This week’s theme: Roy Haynes Memorial, Part Two. Featured artists include Roy Haynes, Roland Kirk, Tommy Flanagan, Henry Grimes, Sarah Vaughan, Richard Davis, Thad Jones, Jackie McLean, Phineas Newborn Jr., Bill Evans, Oliver Nelson, Freddie Hubbard, Paul Chambers, Eric Dolphy, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, and many others.
This week we do the first in a new Unsung Artists Series, focusing on the Vice President, tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette. Featured artists include John Coltrane, Charles Rouse, Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, Herbie Mann, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Brooks Kerr, Gene Ramey, Sam Woodyard,Jimmy Jones, Joe Benjamin, Roy Haynes, Webster Young, Mal Waldron, Joe Puma, Earl May, Ed Thigpen, Count Basie, Buck Clayton, Dickie Wells, Gus Johnson, Al McKibbon, Walter Page, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne, Thad Jones, Nat Pierce, Joe Newman, Paul Chambers, Wynton Kelly, Charlie Shavers, Clark Terry, Jimmy Cleveland, Jimmy Cobb, Barry Galbraith, Cecil Payne, Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Sweets Edison, Snooky Young, and more.
Time to follow up on some of the jazz vinyl auctions we’ve been watching on eBay, starting with Duke Jordan, Flight to Jordan, Blue Note 4046. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing offered by the Jazz Record Center. It looked to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. When we spotted this there were four days left in the auction and the bidding was at $1,600. The final price was $2,753. Still a market for the high-end stuff from reputable sellers, right? From the same auction there was Sheila Jordan, Portrait of Sheila, Blue Note 9002. This was an original New York USA pressing that looked to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $306. Keeping up with the Jordans, I guess. Read more
I really enjoyed doing that “live” eBay search last week, so let’s try it again. I’m heading over the eBay now. Searching on Jazz Vinyl Records sorted by highest prices first and auctions only. Here we go. Sonny Clark Trio, Blue Note 1579. This is an original West 63rd Street pressing from a reputable seller. The record is graded as a “solid VG” and the cover is probably VG++. Looks like a nice copy, although there are some tics in the playback, as described by the seller. The start price is $2,000 and there are no bidders with more than four days left on the auction. Read more
I was going to milk the suspense for a couple more days, but I changed my mind. I’ll cut right to the chase. I was prepared to sell Jason from Carolina Soul Records about 5,500 records. My strong preference was an outright purchase and not a consignment. Jason was prepared to buy 5,500 records from me and had the wherewithal to make the outright purchase based on the amount I told him I was looking for. He and his colleague Nate came up to my home in The Berkshires and spent the better part of a day and evening poring through the 5,500-or-so records I had put aside. The opportunity for a big deal was in place . . . . Read more
Back to eBay. Closing the files on some of those auctions from Carolina Soul, we start with The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527. This was an original pressing. The record was listed in VG condition with a slight warp. The cover was listed in VG- condition with a 6-inch seam split. The final price was $1,911.56. Thad Jones, Detroit-New York Junction, Blue Note 1513. This was another original Lexington Avenue pressing. This one was in VG+ condition for the record and VG for the cover. The final price was $1,525. Read more
As I’ve been perusing eBay since my return from vacation, I’ve been randomly filling my watch list with items to write about for Jazz Collector. And as I’ve been doing that, I am finding that most of the records I’m saving this week have a common seller, which would be Carolina Soul. I’m a little bit in awe, and a little bit in envy, of the huge collection of Blue Notes, Prestiges and others they have up for auction this week. Not sure if the awe/envy is about the money that will be coming their way in just one week’s worth of auctions, or if it’s the fact that they seem to have a virtually endless supply of interesting/collectible jazz records. Anyway, here are some of the items in my queue, starting with Thad Jones, After Hours With the Prestige All-Stars, Prestige 7118. This one caught my eye because of the cover: I have a copy of this record with the New York yellow label and a different cover. My cover has a generic picture of a city nightscape. This cover, as you see, has a picture of Thad and (I think) Frank Wess. With Prestige it’s challenging to figure out which cover came out first and why they would change it so quickly after the initial release of the record. If I were to guess, I would say the cover I have would be the first cover, but that is just a guess. The reason is that the orange cover has The Prestige All-Starts underlined and that strikes me as an idea that a marketing person would come up with as a way to boost sales by making a slight adjustment to an existing product. In my real job, I spend way too much time talking to marketing people, so I could be completely wrong. Rudolf will know for sure which was first, as will others out there in Jazz Collector World. Anyway, this copy is probably in VG condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. Bidding is in the $125 range, with four days left on the auction. Read more
I did a bit of a double take when I saw this record sell on eBay: Thad Jones, Mad Thad, Period SPL 1208. The reason for the double take was I remember owning this record but do not remember seeing it in my collection for many years. Sure enough, I perused the shelves and I apparently do not own this record any more. Do I have any idea what happened to it? Well, have some idea: I sold it. When, why, to whom, I have no idea. My guess is that the copy I had was in poor condition and I was weeding out some records from the collection. Or it could go all the way back to 1990, when I sold a large batch of records in order to buy a boat. Careful readers know the story: I sold the records, bought the boat and there was a hurricane and the boat sank. Vinyl karma? Anyway, I do not have a copy of Mad Thad. This would have been a nice one to own. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG. The final price was $940. This is the second highest price for this record, according to Popsike. Whenever I did sell my copy, you can rest assured I didn’t get anything close to that price. Read more
To pick up here I left off yesterday, here is Freddie Redd Quartet with Jackie McLean, The Connection, Blue Note 4027. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing with the deep grooves, ears, etc. The record and cover were both listed in M- condition. The record sold for $1,525, which has to be a high for this record as I open a window to Popsike and . . . . it is, indeed, nearly doubling the previous high price for this record. Here’s another record that seems like it may have set a new record: Bennie Green, Soul Stirrin’, Blue Note 1599. This was listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $969. Indeed, according to Popsike, that is a new record high, quite a feat considering the condition. Surely, there have been M- copies of this record in the past. Read more
Back on eBay and here are a few that caught my eye: Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights Volume 1, Blue Note 1596. This is an original West 63rd Street, deep-groove pressing and, of course, it has the Andy Warhol cover. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover is VG++. The bidding closes in about a day and the price is at $405. The seller is one of my favorite record stores, Round Again Records in Providence, RI. My son went to undergraduate and grad school at Brown, so I used to visit the store quite often and always had a nice conversation with the owner Steve, and always walked away with a few nice records. It’s been a while – Michael finished grad school in 2010 – so it’s nice to see that Steve is still buying and selling records and finding those occasional lovely Blue Note scores. Makes me think about taking a drive over there. Hey, it’s only a couple of hours. One of these days. Read more
