This week’s theme: It’s summertime, and we are focusing on live recordings made at the Newport Jazz Festival, covering the years 1956 to 1968. Featured artists include Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Rouse, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Brubeck, Duke Ellington, Lambert Hendricks and Bevan, Count Basie, Jo Jones, Roland Kirk, Herbie Mann, Chick Correa and many, many more.

This week’s theme. All standards, some vocals, some instrumentals. Featured artists include Thelonious Monk, Oscar Pettiford, Art Blakey, Rosemary Clooney, Stacey Kent, Scott Hamilton, Lester Young, Teddy Wilson, Jo Jones, John Coltrane, Arthur Taylor, Paul Chambers, Warren Vache, Nancy LaMott, Richie Cole and many more.

I h

Here’s an interesting beauty: Lester Young, Norgran, 1022. This is an original deep groove yellow label pressing, with a “For Demonstration Only Not For Sale” stamp placed prominently on the beautiful David Stone Martin cover and again on both sides of the labels. The record is graded in M- condition and the cover is Ex. The auction closes in a couple of days and the start price is about $775, with no bidders yet. I’ve always found the Norgran/Verve Pres records to be hit and miss, music wise, although the packages are always attractive. I came across a Sonny Rollins interview on YouTube the other day where he was talking with reverence about this stage of Pres’s career, so it is causing me to re-assess. Check out the clip – Sonny talks about Pres playing Three Little Words and how Sonny used to play it every single night. I can vouch for that, because in the early and mid 1970s, I used to go to see Sonny every night at the Vanguard or the Half Note in midtown, and every single night he would play Three Little Words.

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been posting as frequently as I used to at Jazz Collector. 🙂 A few weeks ago in a post called Random Notes from the Jazz Collector Inbox, I posed the question: “What’s the verdict on the current crop of OJC” pressings from Craft recordings. I received a thoughtful reply the other day from reader Alun Severn from the UK. He writes as follows:

“What’s the verdict on the current crop of OJCs? Maybe I’ll pick one up, just to report back to you all. 

Well, it’s a confusing situation, I think. I can see no real logic evident in what gets pressed as a premium Craft OJC at around $35+, and what gets pressed as a bog-standard OJC reissue at around $20 or so. The premium ones I refer to are the Kevin Grey/Stoughton-jacketed ones with the obi strip.

In my experience, the premium obi-stripped ones are superb. I have bought a number and have yet to have a problem of any kind. The bog-standard OJC reissues are another matter entirely. I have returned at least one because it arrived warped and dirty. I can clean dirty records, and do, but I will not accept warped records. I’ve had one or two that certainly sounded no better than a mid-80s Fantasy distributed OJC, and possibly not as good. And I’ve had a couple (Moonbeams and How My Heart Sings come to mind) that to my ears sound excellent.

Conclusion:  I have become very wary of the bog-standard OJC reissues but if here in the UK I can find the premium obi-stripped ones at not too inflated a price then I get them without hesitation knowing that they will be as good and as any of the premium remasters Kevin Gray is currently involved with.

I hope this helps. Regards,   Alun”

Thank you, Alun. Very helpful, indeed. At least to me.

The post A Jazz Vinyl Potpourri: Blue Notes, Pres, OJCs first appeared on jazzcollector.com.]]> https://jazzcollector.com/blue-note/a-jazz-vinyl-potpourri-blue-notes-pres-ojcs/feed/ 9 9691 https://jazzcollector.com/podcast/podcast-bird-dex-dial-savoy/ https://jazzcollector.com/podcast/podcast-bird-dex-dial-savoy/#respond Mon, 07 Apr 2025 12:29:17 +0000 https://jazzcollector.com/?p=9616 This week’s theme: Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon in the studio for Dial and Savoy, 1945 to 1948, with a little Lester Young thrown in [...]

This week’s theme: A tribute to the late Roy Haynes. Featured artists include Roy Haynes, Lester Young, Sarah Vaughan, Phineas Newborn, John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jackie McLean, Leon Thomas, Oliver Nelson, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, and many others.

This week’s theme: Jazz Vocals featuring horn player accompaniment. Featured artists include Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Dave Lambert, Joe Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Abby Lincoln, Kenny Durham, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, Clark Terry, Paul Quinichette, Lockjaw Davis, Annie Ross, Gerry Mulligan, Zoot Sims, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Helen Humes, Teddy Edwards, Ray Charles, Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and many more.

This week we do the first in a new Unsung Artists Series, focusing on the Vice President, tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Charles Rouse, Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Herbie Mann, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Brooks Kerr, Gene Ramey, Sam Woodyard,Jimmy Jones, Joe Benjamin, Roy Haynes, Webster Young, Mal Waldron, Joe Puma, Earl May, Ed Thigpen, Count Basie, Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, Gus Johnson, Al McKibbon, Walter Page, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne, Thad Jones, Nat Pierce, Joe Newman, Paul Chambers, Wynton Kelly, Charlie Shavers, Clark Terry, Jimmy Cleveland, Jimmy Cobb, Barry Galbraith, Cecil Payne, Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Sweets Edison, Snooky Young, and more.

This week’s theme: Highlights from the first year of the Jazz Collector Live radio show and podcast, as well as a look ahead at some of the records and artists to come in year two. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver, Sarah Vaughan, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Art Tatum, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Freddie Redd, Jackie McLean, and many more.

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.

This week’s theme: The Billie Holiday Songbook