This week’s theme: Pretty simple, John Coltrane on the Atlantic label. Featured artists include John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry, Freddie Hubbard, Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton, Paul Chambers, Arthur Taylor, Steve Davis, Milt Jackson, Hank Jones, Connie Kay, Reggie Workman, Charles Haden.

This week’s theme: More jazz tracks that reference U.S. cities and states. Featured artists include Tal Farlow, Gerry Wiggins, Ray Brown, Chico Hamilton, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Joe Morello, Eugene Wright, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Milt Jackson, Wynton Kelly, Percy Heath, Art Blakey, Richie Cole, Bobby Enriquez, Shelly Manne, Bruce Forman, Bob Magnusson, Dave McKenna, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sonny Stitt, Ray Brown, Jo Jones, Dexter Gordon, Bud Powell, Pierre Michelot, Kenny Clarke, and more.

Actually, just noticed that the direct link to play from here is now fixed, so here it is:

This week’s theme: A tribute to the late Benny Golson. Featured artists include Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Lee Morgan, Harold Mabern, Bobby Timmons, Addison Farmer, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, Curtis Fuller, Barry Harris, Jamie Merritt, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Abbey Lincoln, Percy Heath, Ray Bryant, Winton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Charlie Persip, Gigi Gryce, Sahib Shihab, James Cleveland, Julius Watkins, Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Art Taylor, Jimmy Cobb, Grachan Concur III, Roy McCurdy.

This week’s theme: Cannonball Adderley on Riverside. Featured artists include Blue Mitchell, Nat Adderley, Philly Joe Jones, Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, Bill Evans, Bobby Timmons, Vic Feldman, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, Wes Montgomery.

Kenny Burrell, Prestige 7088. This is an original New York yellow label. The record is listed in M- condition and the cover is VG++. The bidding is in the $350 range with three days left on the auction. From the same seller is Donald Byrd, Fuego, Blue Note 4026. This is an original West. 63^rd Street pressing, listed in VG+ condition for the record and the cover. Bidding is in the $150 range.

This listing reminds me of an email I received recently that I’ve been hesitant to share. But let me share it, anonymously, and see if the commenters on the site have the same reaction that I did: “I have Fuego by Donald Byrd. The labels have Inc. and the R and the vinyl has the ear. The record jacket says that the record is BST 84026 but the etching in the dead wax does not have an 8, it says BN-LP 4026. Is this mono or stereo? In other words the etching overrules the info on the jacket.”

Thoughts?

This one, also on the Savoy label, caught my eye because of the weirdness of the listing: Milt Jackson – Terry Gibbs, Savoy 15058. The seller listed it as a “78 RPM shellac record.” If you look at the picture, it is clearly not a 78 RPM shellac record and looks to  be just a standard 10-inch LP with the heavy vinyl typical of a 1954 pressing, which this is. It looks to be a compilation LP with Bags on one side, Gibbs on the other. It also looks to have a Milt Jackson signature on the back, which is probably legitimate. So, somehow, the seller manages to put “shellac” in the listing, but does not put in “autographed by Milt Jackson.” The seller clearly does not have experience selling jazz records and did not say much about the condition, other than the word “good.” The starting price was $102, the buy-it-now was $204 and there were no bids. To my knowledge it was listed twice already and is back on eBay once again. Maybe three times will be a charm, now that the record has been publicized at Jazz Collector?

I had now been through the 78s and the last element was to go through the remainder of the LPs that I had left in the original Home Depot boxes. There was a lot of junk in there, and I immediately stuffed a bunch of records into a couple of boxes to donate. But there were also a lot of nice records, not necessarily high-end collectibles of the caliber that I had brought into my apartment, but some great music, great records and many still in their original loose plastic sleeves. There were Cannonball Adderleys on Riverside, Milt Jacksons on Savoy, Miles Davis on Columbia and even a couple of Blue Notes I had somehow missed, including Horace Silver’s Cape Verdean Blues.

At this point, I still hadn’t listened to any of the records. I was up in the country. I pulled out an old favorite to break in the collection, My Favorite Things by John Coltrane. Then Kind of Blue. I did sort of the same thing when I got back to New York and starting playing those records. I started with Tenor Madness, a beautiful New York original pressing, not a mark on it. Then I went to Blue Train, an original pressing, one side New York 23, one side West 63^rd. Absolutely mint, save for the date written on the back by Uncle Bruce, 1-31-58. As of this writing I still haven’t listened to Tommy Flanagan Overseas, or Jackie’s Pal, or Jutta Hipp With Zoot Sims, or Informal Jazz or most of the better collectibles, which are still sitting in crates in the apartment. I plan to go through these records slowly, listening to them one at a time through the winter and into the spring, if I can hold out.

I am near the end of the story of this collection, save for one last element. I would like to know more about Uncle Bruce and the history of the collection itself. Rob was a young child when Uncle Bruce died, so he didn’t have much to share. I could see that Uncle Bruce lived in Milwaukee for a good portion of the time he was buying these records. Some of them had stickers that said:

Radio Doctors: Two Stores
213 W. Wells St. – BR. 6-6422
404 N. Third St. – LO.2-7607
Milwaukee, Wisc.

He then moved to Southern California, because the later records had stickers and stamps from a record store in Compton. In a follow-up e-mail, Rob said that his uncle was named Bruce M. West and he confirmed that he lived in both Milwaukee and Los Angeles. He said he had given my information to his brother and sister and he was hoping that they would reach out to me to share more information about Bruce. If I hear from them, I will write an epilogue to this story.

In the meantime, I think I will always feel some kind of connection to Uncle Bruce in the passion we shared for this great music and also, of course, for the records themselves. He didn’t have the largest collection, but he had some of the most precious and rare records of the era and I am proud to now own them. He obviously cared for these records and kept them in beautiful condition, treating them like the gems that they are. I plan to do the same.

And every time I pull one off the shelf and pull it out of its jacket, I will see the writing with the date on the back, knowing that Bruce M. West had purchased that record on that date, had kept it in its original packaging and had preserved it well, so that when I came upon this very record it would be like new and I could enjoy it with the same love and appreciation that he did 50 or more years ago. And, hopefully, 50 years from now, someone will look at that very same record, with that date carefully written on the back, and put the music on a turntable and feel the same joy and excitement that Bruce and I felt in the time of our lives.

1. Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby, Riverside 399

2. Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, Know What I Mean?, Riverside 433

3. Benny Golson, The Modern Touch, Riverside 256

4. Cannonball Adderley, Live at the Lighthouse, Riverside 344

5. Abbey Lincoln, That’s Him, Riverside 251

Just to confirm my picks, I looked over the Riverside discography, and I’m still comfortable with my selections. My honorable mentions are The Unique Thelonious Monk; Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners; Presenting Ernie Henry and Ernie Henry Seven Standards and a Blues; several more by Evans, most particularly Moonbeams; several more by Adderley, most particularly the Quintet in San Francisco; Wes Montgomery and Milt Jackson, Bags Meets Wes; Johnny Griffin, Studio Jazz Party. I think I’ll leave it at that, lest I include the whole catalogue.

A fun exercise. I invite you all to join in.

How much would you like a John Coltrane autograph? I know I would. This is from the Jazz Record Center: John Coltrane, Bags and Trane, Atlantic 1368. This is listed as an original mono pressing with the red and purple labels — although, for the live of me, I still can’t get the original Atlantics straight once they are past the black labels — but the key to this record is that it is signed by Coltrane, Milt Jackson and Hank Jones. The record and cover appear to be in about VG++ condition. The price is around $750 with more than two days to go. From the same auction is a Jazz at the Philharmonic program from 1956 with a bunch of cool autographs, including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Connie Kay, Milt Jackson, Roy Eldridge and Flip Phillips. There’s one bidder for this one, so far, and the price is $100.

I was browsing through jazz vinyl eBay listings and saw the words “insanely rare” and figured the controversial (at least here at Jazz Collector) seller bobdjukic was back in action, and he is. This insanely rare record happens to actually be insanely rare, if rarity can be coupled with insanity: Jutta Hipp, New Faces, New Sounds From Germany, Blue Note 5056. This is the original 10-inch Blue Note that looks to be in VG++ condition for the record and the cover. The current price is $528 and there are still five days to go. Perhaps we’ll get an insanely rare price for this insanely rare record.