Tag: John Coltrane

Podcast: Jazz-y Blues, Blues-Y Jazz

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This week’s theme is blues-influenced jazz and jazz-influenced blues. Artists include Lavern Baker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Count Basie, Lambert Hendricks and Ross, Joe Williams.

And Now, On Tenor Sax, We Bring You the Great Booker Erwin

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Did you know that Booker Erwin is the tenor sax player on the album Mingus Ah Um? Or that it is the tenor saxophone that Sonny Stitt plays on the album Saxophone Supremacy? Or that John Coltrane wrote the song Afro Blue on the Impulse album Live at Birdland? I didn’t know any of this because none of it is true. Except that’s what it says in the liner notes or on the labels. In the process of doing my weekly two-hour radio show/podcast I’m discovering a surprisingly large number of typos and misinformation on liner notes. I was playing the Verve Dizzy Gillespie album Sonny Side Up with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. I looked at the liner notes for On the Sunny Side of the Street. It said quite clearly that Rollins has the opening solo and then Stitt has the solo after Dizzy. Listen to the record. Read more

Jazz Record Centering

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Last week when I was on eBay I was watching an auction from the Jazz Record Center. The auction has since closed, but it’s always fun and enlightening to keep an eye on their results, so here are a few rare jazz vinyl items that sold last week, starting with Harold Vick, Steppin’ Out!, Blue Note 4138. This looked to be an original mono pressing with the New York USA label. Never had this album, nor have I ever heard it. Not in my sweet spot with the organ instead of piano. This is a preview copy that looked to be in M- condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $521. Read more

Watching High-Ticket Jazz Vinyl on eBay

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I hopped on eBay last week and put a few rare items in my queue, starting with this one: Don Pullen and Milford Graves in Concert at Yale University. This one doesn’t have a label and has a hand painted jacket. The seller was our friends at Carolina Soul and they graded the vinyl in VG+ condition and the cover in VG++ condition. The main reason I put the record on my watch list was the price, which was already above $6,000 at the time. I wasn’t the only one to notice, obviously, but I did get the following note from our friend Daryl, who wrote the following: “Carolina Soul – what is this album? Will it fetch this dollars from a music (plus cover) perspective? Will it top the $9,000-plus sale from December 2022 as found at Gripsweat? We’ve written about that one before, Free Jazz (And More) at a Price. Per Clifford on that earlier post, no more than 100 copies of this record were produced. Anyway, based on the picture, this doesn’t look like the same record that got the $9,000-plus price. This one sold for “only” $6,100. Read more