I am not going to reveal the Top Ten list here in this post, but, instead, will wait until I do the actual radio show/podcast, which means I have to figure out the best way to bring the music into the studio. Here is how I’m progressing on that. I realize I have in my collection Japanese versions of Art Blakey Blue Note 4003 and Reddie Redd, Shades of Redd, Blue Note 4045. As for Dexter Gordon Our Man in Paris, Donald Byrd A New Perspective, Art Blakey Buhaina’s Delight, and anything by Horace Silver, I’ve already brought them into the studio and nothing happened, so I’ll be comfortable with them.

John Coltrane Blue Train, I’m not so sure. Maybe a CD, to be on the safe side. Perhaps CDs or alternate versions for a few others  as well. For example, if I were to include anything by Tina Brooks, I have the Mosaic boxed set on vinyl.

In case I go for Sonny Clark, I just ordered The Complete Sonny Clark Blue Note Sessions on Mosaic. It was unavailable for a while and recently made available again. I have no idea how that works, but it’s not an issue for me to worry about.

The Sonny Clark is a CD set. I figure it’s a good one to have in case I ever want to bring any Sonny Clark recordings into the studio for the radio show or if I ever fall into an irreversible coma and my family wants to sell my original copies. Of course, I’d rather them pull the plug on me before selling my original Sonny Clark LPs, but at that point I’ll be in no condition to make any demands. Once the Sonny Clark CD set arrives in the mail, I’ll be able to do the show. Whilst we wait, you are all free to speculate and to include your own lists as well.

“Hi, I am fairly new to jazz vinyl collecting and listening. I have been drawn to the 50’s and 60’s jazz and LOVE your site. Unfortunately so much of this vintage jazz is way out of my budget. I have been buying when and what I can afford. Wanted to share this: This past weekend I was in a vintage shop with my wife and wasn’t sure I would find anything. In the back was a small box with some records. I start flipping through them like I always do when I find records in vintage/antique shops. I run across a Donald Byrd – Royal Flush BLP 4101 original pressing. The vinyl itself is VG in appearance, plays somewhere between VG and VG+ and the cover is VG+. The price on the album was $10. I was elated and couldn’t get the money out of my wallet fast enough! Hope I didn’t bore you. Thanks for your site and keep the posts coming as it is helpful in my jazz education!”

I’m on some mailing promotional lists, although nobody really sends me promo records anymore, with some rare exceptions. Mosaic was nice to me at one point, but I think they didn’t like a review I did on their Rosemary Clooney set, so they stopped returning my calls and emails. I did get a great Monk-Coltrane 3-record set from Craft Recordings but, alas, I put it on my shelf and never reviewed it and now I feel guilty about asking for anything else from their or their publicity agents, who have kept me on their mailing list nonetheless. Which brings me to their latest release, which is the Thelonious Monk Complete 10-inch LP Collection, which is scheduled for release on December 15. This includes all five of Monk’s 10-inch LPs, faithfully reproduced, the promo material says, from the jacket design to the LP labels. This is great music, hey, it’s Monk! Plus, young Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Frank Foster, et al. If you are interested you can pre-order it at Amazon. If you don’t have the originals – or even if you do – this is probably a worthwhile addition to your collection. I may even have to spring for a copy myself.

A reader sent me the following link with the following note: “Looks like Savoy is getting in on the action.” The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, Savoy 12169. This was an original pressing with the blood red label. The record and cover were both listed in M- condition. The final price was $761.11. I am not very familiar with the Sun Ra discography, but I take it this is quite rare. How is the music?

There was also this signed record, noted by one of our readers:

The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing that seems to have Thad’s signature on the upper back on the left. The record and cover were listed in Ex condition and the final price was $1,875.50. Again, not sure if the autograph had a positive or negative impact on the price.

Finally, my friend Jud weighs in with a huge batch of Mosaics that he is selling on eBay. You can check out the listings here. Lots of nice vinyl for auction or very reasonable buy-it-now prices. I still love the original vinyl Mosaics.

There were 11 Mosaic boxed sets. All were left at the dump, most are in mint condition with the CDs, booklets, everything. A few have some minor damage on the boxes. They are, in no particular order other than this is how they are piled up in my room:

The Complete Blue Note Hank Mobley Fifties Sessions
The Complete Black Lion and Vogue Recordings of Thelonious Monk
The Complete Atlantic and EMI Recordings of Shorty Rogers
The Complete Pacific Jazz Recordings of The Chico Hamilton Quintet
The Complete February 1957 Jimmy Smith Blue Note Sessions
The Complete Columbia J.J. Johnson Small Group Sessions
The Complete Blue Note Recordings of Art Blakey’s 1960 Jazz Messengers
The Complete Recordings of the Paul Desmond Quartet with Jim Hall
The Complete Capitol and Atlantic Recordings of Jimmy Giuffre
Oliver Nelson: The Argo, Verve and Impulse Big Band Studio Sessions
The Complete Arto/Mercury/Art Farmer/Benny Golson/Jazztet Sessions

There were also four boxed sets from the Mosaic Select Series:

The Mosaic Select Art Pepper
Mosaic Select Paul Chambers
Mosaic Select Andrew Hill
Mosaic Select McCoy Tyner

There were also these various boxed sets:

Bill Evans: The Complete Riverside Recordings
Miles Davis, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 on Columbia
The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings
Ella Fitzgerald, Twelve Nights in Hollywood
Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings, 1944-1948
Keith Jarrett: The Impulse Years, 1973-1974
Dave Brubeck,  Time Signatures: A Career Retrospective

In addition to these, I kept about 75 individual CDs, which I haven’t really gone through yet. I don’t think there’s anything collectible in there, but there’s certainly good music. I’m very excited about the boxed sets because of the packaging and all that goes with it. No to mention that they were FREE! Not sure what I’m going to do with the other CDs yet, but it certainly made sense to me to take them rather than just leave them there.  I can go through them at my leisure, assuming I will have leisure when my current workload starts to level off.

So I go in and look down and right in front of me there are four boxes filled with CDs. I could see right off the bat that one of them was an Impulse, so I was thinking, “jazz?” Then I looked to the right. The sight was unmistakable, the black boxes, the classic simple typeface, the photo of Hank Mobley holding his tenor. There was a pile of Mosaic boxed sets. Then, another glance to the right. A crate with several more Mosaics, plus, clearly, the teal boxed set of the Bill Evans Complete Riverside Recordings. All just sitting there on the floor.

I sought out the woman who keeps the place neat and is sort of a manager. I said, “Can I take these?” “Of course,” she replied. “That’s what they’re here for.” Then she added, “You know you’re pretty lucky. Somebody dropped those off about five minutes before you got here.”

I felt the familiar rush of adrenaline surging through my body. These were all CDs, no vinyl, but still, Mosaic boxed sets and who knows what else. I quickly grabbed the Mosaics and the Evans set and loaded them into the car, and told Marty the dog to relax, we may be here for a while. Then I went back to the shack, got down on the floor and started wading through hundreds of CDs. There were more boxed sets: Ella in Hollywood, The Mosaic Select Art Pepper, the Complete Coltrane on Impulse. Plus many, many more CDs. I thought it impolite to just take them all home, so I went through the whole batch, which wasn’t so easy since I thought I was just going to the dump and didn’t even bother taking my glasses.

All in all, there were 11 Mosaic boxes, the Evans, and probably 75-100 more CDs. Free. They are sitting in my office here in the country as I write this. I’m hoping to go through them later to see what I have and I’ll do another post, later today or tomorrow morning.

Oh, yes. And I’m heading back to the dump as soon as they open. Maybe the same guy decided to get rid of his vinyl today.

One: I happen to be a huge fan of Rosemary Cooney—not her work in the 1950s when she was a pop icon, but the series of albums she made for Concord Jazz starting in 1977 and ending with her death in 2002. These, in fact, are some of my favorite vocal records in my collection, particularly Everything’s Coming Up Rosie, Here’s to My Lady, Rosie Sings Bing, For the Duration, and Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Irving Berlin. I like them all, to be honest. It helps that on these albums she is typically accompanied by top-flight jazz artists such as Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, Nat Pierce, John Oddo, Chuck Israels and many others too numerous to name. But it’s not the accompaniment that knocks me out. It’s the singer. The simple, clear, moving and heartfelt presentations of the songs, each one sung as if the singer had lived and experienced them deeply—and had also experienced quite a bit of life along the way. Which, of course, was exactly the case with Rosemary Clooney.

Two: I felt compelled to write about this set because I wanted to share my appreciation for Rosemary Clooney and, to be perfectly honest, because I felt an obligation to Mosaic. In all the time I’ve been doing Jazz Collector, going back to 2002 when I used to send out e-mail newsletters, I’ve rarely, if ever, actually requested review copies of anything. But when I saw the notice for this release, I decided to reach out to Mosaic and ask for a copy to review, which they were very kind to send me.

I wanted this set because it was a collection of small group recordings and I was curious to see if they would expose something new to me, something that would perhaps serve as a bridge from the kitschy pop singer I was familiar with from the 1950s to the jazz-infused recordings of her later years. The answer is a qualified yes. The singing on these records is quite reminiscent of the later Clooney. The voice itself is actually stronger with more range, but it doesn’t quite have that lived-in feeling of the later records. But this is clearly a singer of exceptional ability and depth, singing songs from the Great American Songbook, and a little bit beyond. So, from that standpoint, I highly recommend this set if, like me, you are a fan of the Concord records.

Where the set disappoints, from the jazz enthusiast’s viewpoint, is in the arrangements, by Buddy Cole. They are definitely of their time, very ’50s, very tight, very pop, very much designed for background music, which, was in all likelihood the expectation for these recordings, which were put out, after all, for the radio. Nothing too daring and, for me, a bit too much organ, celeste and harpsichord as opposed to piano. Also, with 104 songs and the same arranger/musicians for all of them, there is a certain sameness after a while. It’s interesting to me that the best jazz music of the same era — think Coltrane, Rollins, Kind of Blue, among others — seems absolutely fresh today, while this kind of pop sounds dated, except, of course, for the singer, who is marvelous.

The highlights of the set, for me, tend to be the ballads—The Nearness of You is playing in the background as I type this and the singing is lovely—as well as some of the songs Clooney subsequently recorded for Concord. These include, among many others, Everything Happens to Me, Cheek to Cheek, There Will Never Be Another You and a gorgeous version of But Not For Me (unfortunately, without the verse). As always, the Mosaic set is meticulously produced, with a 16-page booklet loaded with details, photos and context, written by James Gavin. This is a limited edition of 5,000.

Kenny Burrell — To Preserve ‘America’s Gift to the World’ A Jazz Elder Becomes a UCLA Professor

This is an interesting article on Kenny Burrell and his longtime commitment to jazz education. Definitely worth a read.

Max Roach — Relevatory Archive of a Giant of Jazz

Interesting stuff. At their peak the Brown-Roach Quintet was making $500 total for two nights at Basin Street, $900 for six days at the Cafe Bohemia. Today, there are single copies of records recorded at the Cafe Bohemia that sell for more than that.

Roland Kirk — The Limelight/Verve Years

This is a limited edition LP box set. The email containing the reminiscence by Michael Cuscuna caught my eye. I, too, was a big fan of Roland Kirk and I used to go to see him whenever he would play at the Village Vanguard or any other venue in the city. He was always much better live than on record, for whatever reasons. Of all his records, I think the one that best captures him is the live side on Volunteered Slavery from Newport. Anyway, I noticed this because I’m a Kirk fan and because it seems like Mosaic is back to putting out albums on vinyl, which pleases me. When they stopped issuing vinyl a few years ago, I stopped buying their sets. Anyway, this is the note from Cuscuna that got my attention. I’m sure Mosaic won’t mind me repeating it here. If they object, I’ll take it down.

“When I was about 15 years old, I wrote Roland Kirk a fan latter. I was fascinated by his odd, antique saxophones and his ability to play three of them together. After a return letter from Roland’s wife Edith, I began going down to see him at the Five Spot on St. Marks Place. Those nights at The Five Spot are burned into my mind. Roland was fluent in all things music; there was no time lapse between what came into his quick, creative mind and what came out of his array of saxophones, flutes and noise makers. Watching him play “Mood Indigo” on three saxophones was as musical as it was extraordinary, but hearing him wail on tenor sax, steeped in the traditions of Don Byas and Johnny Griffin was just as amazing. Every set he played was an adventure for him as well as for the audience.

“Each was an overwhelming and joyous event, not because he would play two and three reed instruments simultaneously, which he did with amazing skill and very musical results, but because he was living encyclopedia of jazz; all types of music just poured out of him like a gusher. He was an ever-thinking force of energy who swept the audience up into his orbit. The Five Spot was his living room and he made everyone feel like a welcome guest.

“One night early in our acquaintance, I brought Roland a burned out saxello (similar to a manzello) that I found in the music shop where my saxophone was repaired. He was charmed by this and soon I’d spend afternoons in his Central Park West apartment on Saturdays or Sundays when I was going in to New York to make the rounds of jazz clubs. I treasured those afternoon tutorials with his impressive record collection and his lectures on such underrated artists as Lucky Thompson, Don Byas and Johnny Griffin. Roland was gracious with his time and attention and I think he was responding to the love of jazz and the eagerness to learn that he sensed in me.

“Unlike most musical artists, Roland was an avid collector who listened to and absorbed everything. He was notorious for calling labels and requesting promotional (i.e. free) copies of their latest releases. If one called him to say hello, one might get this response: “Did you hear “Fire Music”? What the hell is Archie Shepp doing recording “The Girl From Ipanema”?” to “Have you heard “Ascension”? I think Trane may have gone too far!”

“On my first visit, he gave me a copy of his latest Mercury album “Roland Kirk Meets The Benny Golson Orchestra.” He talked excitedly about his forthcoming project, an all-flute album for weeks leading up to the session. I happened to call him on the evening after that recording and he was absolutely jubilant. His next recording is still considered his greatest by many (including me). For the first time, he was going to record with an all-star trio rather than his working group. Jaki Byard and Richard Davis had already proven to be a divine duo on Booker Ervin’s “Freedom Book” and Elvin Jones, well, is Elvin Jones.

While “Slightly Latin” and “Now Please Don’t Cry, Beautiful Edith” are excellent albums, “I Talk With Spirits” and “Rip, Rig And Panic” were two of Roland’s proudest moments in a recording studio and remains two peaks among his many achievements. It was an honor to know and learn from Roland and it gives me great satisfaction to shine the spotlight on these mid-sixties recordings.

– Michael Cuscuna

its piece of the action above and beyond the selling price. In this case, the auction house was getting 17 percent, so if you won an item for $100 you were actually paying $117 for it. I had my eye on a few choice items: There were two Kenny Burrell Blue Notes with Andy Warhol covers; a couple of other Burrell Blue Notes; Donald Byrd on Blue Note; Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness; Grant Green Blue Notes; McLean’s Scene by Jackie McLean on New Jazz; and a bunch of lots of anywhere from 2-3 records all the way up to 60-plus records.

There were two things I noticed about this type of auction: 1. It’s very easy to get caught up in the frenzy. It’s not like eBay, when you know you are competing against the whole world. Here there were just 30-40 bidders altogether, including those on line, and I just assumed that I would be at least as knowledgeable as anyone else and that the prices wouldn’t get crazy because it would probably be mostly dealers looking to resell the records either online or in stores. At least that was what I assumed. 2. When you get caught up in the frenzy of the bidding, it is also easy to forget that there is also a 17% surcharge, so you can have a tendency to overbid, which I may have done in a couple of cases.

The first part of the auction were a few autographs that didn’t interest me and a few Mosaic boxed sets that I already own. I thought I might bid on the Mosaics if the prices were low enough, but they weren’t. For instance, the Monk Blue Note Mosiac set sold for $85, with the records in M- condition and the box in VG condition. When you add the 17 percent, the price was about $100, plus shipping, so it was a good price but not something worth buying as a second copy.

Then came the Burrells. First up was Blue Note 1596, Blue Lights Volume 1. This was an original pressing in VG+ condition for the record and the cover. Understand that the condition to which I’m referring was what was listed in the book. The people physically on site had a big advantage because they could see if the record was either over-graded or under-graded. This one sold for $350, plus the 17 percent, so the actual cost was more than $400. This was no bargain if the record was really in VG+ condition. At this point, I realized that my dream of finding good records at cheap prices in this auction was probably not going to happen. Next up was Blue Lights Volume 2, Blue Note 1597. This was listed in a little better condition and sold for $230. A good price, but still a little rich for my blood. Next was Introducing Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1523, an original Lexington Avenue pressing, M- for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The price was $325. Reasonable, yes; bargain, no.

Now I was starting to get a little antsy: I had been mentally prepared to purchase some records, I had inconvenienced the auction house by having them call me on the phone, and I hadn’t yet even made a reasonable bid for any of the items. So, of course, feeling a little guilty, I started to press a bit. And when you press, you sometimes do things that are not quite wise, which is what I did next. What did I do? Stay tuned for Part 2.