Song For My Father

A Jazz Memoir By Al Perlman

Jazz was always in my life. It was my father’s great love. I grew up in a tiny first-floor garden apartment in Bayside, Queens, five of us with one bathroom, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, two closets, a living room and another family living in equally cramped quarters directly above us. There wasn’t much space and my mother made it even smaller by banning us from the living room. This was our “show” room to be kept in pristine condition and used only when we had guests: We weren’t permitted to sit in it or talk in it or eat in it or do anything in it. My mother kept plastic on the furniture and took it off only when there was company. The one exception was when my father was home and wanted to listen to jazz. That’s where he had his great big Fisher console with the hi-fi and radio.  Read more

In Search of the Highest Prices

I was just tooling around eBay this morning and decided to do a quick search in the Jazz LP category sorted by “Highest Prices First.” I’d never thought to do a search this way and didn’t even realize it was an option. Here are some of the interesting items I found:

Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584

Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538

Freddie Redd, Shades of Redd, Blue Note 4045. This is one of my favorite all-time LPs. I only have a Japanese pressing and have never owned the original. Will I bid on this? Perhaps. The price is $150 and the auction closes in nearly four days.

And here’s one you wouldn’t expect to see on a search of highest priced LPs: Louis Armstrong, Hello Dolly. This is from a seller with zero feedback. His asking price is $100. Think he’ll get it? If he does, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’ll be auctioning on eBay next week.

eBay on A Summer’s Day

I can’t believe it’s July 1 already. I’m definitely in summer mode. I took two days off and haven’t posted since Monday. I think that will happen fairly routinely this summer so keep checking the site to see if we’re up that day and what gems we might find for you on eBay. We’re following the market just as closely and we’ll make sure to keep the Price Guide and Latest Prices up to date regardless of whether we post new entries on the site each day. I hope this makes sense on at least some level.

 

In any case, we’re up on the web today and here are some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay.  We start off with a nice collectible from the rare Imperial label:

 

Sonny Criss, Go Man!,  Imperial 920. This was an original pressing in M- condition. It sold for $650. Read more

What’s A Signed LP By Frank Sinatra Worth?

Here are the results of some of the items we were watching yesterday on eBay:

 

Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This was an original pressing of this very rare record. The dealer uses different terminology than we use for grading, but it seems like the record was what we would call VG++ and the cover was VG+. Price: $798

 

Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original pressing from the same dealer as the Jackie McLean record. This was in VG++/VG++ condition. It sold for $713. We expected this to go for a higher price. In our Price Guide Read more

Rarities From Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean

Back watching eBay today and we’re pleased to see that the seller JBLD44000 is back with two of the rarest of the rare jazz LPs. We expect both of these to net prices near or above $1,000. We’ll watch and let you know tomorrow: Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1685. This is an original pressing in nice condition. As of the time we posted today the price was $685. Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This is an original pressing in what appears to be decent condition. As of the time we posted today the price was $618.

In addition to these items, this seller has several others closing today, tomorrow and later in the week. Interesting, he sold a copy of the Art Pepper LP Modern Art, Intro 606, for more than $2,000 last week, but it’s up on eBay again for a start price of $1,500. We assume something happened to prevent the other sale from going through. Here are some of the other items we’re watching:

Sonny Rollins Volume 1, Blue Note 1542. This is an original pressing with the Lexington Avenue address on the label. At one point there was a question in our Forums whether this LP was issued with that address. Here’s definitive proof.

Sonny Rollins, Moving Out, Prestige 7058. This is an original pressing with the New York address on the label. It’s not in great shape but, for those who are not sticklers for condition, it’s an opportunity to add a rare record to the collection at, perhaps, a reasonable price. We’ll see: Sometimes even records in not-so-great condition fetch hefty price tags on eBay.

The seller Atomic_records is also back on eBay with some nice items. Take a look at this one and click “View Seller’s Other Items” for a complete list. Donald Byrd at the Half Note, Volume 1, Blue Note 4060Another dealer with some interesting records is sadg. He is selling several later Blue Notes and Prestiges. Check this one out and look at the others. John Patton, Let ‘Em Roll, Blue Note 4239

Finally, the seller bullsite2000 has this item and several others in very nice condition. Take a look: Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Prestige 7038

That’s it for today. See you at Jazzcollector.com tomorrow. — Al

Lots and Lots on eBay

Back from another weekend away, so it’s time to see what happened on eBay the past few days. We were watching auctions from a group of dealers that had some amazing records. Here are some of the dealers and their wares. You can do a general eBay search on completed items for any of these dealers to see more.

 

Here are items sold by the dealer Jazz5060. This dealer also has a bunch of great records for auction now.

 

Charlie Persip, Jazz Statesman, Bethlehem 6046, in M-/M- condition. Price: $157.50

 Walter Benton Quintet, Out of this World, Jazzland 28, in M-/M- condition. Price: $449

 Zoot Sims, Stretchin’ Out, United Artists 4023. This was a promo copy in M-/VG++ condition. Price: $460

 Freddie Hubbard, Goin’ Up, Blue Note 4056, in M-/VG++ condition. Price: $349.95

 The Return of Howard McGhee, Bethlehem 42 in M-/M- condition. Price: $676 Read more

Some Stories on Sal Nistico

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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