this was listed as VG++ and the cover was listed as excellent, which I generally take to mean either VG+ or VG++ depending upon the seller and the description. For this item, I would think VG++ would be appropriate based on my grading terminology. This copy sold for $2,024.99. I admit: I don’t own a copy of this LP. Generally the LPs that have the high price tags are not just rare, but the music is good as well. Anyone want to share a review/opinion on this LP?

Also entering the $2,000 club, again, was this:

Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This was an original pressing that was listed in M- condition for both the vinyl and the cover. The price was $2,391.

Sahib Shihab, Conversations, Polydor 623257. This was an original pressing in M- condition. Price: $256

Billy Bauer, Let’s Have A Session, Ad Lib 5501. This was an original pressing with the red label. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $160. I have two personal Billy Bauer stories. Back in the early 1970s, I had a gig as a rhythm guitarist accompanying my friend Dan Axelrod. My musical talents are, to be generous, modest at best, but Dan taught me enough chords to support him while he soloed. At the time Dan was taking lessons from Billy Bauer and one night Bauer came down to see us with a group of his other students.

And, during our first set, Bauer told all of his students to keep a careful eye on what I was doing because I was swinging so well and doing what a good accompaniest ought to be doing. It was, and still is, the highlight of my musical career. Fast forward 30-something years, I’m standing in Tower Records in Westbury, Long Island, browsing in the magazine section. Some little old man comes up to me and asks if I’ve seen the latest issue of Guitar Player Magazine. I point him towards it, he thanks me and says they just did a profile of him. Really, I say. Who are you? Billy Bauer, he replies. A few weeks later, sadly, I got a call from Dan: Billy Bauer had passed away.

Back to the records:

The Return of Art Pepper, Jazz West 10. This was an original pressing. The record was VG and the cover was VG+. Price: $162.50

Booker Ervin, That’s It, Candid 8014. This was an original pressing in M-/M- condition. Price: $255

Here’s that Roland Kirk record I mentioned the other day: Roland Kirk, Third Dimension, Bethlehem 6064. This was an original pressing in M- condition. Price $338

Finally, here’s that Jackie McLean record I threatened to bid on: Jackie McLean, Jackie’s Pal, Prestige 7068. This was an original pressing. The vinyl was VG and the cover VG+. Price: $202.50

I’ll be back with more later. Stay tuned.

We received a note from Anthony Pearson the other day that he’s running another major auction under his anthonypearson2 account. This is the account he uses for the collection of the late Leon Leavitt, which is being sold on eBay in large increments almost every month. This batch includes about 1,200 records and began closing today and will go through Saturday evening West Coast time.  Pearson is also giving winning bidders a break this summer: “It is OK to wait 3 to 4 weeks to issue payment during the summer months,” he writes. Anyway, here are some of the items on this list.

Bennie Green, Walkin’ and Talkin’, Blue Note 4010

Art Farmer, Art, Argo 678. A few weeks ago a mint copy of this sold for more than $100. This one looks to be in nice condition and, as of this posting, had no bids for $24.

The Return of Art Pepper, Jazz West 10

Dexter Gordon, Dexter Calling, Blue Note 4083. There are pages and pages and pages more to look at. After you click one of these just go to “View Seller’s Other Items” to see the complete list. We’ll follow up on these and look at some more tomorrow. See you then. — al

Since I wrote about collecting autographs recently, I’ve been keeping a watch on eBay for autographed LPs and other items. Generally, my theory holds that, with some notable exceptions, autographs don’t dramatically increase the worth of a collectible. Here’s a case in point: A few weeks ago an autographed copy of the Barry Galbraith LP Guitar in the Wind, Decca 9200, sold on eBay for $41 in VG condition, not much more than what a non-autographed copy might sell for.

 But, then again, there are the exceptions. How about this one: An original copy of the Clifford Brown and Max Roach LP Study in Brown, Emarcy 36037, autographed by Clifford. When you consider that Clifford died in 1956, this is a pretty rare item.  The record and label were in VG condition. Normally, it would go for around $20. With the autograph it sold for $648.

 There were some surprises on eBay over the weekend. As we pointed out last week, a mint copy of Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134 was available for a start price of $1,100. We were curious how high the bidding might go, given that a similar copy sold for $2,414 last year. Well, guess what? It didn’t sell at all. No bids. Not only that, the same dealer also had mint copies of the following records that didn’t sell: Ray Bryant Trio, Prestige 7098, start price of $950; Elmo Hope Trio, Prestige 7010, start price of $950; George Wallington Quintet at the Café Bohemia, Progressive PLP 1001, start price of $1,100. The only record this dealer sold this weekend was a copy of Lawrence Marable Tenorman, Jazz West JWLP-8, which went for $585.75. I have to be honest: I’ve never even seen this record in 35 years of collecting.  

It’ll be interesting to keep an eye out on what happens with other items he has listed this week, including two Clifford Jordan Blue Notes, as well as the Flanagan relisted at $850 with a buy-it-now price of $950. I’m tempted to go for $950, but in the interest of my marriage I’m going to exercise restraint. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the record is gone by the time most of you read this. It is one of the rarest of jazz collectibles and it has sold for much more in the past

 We spent a good part of the weekend at the WFMU Spring Record and CD Fair in New York. We’ll give you a report tomorrow. Friday will be give-away day. We’ll look through our stuff and try to come up with something interesting and fun. Right now we’re listening to a nice copy of Miles Davis, The Musings of Miles, Prestige 7007. It’s a New Jersey pressing, but it’s very clean. Our New York pressing is not nearly as clean, so we’ll be putting it up on eBay soon. We’ll let you know when it gets posted. See you tomorrow. — Al 

Back home after a weekend away. Let’s see what happened on eBay the past few days.

 The seller JBLD44000 out of Seattle, who has been selling some nice records the past few weeks, had a bunch of items up this weekend, with mixed results. A few of the records sold for high prices, including:

Hank Mobley, Soul Station, Blue Note 4031, for $1,337.28

Kenny Drew, Walkin’ and Talkin’, Jazz West 4, for $532

This dealer also had several high-ticket items that didn’t get bids at all. Based on our previous experience watching his auctions, we anticipate that these records will be back on eBay in the near future with somewhat lower start prices and, perhaps, Buy-It-Now prices. Among those records are:

Hank Mobley, Mobley’s Message, Prestige 7061. Zeros bids with a start price of $550.

John Coltrane, Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. Zero bids with a start price of $450.

Cecil Payne and Phil Woods, The Music of Charlie Parker, Signal 1204. Zero bids with a start price of $425.

In addition to these, there were several others. If you’re interested in any of these items, you should keep an eye on JBLD44000. We’ll do the same and keep you informed.

 Another seller who often seems to have great records is Jazz5060. Among the items he sold this weekend were:

 Blue Mitchell, Out of the Blue, Riverside 1131, for a price of $218.50.

Cecil Payne, Patterns in Jazz, Savoy 12147, for a price of $262

Teddy Edwards, Sunset Eyes, Pacific Jazz 14, for a price of $198.50

Finally, here are a few other items of interest:

 John Coltrane, Blue Train, Blue Note 1577. Price: $487

Charlie Parker, Dial 203, 10-inch LP. Price: $169. The vinyl was in only VG condition, but we still thought this might command a higher price based on the condition of the cover.

Zoot Sims, Zoot at Ronnie Scotts, Fontana 588. This was a stereo pressing that sold for $208.06.

Tal Farlow, The Artistry of Tal Farlow, Norgran $232.50. Price: $232.50. We’ve seen this record before but usually with wear on the cover. This copy looked pristine and the price reflected that.

That’s it for today. Now that we’re caught up on what happened the past few days on eBay, we’ll look ahead and see what’s coming up the next few days. Look for our report on Jazzcollector.com tomorrow. See you then. — al