This week’s theme: Welcoming in 2025, Part 2. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Ella Fitzgerald, Oliver Nelson, Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Shorty Rogers, Art Pepper, Miles Davis, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and many more.

These remaining Thelonious Monk albums are from his close friend Ornette Coleman’s personal collection. I’m Ornette’s step-daughter, Dee Dee – and retrieved them when my mother died in 1995. They lived together – (with me, early on!) – going back to his earliest 1959 arrival in NYC, in a close relationship spanning 30 years.

She had quite a history in this music, not the least of which was booking (including the Five Spot Café and Town Hall gigs), publicity/promotion for both Monk and Ornette, and international publishing contracts for their compositions, which still generate royalties for the Monk family.

I’ve uncovered documentation, personal letters and original sheet music in his handwriting, a music stand, metronome, a fat scrapbook of clippings from 1959 forward . . . and so much more.

It’s now urgently the time to find a home for the historic value it all contains. Some is being donated to Jazz Foundation of America for their good work, but if anyone has serious interest in knowing more, please contact me immediately:

dee@creativemusicphotography.com

The entire collection is currently in Vermont, but other arrangements are possible.

Jazz LPs and Memorabilia

Additionally, I’ve worked documenting historic jazz, Brazilian, and Latin musicians since 1964 as a formally trained (Herb Snitzer) art photographer.

I have an AUTOGRAPHED Edition of one original silver gelatin print available here:

Autographed Edition – Images, Prices, and Exposure Data

My personal vinyl collection of historic Brazilian and Afro-Cuban/Latin albums can be viewed here – with some accompanying images:

Latin & Brazilian Record Collection

Dee had already been in contact with a guy who has a record store in Maine. He was disappointed that I wound up with the records. He had no way to know and didn’t realize, I’m sure, I had no intention of keeping them all. Dee put him in touch with me and we arranged for him to come to The Berkshires and make an offer for whatever he wanted. We struck a deal and he took about  220 records, including many of the rock and blues records. There were probably about 400 jazz records left. I reached out to a friend who owns a record store around here and invited him to take a look and make an offer. He came, but didn’t take anything. He did, however, bring a friend who did buy a few choice items, including the two Monk Blue Notes, which, for the record, were not original pressings but early West 63^rd labels.

At that point, I didn’t really know what to do. I had reached out to one of our loyal readers immediately when I got the collection, but he was only interested in a few items and I put them aside for him. Then on Dec. 12, I dropped a hint on Jazz Collector. In viewing records on eBay, as I do, I wrote this:

“Let’s start with Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz To Come, Atlantic 1317. This is a deep groove pressing, unplayed, still with its original loose sleeve. The start price is around $200 and the auction closes today with no bidders. This record caught my eye because in my other room just down the hall I have a copy of this record still with its original seal unopened. Oh, yes, and the record happened to be owned by Ornette himself. Oh, yes, and it is part of a collection that I recently purchased and am looking to sell in toto. Intrigued? I will be providing more details soon, because, as always, there was an adventure and a story that goes with it. In the meantime, if anyone is interested you know where to find me.”

I received 5-6 responses to this hint that I dropped. But that turned out to be enough. I worked out a deal with another one of our loyal readers and wound up selling him everything that was left. He got a good deal with some great records and, in the end, I did wind up getting my money back and a little bit more for Dee.

As I reach the end of telling this story, I realize this account is lacking in some of the usual specifics: more record titles, condition, who ended up with the records. There are a few reasons for this lack. I never did write anything down. I don’t remember all of the records I had. There was a Jackie McLean Blue Note and a Freddie Redd Blue Note (not Shades of Redd, unfortunately). There was a New Jersey Sonny Rollins Plus Four. A few Monk records that Dee asked me to put aside. A lot of Ornette records. Blue Train, of course. Several later pressing of Miles on Columbia and Coltrane on Impulse.

It seemed like the records slipped through my hands before I had a chance to really enjoy them or even play them. I am also careful with details out of respect to everyone involved, including Dee, the dealer from Maine, and, of course, the two loyal Jazz Collector readers who ended up with small and large portions of the collection. However, to Dee and anyone else mentioned here directly or tangentially, even The Lovely Mrs. JC, I offer, as always, the option to comment on this post, or write a post of your own.

Separately, I once again want to remind you all that Dee still has this incredible collection of one-of-a kind photographs, some signed by the artists, and she is still looking to sell them. Plus she has other memorabilia as well. If you are interested, you know where to find me, and now you know where to find Dee.

I’ve asked Dee if she would like to have her own post to put an exclamation point on this particular adventure and I am hoping she takes me up on that offer. In the meantime, she sent the following note with today’s set of pictures.

“These artist captures should be mentioned as Ornette’s long-time band mates, photographed during his own appearances. Bobby Bradford, and Charlie Haden, in an Autographed Edition of one original vintage silver gelatin 8 X 10” print, made by the photographer within one year of exposure. Also, Bobby Bradford lived with ME, my aunt (his partner), ORNETTE, and my mother for several years in their joint 150 West 15^th Street apartment during those early years. That is where the piano Monk woke me up to play late nights was also living!”

It was a Thursday when I went to Dee’s, the week before the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. Before I left Dee’s with my five records and four-hour drive, we had one last conversation as I was getting into my car. For a variety of reasons, Dee needed to sell the records by the Spring, hopefully in the May/June time frame. She was concerned that Spring would come and she would still have the records. I told her not to worry; if she still had the records in the Spring, I would drive back, pay her a fair price and take the records so she wouldn’t have to be concerned. She offered on the spot for me to take them all, sell them at my own pace and then pay her later. She was obviously comfortable placing a lot of trust in me, but I politely declined. I didn’t want that much responsibility, tempting as it may have been.

So I reiterated my offer to come back in the Spring, if necessary. I was hoping to be Plan B, and she would find another buyer in the meantime. I would like to think that my motivation in making this proposal was just to help her out; but, perhaps, there was a part of me that just really wanted the records. Who in his right mind passes up a clean copy of Blue Train in our weird world of Jazz Collectors?

On Friday, The Lovely Mrs. JC was taking the train up from New York, as she often does, because I like to spend as much time in The Berkshires as possible, and she has a full time psychotherapy practice in New York. We went out for dinner and I told her about Dee. I said I was concerned because she was very particular about handling the records and that she had a beautiful home and, no offense to any of you out there, I wasn’t all that confident other record guys would be as sensitive and careful as I had been.

Just saying.

Then I told The Lovely Mrs. JC about that last conversation, the one about driving back in the Spring, and she had an idea. If Dee was concerned about the records, why didn’t I just offer her the same amount I would offer in the Spring and take the records now. I realize that this qualifies the Lovely Mrs. JC for the Wife Hall of Fame, but it really did happen this way, or close to this way. Maybe it was my idea to get the records now and she approved it? In any case, I walked away from dinner with a plan.

I sent Dee a note the next day and she was, in her words, “rendered speechless, almost unheard-of!” Clearly, she was in favor of the idea. So the following Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, there I was, once again in my car, this time with 20 empty record boxes and a pocketful of cash, heading back to her rural Vermont mountaintop, prepared to drive back home with 20 full record boxes.

I realize, as I am telling this story, that there is one aspect I’ve left out. Dee had lived with Ornette Coleman for many years of her childhood. She was the inspiration for the song “Dee Dee” on the Blue Note Album “Live at the Golden Circle, Stockholm, Volume 1.” Many of these records belonged to Ornette. It was hard for me to tell exactly which ones, because some were Dee’s records, some were Ornette’s and some belonged to Dee’s mother. In any case, there were multiple copies of many of Ornette’s classics, including “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” “Change of the Century,” “This is Our Music,” and many others, including both volumes of “Live at the Golden Circle.”

I also have to tell you that I had no intent or interest in making money on this collection. I am not on eBay and haven’t sold records for years. My real writing job keeps me busy enough, too busy most of the time. My goal was to take a few records for myself and sell the rest. I hoped and expected to get back the money I had given Dee. I also told her that anything above that, I would not keep for myself but would give to her. She insisted that I take whatever I deemed was fair compensation for my time/expenses/efforts. She also shared that she’s always been squeamish about receiving “gifts,” including innumerable refused attempts by Ornette since she’d known him (beginning in approximately 1960).

Anyway, the day before Thanksgiving, late in the evening, I found myself with crates of records sitting in my home here in The Berkshires with no particular plan for what I was going to do with them. What happened next? Stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy a few more great autographed photos from Dee’s portfolio.

It was probably mid-November when I made my way north to Dee’s. She lives up, up, up a mountain and, with the early snow in that part of the world, I was fortunate to have a four-wheel drive vehicle, otherwise there may have been no story to tell at all. Dee has this fantastic house that she designed and helped build, with views overlooking the mountains, and everything in the home is bursting with creativity and creative energy, including furniture that she also designed. Not to mention the vinyl.

Dee and I got along right off the bat, as you can probably tell. We’re around the same age and we both love jazz, so that was a good start. She told me a bit of her life story, I told her a bit of mine, we chatted, I got a brief tour of the house and then we went to the room with the records. There were 5-6 long shelves with records, I guessed about 1,000 or 1,200 records in all. They were not all jazz records. There were classical, a little rare gospel and blues, and a big section of contemporary Latin and Brazilian – her own carefully curated collection.

I told her I needed to check the records for condition and to determine whether they were original pressings. Otherwise I wouldn’t know if I wanted them, the value, etc. I told her I didn’t needed to look at each record, but the ones on Blue Note, Prestige, Riverside, etc. would be of most interest to me. She wanted to be the one to initially handle them for my  evaluating their condition, and clearly expressed feelings of protective care, as the  “friends and relations” she had so long considered them to be. She had not only personally spoken with and known many of the artists, but had either photographed or played music with some.

So we came up with a plan. I would pull the records I was interested in so that they were sticking out on the shelf. She would handle them to show them to me and I would write down details, i.e., whether it was an original pressing, condition, etc. I was fine with that. I started in the Monk section and pulled out a bunch of records, Riversides, two Prestiges, both Blue Notes. The pianists were grouped together, and there was also a Bud Powell Blue Note and a few interesting Bill Evans Riverside. Some of the covers weren’t in great condition, but most were fine.

Gradually I came to another shelf and spotted Blue Train. As I pulled it out, I mentioned that this could be a really good one if it was an original. Then I came to the Clifford Brown Memorial album on Blue Note and said the same thing.  From then on Dee (grinning with mischievous glee!) wanted me to say “ding, ding, ding!” whenever I pulled out one of the higher value records. So I started doing that. Now, when I’ve told this part of the story to my friends and family, they thought it was funny, me standing there pulling records and going “ding, ding, ding!” For me, however, it didn’t feel unusual and I was happy to do it. It had the added value of giving me a sense of how many “ding, ding, ding” records I might be interested for myself.

We came to the end and there were probably about 50 records total that I had pulled out. We sat down for tea and amiably chatted some more. That’s when told me more about her photos (and showed me) and how she had access to all of those great musicians.

Loyal readers will probably find it hard to believe what happened next, but it’s true: I only pulled out five records for myself. They were a Freddie Hubbard on Blue Note, a blue label of Monk’s Brilliant Corners, the Kenny Burrell/Jimmy Raney on Prestige and a couple of others. I made a fair offer for these records and Dee accepted it.

The Blue Train was West 63^rd with no New York 23, so it was an early pressing, but not a first pressing.  The Clifford was also a West 63rd second pressing. They were both in nice condition. There were also original pressings of several other top-flight records, but I already owned copies. I was very happy to give Dee a sense of their retail value so she didn’t get ripped off by somebody else.

I took my five records and left, driving four hours straight home.

But that’s not the end of the story.

To be continued, but before doing so, a quick note about the photos: These are all Dee’s, all originals, all personal. I’m posting pictures of a lot of them, but there are more at her web site: creativemusicphotography.com. Also, I’ve updated Part One of this tale with a more complete set of the Count Basie autographed pictures, so you should pay another visit to Another Adventure, Part 1: Ornette, Monk, Dee and Me to see those.

Bob must have acquired a pretty nice jazz collection, because there are several other nice items on his auction list, including Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia 1355. This is an original white label promo copy that looks to be in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. There are already 33 bids and the current price is at $520.

Then there is Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This one is listed as an original pressing, although it is not quite because it does not have the New York 23 labels, so it is an early West 63^rd Street pressing, still rare and still valuable, but not what Blue Note collectors and aficionados deem to be “original.” This one looks to be in VG+ condition for the record and VG+ or VG++ for the cover. The bidding is at $580, with the auction closing tomorrow.

There was that copy of Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz To Come, Atlantic 1317. This was in unplayed condition and still in its original seal. The ask price was about $200 and the record did not get any bids. I still owe you all the story of how I came to have a copy of this record and a broader piece of Ornette’s collection in my home, and I am slowly reaching the denouemount of this story, which will likely take place early in the new year, when I will be unencumbered by records and other restrictions and free to tell the complete end-to-end story.

I’m still intrigued by the original Esquire pressings of the Prestige records, but the prices have skyrocketed since we’ve been watching them and they are now out of my comfortable reach. Here’s another one: Art Taylor, Taylor’s Tenors, Esquire 32-149. This was an original pressing, such as it is, since the original original was in the U.S. The record looked to be in M- condition and the cover was VG+. The final price was about $300. Here’s another with a great cover: Relaxin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet, Esquire 32-068. This one was listed in “very good” condition, although I get the sense that the actual record may have been what we would think of as VG+ or even better. I think the seller used “very good” as a catch-all as opposed to an “official” grade that we would take from Goldmine. This one sole for about $140, so perhaps the buyer did well if my grading theory is correct.

On to the mail.

This is from Tim:

I’m looking for info about a record. I have a 45 rpm single and was wondering if it is the first record released that features Herbie Hancock. I would imagine it was pressed and released prior to the LP (1961 “Out Of This World” album by the ?Pepper Adams ?Donald Byrd Quintet), which is normally considered to be his recording debut. I haven’t been able to find others for sale online nor much information about the single. But wouldn’t this be Herbie Hancock’s first released recording (as opposed to the LP)? Here is the information I have about the single (it’s also described to some degree on Discogs):
Artist: ?Pepper Adams ?Donald Byrd Quintet
Side 1
MR. LUCKY THEME
(From the TV Show “Mr. Lucky”)
(Mancini)
Runout: 61 WA 70 (handwritten)
Side 2
IT’S A BEAUTIFUL EVENING
(Wayne – Rasch)
Runout: 61 WA 71 (handwritten)
Warwick Records M650
Recorded March 2, 1961
Released 1961
“Bell Sound” is stamped in cursive lettering in the runout on both sides, indicating that the lacquer was cut at Bell Sound Studios. Thanks for any help you might have.

This is from Japhy:

Hi Al,
I have a question that perhaps readers could assist with. Regarding the various Blue Note inner sleeves, is there a general window where a span of catalog numbers should have X sleeve, then the next span of catalog numbers should have X sleeve, etc.? I suspect it might get a little messy when you start getting into the Liberty era.

I ask because I have a bunch of Blue Notes without BN inners, as well as a bunch that I’m sure have the wrong BN inner in it. Then, I have a stack of unused BN sleeves and I’d like to try to finally get the right sleeve with the right record.

This is from our old friend Daryl:

When my friend showed me this original Blue Note Catalog, I freaked out a little. I think you should post it for the Blue Note freakazoids who follow your post. While I loved it, I could not make it work for a purchase: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-Note-Records-1956-Catalog-Brochure-Miles-Davis-Thelonious-Monk/372667237564?hash=item56c4b2c4bc:g:NioAAOSwCcBc1EXj

This one looks appealing, particularly since I still don’t have an original pressing:

J.R. Monterose, The Message, Jaro 5004. This is an original promo copy. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover looks around VG with some damage. The bidding is in the $150 range with less than two days left on the auction.

This is from the “get-a-clue” department: Introducing Lee Morgan, Savoy 12091. This is clearly a second or third pressing, with the maroon labels and later cover. The seller would like at least $900 for this copy. Good luck. I don’t usually bother with these silly listings, but for some reason I’m in the mood this morning. Here’s another: Art Hodes Hot Seven, Blue Note 7015. This is an original pressing and it looks to be in nice condition, maybe M- for both the record and the cover. The start price is $439. Someone should probably tell the seller that the 10-inch Blue Notes in the swing/trad genre don’t fetch quite the same sums as the bebop records. But we’ll keep an eye on the auction nonetheless. You never know what will happen.

Ornette Coleman, Change of the Century, Atlantic 1327. This was an original pressing with the black label. I haven’t seen that many black label pressings of this record, but I never considered it to be that much of a collectible. Perhaps I need to change my perspective. This copy was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $449.

I had mentioned these two in an earlier post: Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This was an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,291. Cannonball Adderley, Somethin’ Else, Blue Note 1595. This was also an original pressing in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $751.

This one, from a different seller, fetched quite a nice price:

Jackie McLean, New Soil, Blue Note 4013. This was an original mono pressing listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $787.