A Trio of Rare Jazz Vinyl For Your Perusal

Back on eBay catching up on a few items, starting with Teddy Charles/Mal Waldron, Coolin’, New Jazz 8216. This was an original purple label deep groove pressing. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++, although the former owner’s name stamped three times on the back lessens the grade for me. The final price was $478, which is quite a lot for a session led by Teddy Charles. Is this now just the going rate for original New Jazz pressings, or is there something in the personnel — Mal Waldron, John Jenkins, Idrees Sulieman — that makes this record a bit more of interest to collectors than some of the other Teddy Charles dates? This is not a record I have ever owned, so I can’t vouch for the music, but the music seems to hold less sway these days in determining how much collectors are willing to pay. Not a big fan of the cover, BTW, so that wouldn’t helping in piquing the interest of this collector.

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A New Trio For the JAzz Collector Price Guide

teddyHere are a few more records we were watching on eBay:

Teddy Charles, Coolin’, New Jazz 8216. This was an original promo copy with the purple label and the deep grooves. I thought I was familiar with every record in the New Jazz catalog, but apparently not. Never seen this one in real life. This was in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover and it sold for $361.56.

This one wound up selling the second time around: Art Farmer, Art, Argo 678. This was an original pressing listed in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. There was one bid and it sold for $109.99.

Gil Melle, Quadrama, Prestige 7097. This was an original New York yellow label pressing. The record was in VG++ condition and the cover was VG+. The price was $114.50. Would this record be worth anything if it weren’t on the Prestige label? I’ve owned it for nearly 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it. Perhaps next time I’m in New York I’ll put it on the turntable. Is it worth the time and effort?

 

 

 

 

 

More Jazz Vinyl: Monk 10-Inch & A Few Bargains?

Here’s some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay:

Look at the great cover on this one: Thelonious Monk Plays, Prestige 189. This is a 10-inch pressing that was listed in M- condition for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. It was part of a nice crop of 10-inch Prestiges offered by the Philadelphia Record Exchange and it sold for $295. You may recall that I bid on the James Moody 10-inchers from this auction. I wound up winning all three for about $150 total, about $50 each. To me that’s a fine deal, great music, even though, perhaps, the resale market for these records won’t be so great. Won’t matter though, since I’ll have thousands of records to sell before I get to these.

Some interesting, lower, prices than usual: Sonny Rollins, Tenor Madness Prestige 7047. This was an original New York pressing in VG condition for both the record and cover. This is quite a classic, of course, yet it sold for less than $60. The dealer mentioned something about the cover being “professionally” repaired, whatever that means, so that could have impacted the price. Still, even in VG condition, you’d expect more, based on the prices we’ve seen lately for original Blue Notes and Prestiges. Here’s another:

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Hefty Prestiges, Hefty Price Tags

Let’s catch up on some of the jazz vinyl we’ve been watching at Jazz Collector. We’ll start with the Prestiges and move on to the Blue Notes later.

John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, Prestige 7123. This was an original pressing with the original cover (the second pressing on this is Traneing In). The record was M- and the cover was VG+ and the price was $660. We’ve watched this one many times in the Jazz Collector Price Guide and it never surpassed $400. Quite a change. I’ve been cataloguing my records for insurance purposes and I had this one at $300. Guess I’ll have to change that.

This one also seemed to hit a new high: Olio, Prestige 7084, with Thad Jones, Frank Wess, Teddy Charles, Elvin Jones, Mal Waldron and Doug Watkins. This one was in M- condition all the way around and sold for $504.

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A Visit to A Record Store, Part 3

So many comments to follow up on, but first let me finish my little trilogy about my visit to Infinity Records. Given the market conditions for music the days, it’s easy to assume that the days of the brick and mortar record store are numbered. In the mainstream music market, CDs are collapsing as the medium shifts to an online digital model. In the collectibles market, eBay has become the dominant sales medium. But, for now at least, it seems there is still room for a few places where people can physically walk into a store and purchase music. I happened to be in lower Manhattan a few weeks ago with time to kill and I popped in to J&R Music. It was jam-packed with people. And I was amazed to see the rows and rows and rows of CDs. They even had four bins of new vinyl — lots of recent Blue Note pressings — as well as a wall full of collectible vinyl that featured autographed covers, including Billie Holiday, Dexter Gordon and others.  The key was that they were comprehensive: You got the sense that if there was a jazz CD you wanted, you’d be able to find it there — as opposed to walking into a Border’s or Barnes and Noble, where the music is clearly secondary. There is also room, I think, for good record stores that understand the collectibles market. I spoke to Joe Ostermeier at Infinity — that’s Joe in the picture, standing in front of his wall of records — and he said business is still solid, no major let up as the music world has

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A Visit To A Record Store, Part 2

OK, so I was at my favorite record store, Infinity Records, and I was asking the guys to pull records off the wall and one of the records was this one: Teddy Charles (with Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre), Collaboration West, Prestige 7028. I knew the record was familiar and I was pretty sure I owned it but I started doubting myself because (1) I have too many records too keep track of every single one and (2) Remember I had that birthday last week and age does awful things to one’s memory and (3) I still do remember record covers and this cover did not look familiar at all. So I looked at the record and it was a New York pressing, deep groove, mono, RVG in the deadwax, yellow label, all the stuff you would look for. The vinyl was in pretty nice VG++ condition and the cover was a shade below M-. The price was fair as well: $75. So I bought the record, and put it in the bag with the Tal record and a couple of others and I got in the car and started driving home and I kept pondering and pondering this Teddy Charles record on Prestige and I realized, “Hey, wait a second. I have that record. But the

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A Potpourri of LPs

I went away for the long Memorial Day weekend and didn’t look at eBay for three days. Here are some of the things I missed:

 

Howard McGhee, Music From The Connection, Felsted 7512. This was in nice condition and sold for more than $1,000.

 

Benny Carter, Cosmopolite, Norgran 1070. This was an original yellow label copy, autographed by Carter and, according to the dealer, directly from Carter’s own collection. A nice collectible, indeed. Read more