From there I was interested in more Sonny but from a later period, and turned to Sonny Rollins, What’s New, RCA 2576, specifically If Ever I Would Leave you. Some great guitar by Jim Hall and very percussive Rollins. Did you know that this was the first album in the U.S. that featured the term Bossa Nova? From 1962, and the cover on my record actually as a stamp that states “Bossa Nova.” The liner notes describe “a new beat that will be heard often again as fresh elements continue to be absorbed into the ever-bubbling world of jazz.” The idea of something new and fresh got me thinking about Monk and now I’m listening to Thelonious Monk  Criss-Cross, Columbia 2038.  I know the Monk Prestiges, Blue Notes and Riversides are the collectibles, but for my money this is the Monk record I’d want if I was stuck on a desert Island and could only choose one. It’s from the mid-1960s and features Monk in a relaxed setting with his regular quartet of Charlie Rouse, Frankie Dunlop and John Ore. This album features a mix of Monk swingers, such as Hackensack and Rhythm-A-Ning, a beautiful version of Crepuscule  With Nellie and even a couple of standards, Don’t Blame Me and Tea for Two.

That’s my listening day so far. What about you? What would you put on if you had a couple of hours to kill on a lazy day? If you reply, I’ll automatically put your name in the contest next time we give away a free record, which will be before the end of the year.

Joe Newman, I’m Still Swinging, RCA 1198. This is the one with the Andy Warhol cover. As we noted in an earlier post, this sold recently on eBay for $200. This one’s current price is $16.50.

Art Taylor, Taylor’s Tenors, Prestige New Jazz 8219. This is an original pressing with the purple label and it seems to be in nice condition. Offered by Atomic Records, which is one of the larger jazz dealers on eBay.

Zoot Sims, Zoot!, Riverside 228. This is an original pressing with the white label in nice condition. Current price is only around $30. That’s pretty low. It’ll be interesting to see how high it goes up.

Hank Mobley, The Turnaround, Blue Note 4186. This is an original pressing with the New York USA label.

Oh, and we almost forgot our own listings: 

The Complete Lee Morgan Fifties Blue Note Sessions, Mosaic MQ6-162.

Miles Davis, The Complete Plugged Nickel Sessions, Mosaic MQ10-158.

Red Garland, All Kinds of Weather, Prestige 7148. This is an original yellow label pressing with the New Jersey address in M- condition. Price: $385. I’ve never quite figured out which Red Garland records sell for the highest prices, and why. So, if anyone out there has the answer, please post a comment.

Here’s an interesting one: Paul Chambers, Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1534. What’s interesting is that this was not an original pressing: The original pressing on this has the Lexington Avenue address, and this copy had the West 63rd street address. So it was not original and it was only in VG condition, yet it still sold for $124.50.

Ben Webster, Soulville, Verve 8274. This was an original pressing with the trumpeter logo in M- condition and sold for $190.09. That’s a pretty nice price for a Ben Webster on Verve. This was sold by

the dealer ofvinylinterest, which describes it as part of the noted $3 million eBay auction of what was billed as “The World’s Greatest Record Collection.” I’ll send them a note and find out more about what they’re willing to say about this collection. Based on this item and some others, the records seem to be in very nice condition. 

Here’s a beauty and a high price to match: Louis Smith, Blue Note 1594. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd address in M- condition. Price: $1,514

Not all nice collectible records have to be expensive. Here’s a great record at a reasonable price: Stan Getz, Award Winner, Verve 8296. This was an original pressing with the trumpeter logo. Price: $60.50

Here’s one we mentioned earlier: Herbie Nichols, Blue Note 1519. This was an original with the Lexington Avenue address in M- condition. Price: $446

And a few more: Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington, Riverside 201. This was an original white label pressing with the original cover in M-/VG++ condition. Price: $348.50

Jackie McLean, The New Tradition, Ad Lib 6601. This was VG+/VG+. Price: $700

Count Basie, RCA 1112. This was an original pressing with the cover by Andy Warhol. The record was VG- and the cover was VG. Price: $161.38

Paul Chambers Quintet, Blue Note 1564. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd label in M- condition. I had predicted it would sell for more than $1,000. I was close — the actual price was $898.88.

Jackie McLean, A Long Drink of the Blues, Prestige New Jazz 8253. I‘ve always loved the second side of this LP, with Jackie in a quartet setting doing Embraceable You, I Cover the Waterfront and These Foolish things. This particular copy of the record is an original, but not in great condition. Sometimes, if the price is right, it makes sense to bid on something like this, hoping that the record sounds better than it looks. In any case, this is a record worth looking at and it’s also worth looking at some of the other items from this seller this weekend.  A few weeks ago we wrote about a Joe Newman record selling for a high price because of a cover illustration by Andy Warhol. Now here’s another album with a Warhol cover, Count Basie, RCA 1112. This is being sold by Atomic Records, one of the largest eBay jazz sellers.

 To be honest, I’ve had this record for years and I’ve always loved the cover, but never realized it was by Warhol. We collectors often associate the Warhol covers with the Blue Notes, such as the Kenny Burrells and the Johnny Griffin.  I pulled out my copy of this record and there’s no Warhol signature that I can find, but I have no doubt it’s the real deal. It has a similar feel to the Billie Holiday covers he did for Clef. In any case, the Warhol cover will be driving the price of this record, which is already at $89, a level at which you don’t often see any Basie LPs.

Another classic jazz collectible on tap this weekend is this one, Thelonious Monk Plays the Music of Duke Ellington, Riverside 201. This is an original pressing with the white label and the first cover, very rare. This looks to be in very nice condition from a reputable dealer who also has some other nice collectibles on sale this weekend. My personal story on this record: I’ve never had it with the original cover and I saw it at the Jazz Record Center in New York for $100. This was a more than fair price at the time, but I still passed and haven’t seen it ever again in that condition for that price. 

There are still of lot of other interesting LPs to watch this weekend, and we’ll do at least one or two more posts before we head off into the world of NFL football on Sunday afternoon.

Here’s an LP by Joe Newman that recently went for more than $200 on eBay. Not quite what you’d expect from the RCA label. The catch is that the cover art was designed by Andy Warhol. I happen to have a spare copy of this record. If anyone’s interested, comment here and I’ll post the condition and price.

For those of you keeping score at home, here are some of the items we’ve been watching on eBay:

Tal Farlow, The Tal Farlow Album, Norgran 1047. This is an autographed copy in M-/M- condition. Price: $249.95.  This was one of those records I planned to bid on but figured the price would go too high because of the condition of the LP and the presence of the autograph. The first bid was $249.95 and I expected it to go way up from there. But nobody else bid, including me.

The Farlow record was from the seller Jazz5060. We’ve been watching this seller because he consistently has good records on eBay. Here are a couple more, one already sold, one that failed to meet its reserve price and one coming up over the next day or so.

Sonny Stitt, Jazz At the Hi Hat, Roost 418. This was an original 10-inch LP in M-/VG++ condition. Price: $224.50

This is one from Jazz5060 that failed to meet its reserve price:

The Rene Thomas/Bobby Jaspar Quintet, RCA 10324. This was in M-/VG++ condition and fetched a top bid of $493 but did not sell.

Also, Jazz5060 has some great items coming up, including this one:

Dexter Gordon, Doin’ Allright, Blue Note 4077

Here are some other items we were watching:

Billie Holiday at Jazz At the Philharmonic, Clef 169. This is a 10-inch LP with the Andy Warhol/David Stone Martin cover. Price $329. This failed to get many early bids and was in the $70 range about an hour before it closed.

Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes, The Jazz Couriers, Tempo 15. This is an original pressing in near mint condition. Price: $669.76

Freddie Redd, The Connection, Blue Note 84027. This is a stereo pressing with the West 63^rd Street address in M-/M- condition. Price: $225

Another seller we’ve been closely watching is JBLD44000. Here are a couple of items he did not sell. You can expect to see these back on eBay with lower start prices.

Donald Byrd, Byrd Blows on Beacon Hill, Transition 17. This is an original pressing in M- condition with the booklet. Start price was $875 with no bids

Fran Thorne, Piano Reflections Volume 2, Transition 27. This is an original pressing in M- condition without the booklet. Start price was $550 with no bids

Here are some items from JBLD44000 that did sell:

Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This is an original LP in M-/M- condition. Price $2,150.60

Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House Volume 2, Blue Note 1516. This is an original LP with the Lexington Ave. address in M-/M- condition. Price: $900

Cecil Taylor, Jazz Advance, Transition 19. This is an original pressing in M-/VG+ condition with a mint booklet. Price: $765.50

Jazz At Columbus Ave., Transition 2. This is an original pressing in M-/M- condition with the booklet. Price: $812

We’ve got a lot more records to watch for you this weekend. Keep an eye out for our newsletter tomorrow. See you then. — Al

As we go through records preparing to sell them on eBay, we always seem to find a few that fail to list the accompanying musicians. When this happens, we go through our source material to try to fill in the blanks. Among the resources we use most often are The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, which we have on CD-ROM; various Internet sites, such as The All Music Guide; plus several discographies we have in our collection, including those for Blue Note, Savoy, Prestige, Verve, Clef and Norgran.

Whenever we find this information we will post it on the Website. So here are some of our recent findings:

Billie Holiday, Songs for Distingue Lovers, Verve 8257

Sweets Edison, Ben Webster, Jimmy Rowles, Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell, Alvin Stoller

 Georgie Auld in the Land of Hi Fi, Emarcy 36060

The trumpet players are Maynard Ferguson, Conrad Gozzo, Mannie Klein and Ray Linn; the sax players are Willie Schwartz, Ted Nash, Babe Russin and Chuck Genry; the trombone players are Tommy Pederson, Frank Rosolino and Si Zentner; the pianist is Arnold Ross; the guitarists are Al Hendrickson and Barney Kessel; the bassists are Joe Mondragon and JoeComfort; the drummer is Alvin Stoller. The source of this information is The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, Version 3.3. If you’re a serious collector, the CD-ROM version is definitely a worthwhile tool.

 Taft Jordan, The Moods of Taft Jordan, Mercury MG 20429

The album consists of Jordan backed by a quartet as well as an orchestra. The names of the orchestra members are probably lost forever. The quartet consisted of Everett Barksdale on guitar; Dave Martin on piano; Joe Benjamin on bass; and Chink Martin on drums. The session was recorded in 1958 and at this point is not available on CD.

Tony Scott, The Touch of Tony Scott, RCA 1353

The album was recorded by three different bands on three dates in 1956. First was the orchestra on July 3. It consisted of Jimmy Maxwell, Jimmy Nottingham, Idrees Sulieman and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Rex Peer and Bart Varsala on trombones; Gigi Gryce, Sam Marowitz, Seldon Powell, Zoot Sims and Danny Bank on reeds; Bill Evans on piano; Mundell Lowe on guitar; Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums. Scott played clarinet. The tentette was recorded on July 5, 1956 (they took a holiday on July 4). It consisted of John Carisi and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Cleveland and Green on trombones; Bank on sax; Evans on piano; Barry Galbraith on guitar; Hinton and Johnson. The quartet was recorded July 6, 1956. It consisted of Scott on clarinet; Evans on piano; Les Grinage on bass and Lennie McBrowne on drums.

 That’s it for today. We’ll be back on the Web tomorrow and with our next newsletter on Friday. See you then. — Al

Today we answer a couple of questions from readers and keep our ongoing eye on eBay.

 Q. It always drives me crazy when records don’t list all the musicians. I was recently listening to a copy of The Touch of Tony Scott on the RCA label. The pianist sounded like Bill Evans, but I wasn’t sure. Can you please tell me who is on this album?

A. Good ears. The pianist is Bill Evans, very early in his career. You can hear him very effectively on “Round Midnight.” The album was recorded by three different bands on three dates in 1956. First was the orchestra on July 3. It consisted of Jimmy Maxwell, Jimmy Nottingham, Idrees Sulieman and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Jimmy Cleveland, Urbie Green, Rex Peer and Bart Varsala on trombones; Gigi Gryce, Sam Marowitz, Seldon Powell, Zoot Sims and Danny Bank on reeds; Evans on piano; Mundell Lowe on guitar; Milt Hinton on bass and Osie Johnson on drums. Scott played clarinet. The tentette was recorded on July 5, 1956 (they took a holiday on July 4). It consisted of Scott plus John Carisi and Joe Wilder on trumpets; Cleveland and Green on trombones; Bank on sax; Evans on piano; Barry Galbraith on guitar; Hinton and Johnson. The quartet was recorded July 6, 1956. It consisted of Scott on clarinet; Evans on piano; Les Grinage on bass and Lennie McBrowne on drums.

 Q. I own the LP Georgie Auld in the Land of Hi Fi on the Emarcy label. The liner notes don’t list the musicians. Could you please tell me who plays on this album?

 A. Yes. The trumpet players are Maynard Ferguson, Conrad Gozzo, Mannie Klein and Ray Linn; the sax players are Willie Schwartz, Ted Nash, Babe Russin and Chuck Genry; the trombone players are Tommy Pederson, Frank Rosolino and Si Zentner; the pianist is Arnold Ross; the guitarists are Al Hendrickson and Barney Kessel; the bassists are Joe Mondragon and JoeComfort; the drummer is Alvin Stoller. The source for both of these questions is The Jazz Discography by Tom Lord, Version 3.3. If you’re a serious collector, the CD-ROM version is definitely a worthwhile tool.

 A lot of interesting 10-inch LPs were sold on eBay the past couple of days. One dealer, Jazz Record Revival, had a group of records that were from the collection of the pianist Roger Kellaway. They looked to be in very nice condition and sold for pretty high prices. Here’s a sampling:

 Charlie Mariano, Fantasy 3-10, in M- condition. Price: $99.99

Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins, Prestige 187, in M- condition. Price: $157.50

Clifford Brown with Art Farmer, Prestige 167, in M- condition. Price: $115.49

Russ Freeman Trio, Pacific Jazz PJ-8, in M- condition. Price: $160.50

 That’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll do another update on the Website. See you then. — Al