This week’s theme is a surprise, but it is quite lovely, IMHO. Featured artists include Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Art Tatum, Chet Baker, Horace Silver, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, and many more.

This week’s theme is a random playlist from the Clef, Norgran and Verve catalogues. Artists include Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Tal Farlow, Buddy DeFranco, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Count Basie and many more.

Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, Mercury 60134. This was an original stereo pressing in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $410. I’m not going to comment on the prices of the records I’m listing here. They tend to speak for themselves, no?

John Coltrane, Giant Steps, Atlantic 1311. This was not an original pressing. It was a fairly common mono pressing with the red and purple labels and the white fan logo. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $142.50.

Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto, Verve 8545. This was an original stereo pressing. The record and cover were probably in M- condition. The price was $361.

John Coltrane, Ballads, Impulse 32. This was an original orange label pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $410. Our previous high price for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was $205.

Joe Henderson, Mode For Joe, Blue Note 4227. This was a Liberty pressing. Liberty Pressing. It was in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $154.02.

Enough for now. Here are a couple of other auctions we were watching.

We started watching this when there were about two hours to go on the auction and there were no bids at a start price of about $100: Donald Byrd, Byrd’s Word, Savoy 12032. This was an original pressing with the blood red label and heavy vinyl. It looked to be in VG++ condition all around and sold for $125.55. We thought it would get more play. Perhaps if it were offered by a different seller and labeled as insanely rare . . .

Abbey Lincoln With the Riverside Jazz Stars, Riverside 251. This was a stereo pressing with the black label. Haven’t seen it like this in stereo before with the word “stereo” prominently displayed over the title. This one looked to be in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $128.70.

On Eric Dolphy, Mary Ann from Far Cry, New Jazz 8270: “That’s got to be Eric Dolpy — nobody else could sound that bad! The next time I see him I’m going to step on his foot. You print that. I think he’s ridiculous.” Sadly, Dolphy passed away just two months later.

On Cecil Taylor: “Take it off! That’s some sad shit, man.” (Although, of course, Downbeat did not print the word ‘shit’).

There was one track that Miles actually liked and rated with five stars. That was:

Desafinado by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto. From Miles: “Stan plays good on that. I like Gilberto . . . he could read a newspaper and sound good. And I like Stan, because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies — other people can’t get nothing out of a song, but he can. Which takes a lot of imagination, that he has, that so many other people don’t have.”

So, we are making this cool collectible available FREE to one lucky reader of Jazz Collector. All you have to do is comment somewhere on the site during the next two weeks and you will be eligible to enter the contest. There is no charge at all — we even pay for the shipping. You can even just comment right here on this post, let us know what you think about Miles’ comments.

We’ve mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: Our goal in doing these contests is to encourage discussion on the Web site. We’re not trying to gather names for spam or any other nefarious action. We just want to encourage readers to comment on the site and talk to one another. And, thankfully, it seems to be working. Traffic on the site is up considerably in the past few weeks and so is the conversation. And now you can engage in the conversation and win a cool collectible as well. We’ll announce the contest winner two weeks from today, on April 15.