Tag: JR Monterose

Catching Up: Dial S For The $1,000 Bin

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Time to catch up on some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay the past couple of days:

There was this copy of Sonny Clark, Dial S for Sonny, Blue Note 1570. We had spotted it at $484 with a few hours left to go, and we expected that the price would probably double. It actually did more than that: It surpassed the $1,000 mark and sold for $1,025. This was an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. We looked this record up in the Jazz Collector Price Guide and, interestingly, it had previously sold for as much as $1,750, in worse condition.

Speaking of Sonny Clark, he was on two of those Buddy DeFranco LPs we were watching. He was on Buddy DeFranco, In a Mellow Mood, Norgran 1079. This was an original yellow label pressing in VG+ condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $67.78. Sonny Clark is also on The Artistry of Buddy DeFranco, Norgran 1012. This was also an original yellow label and

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Today on eBay: More Bird, More JR, Sonny Clark

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Had some time to kill last night so I went through several days’ worth of upcoming eBay listings. There are quite a few interesting items up today. Let’s get to them quickly:

Lots of Bird this week, which seems fitting, since yesterday would have been his 89th birthday (thank you to Colm O’Sullivan for pointing that out). Here’s a beauty: Charlie Parker, Dial 201. This is an original 10-inch pressing listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. The current price is $565, which is higher than we’ve normally seen for these 10-inch LPs in the past. It’s nice to see Bird getting his due again in the collectibles market.

We had all that discussion a couple of weeks ago on J.R. Monterose. Here’s one of his rare records closing today: J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This one is an original Lexington Avenue pressing and is listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. It is currently priced at $300. Here’s an update on those rare J.R. Monterose tapes

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Updates: More Monterose and More Blue Note

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Jazz Collector is certainly expanding my horizons. Today I spoke to a bass player in Rochester who was friends with J.R. Monterose and, in fact, produced a CD that is probably J.R.’s last recording. He’s sending me a copy and I’ll let you know about it when it arrives. Quite possibly we could end up as a repository of the first and last known recordings of J.R. Monterose. Pretty cool. Also, I had a long conversation with Ron Rambach, who has a company called Music Matters, which reissuing of a good portion of the Blue Note catalogue as

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More J.R. Monterose: Extremely Rare Recordings Available

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Okay, I promised you something cool on J.R. Monterose.  I got a note the other day from a guy who has one-of-a-kind aluminum core acetate recordings J.R. made as a teenager. He got these from the estate of J.R.’s wife. They are 78s, of course, from the mid-1940s, and there are 12 altogether.  Well, I’ll just let you read the note he sent me:

“Hello. A few years ago I attended an estate sale in Utica NY of the late wife of JR Monterose. I purchased a stack of old records and in them were some aluminum core acetate (Wilcox Gay recording) albums of JR playing when he was a teenager. These are the only recordings of their kind for this artist (app.1944) I took the recordings to Syracuse University Belfer audio lab where they

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JR Monterose In Action, Redux

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Got two notes recently from Jeff Barr, a long-time jazz writer, DJ, collector, producer and seller of rare vinyl. The first note was asking to inform my readers about his site, www.jazzrecordscene.com, which is worth checking out because there’s some very nice vinyl there. I’ve added a link to this site from Jazz Collector, so you can find it easily from the home page whenever you come to visit it, which we hope is quite often. Jeff also posted a comment giving some more history on the J. R. Monterose In Action LP that I wrote about last week. Here’s Jeff’s comment, which will also come up as a comment on the previous item:

“Peter Jacobson and Jeff Barr started VSOP in 1980 in Washington DC, where Barr was a jazz disc jockey and record seller, and Jacobson was on the staff of the Smithsonian as a legal consultant. The deal to acquire the license to reissue J. R. Monterose, on the Studio 4 label, was reached after contacting Jimmy Sota, the original producer of the LP. Jimmy was coming off a run of semi-successful low-budget spaghetti westerns in Italian with subtitles, and was glad to let us have the deal…we paid $1750.00 to get the rights and the tape, and, oh by the way, two boxes of unused originals…which in 1980

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J.R. Monterose In Action and In the $1,000 Bin

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I hadn’t updated the $1,000 bin in a while, so I went searching for interesting new items and I came upon this: J. R. Monterose In Action + The Joe Abodeely Trio, Studio 4. According to the seller, this original pressing was one of approximately 250 issued and sold from the cloak room of Abodeely’s The Tender Trap night club in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was also described as an original Columbia pressing from Rock Island, Ill. The record and the cover were both listed in VG++ condition and the price was $1,703.98. In addition to the price tag, what caught my attention was the memory somewhere deep in the back of my recesses of my brain that I actually own this record. So, I ran downstairs, trailed excitedly by my dog Marty, and searched through the shelves of Part II of my collection and there it was, sitting there. I pulled out the copy, ready to bask in the glow of a $1,700 record. But, alas, to my chagrin the copy I pulled out was

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For The Price Guide: Riversides, Blue Notes

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In addition to the Dinah Washington LP mentioned below, we are adding a few more records to the Jazz Collector Price Guide today. At some point, we surpassed more than 4,000 entries in the price guide. We find it quite valuable to use in buying and selling records, and also to help establish values for insurance and estate-planning purposes. We hope you all find it valuable as well. Here are a few more additions:

Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 224. This was an original white label pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $898.88.

Here’s another nice Riverside: Zoot Sims, Zoot!, Riverside 228. This was also a white label pressing, in VG+ condition for both the record and cover. It sold for $158.50.

And what would the Price Guide be without Blue Notes. Here are a few new ones:

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Jackie McLean, Street Singer, Hits Top Price

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You don’t see too many Japanese pressings selling for more than $100, but this one did: Jackie McLean, Street Singer, Blue Note GXK 8161. Price: $117.50. The music is made up of a session that took place on Sept. 1, 1960, under the leadership of McLean and Tina Brooks. McLean led four of the tracks, three of which were issued on Jackie’s Bag while the fourth was issued on this LP for the first time. Brooks was the leader on the other two tracks, including the title cut, which were issued for the first time on this LP.  I don’t know exactly when this LP was issued, but I think I recall purchasing my copy in the early 1980s.

 You also don’t see too many Commodore LPs selling for more than $100. Here’s one: Billie Holiday, Commodore 30,008. Price: $102.50. This one has a real nice cover, which was used as a blow-up by Billy Crystal in his recent one-man show on Broadway.  Crystal’s uncle, Milt Gabler, was the founder of Commodore.

Finally, here’s one from a friend on Long Island: J. R. Monterose, The Message, Jaro 8004. This was an original pressing in very nice condition. Price: $565

 

 

Some Stories on Sal Nistico

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We received some interesting letters about our item last week on Sal Nistico. Here are a couple:

“I enjoy your newsletter very much. Your encounter with Sal Nistico Jr. struck a chord with me. From the first I heard Papa Sal on the Mangione Brothers albums I was a huge fan. The only time I heard him live was a complete surprise for me. Sometime in the mid-’60s I went to the Prom Ballroom in St. Paul, MN., to catch a one nighter by the Basie band. The  fist set had just started and as I entered the room my eyes went immediately to the stage to see who as blowing that torrential tenor. Read more

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