This week’s theme: Tina Brooks as sideman and leader n Blue Note. Featured artists include Tina Brooks, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Sam Jones, Clifford Jarvis, Freddie Redd, Jackie McLean, Paul Chambers, Louis Hayes, Blue Mitchell, Kenny Drew, Arthur Taylor, Johnny Coles, Wilbur Ware, Philly Joe Jones, Lee Morgan, Sonny Clark, Doug Watkins, Art Blakey.
This week’s theme: Part two of our exploration of jazz tracks that have the name of a woman in the title. Featured artists include Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, Eddie Costa, Ray Charles, Paul Desmond, Jim Hall, Art Blakey, Eddie Jefferson, Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons, Benny Golson, Billy Taylor, Stan Getz, Al Haig, Jimmy Raney, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, Barry Harris, Jimmy Rushing, Coleman Hawkins, Jackie McLean, Freddie Redd, Tina Brooks, Nat King Cole, Sweets Edison, and more.
I’m preparing to record a radio show this week on Tina Brooks. I have the Mosaic boxed set, The Complete Blue Note Recordings of the Tina Brooks Quintets. Do you believe that set was released 40 years ago? It does a great job of telling his tragic life story and chronicling the music he made as a leader. In addition, I have these records he made as a sideman on the Blue Note label: Jackie’s Bag, Open Sesame, Street Singer, Shades of Redd, The Sermon, and House Party. I’m not familiar with all of the tracks on all of these records, including the Mosaic boxed set. I’m trying to do a better job of integrating the Jazz Collector Live Radio Show and Podcast with the JazzCollector.com web site. Here’s an opportunity for you to help. In your collective wisdom, what are the tracks that are “must listens” among the music I will be bringing into the studio? Thanks in advance.
Life has been busy. Artificial Intelligence tells me the adage “man plans, God laughs” is a Yiddish proverb: “Der mentsh trakht, un got lakht.” Who knew? While I may not believe in the actual wording, I do understand the sentiment. Fortunately, my health has been good, so that hasn’t been an issue. All of which is to say that most of the time that I’ve had to devote to my passion for jazz and jazz collecting has been put into my radio show and podcast. As I said, I love doing the radio show, so that’s not a problem. But I do sometimes feel guilty about not writing more frequently here at JazzCollector.com, especially when I go through the emails I’ve saved and realize that I’ve been saving some of them for more than half a year. In any case, I will try to catch up now, even if some of the conversations with readers are too dated to do anything about. Read more
I figure if I keep writing about Blue Notes and putting Blue Notes in the headline, I’ll start scoring well on Google and all of a sudden the many people who have abandoned Jazz Collector in the past year or so will come charging back. Or not. In any case, to follow up on yesterday’s post and some of the comments, I’ve narrowed down my list of Top Ten Blue Notes and I believe I can settle soon on a Top Ten. Seven of them are known because they were on the list I began compiling in February 2010 (More Blue Note Favorites, Courtesy of Downbeat). Hard to believe that was nearly 16 years ago. My tastes haven’t changed in all those years. Read more
Merry Christmas! Let’s look at some jazz vinyl from eBay that may be on the wish lists of Jazz Collectors everywhere, starting with: Sahib Shihab, Sahib’s Dance Party, Debut 141. This looks to be an original Debut Denmark pressing listed in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. The bidding is in the $500 range with nearly four days left on the auction. There are already 13 bidders and more than 30 bids. This record has sold for more than $1,000 several times, with a high of about $1,600, according to Popsike. I’ve never owned a copy of this record, let alone listened to it. I take it the high value placed on the record is a tribute not just to its rarity, but to the quality of the music as well? Read more
All of the jazz vinyl auctions I was watching in my queue are now over, so let’s start catching up with those, starting with Roland Kirk, Triple Threat, King 539. Although I’m a big Kirk fan, this is a record that has eluded me over the years. This was an original pressing listed in VG condition with “light noise hiss, crackle & an occasional pop.” Cover was listed as VG, with shelf wear and a partial seam split. This was from the seller 1molecularrman, who’s been on quite a run for the past few months. The run continues. This one sold for $1,300 on the noise. Read more
Here are some jazz vinyl auctions we are watching this week, starting with a couple of heavy hitters: Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This is an original pressing listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The bidding is in the $800 range with more than six days left on the auction. Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record looks to be in VG++ condition and the cover is probably VG+. The current price is $2,995. There is one bidder and five-plus days left on the auction as of this writing. Last week we saw a copy sell for more than $8,000 (WOW). Read more
The comments on the previous post were intriguing, to say the least, so I jumped over to eBay to see this auction in particular: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address from the seller vinyl-house-uk. The record was listed in Ex+ condition, which I translate into M-, and the cover was Ex/Ex+, which I translate to VG++. The final price was approximately 6,200 British pounds, which I translate to $8,132.92. By my calculation that’s the top price I’ve seen for True Blue, which seems to be confirmed by Popsike. For those who keep an eye on these sorts of things, is this the highest legitimate price we’ve seen for any 12-inch jazz LP? If not, what is? Looking at some of the other items from this auction, my eyes are popping out of my head. Read more
Catching up on some more jazz vinyl auctions on eBay, starting with Tommy Flanagan, The Cats, New Jazz 8217. This was an original purple label mono deep groove pressing. The record features John Coltrane among others. The record and cover were listed in M- condition, although the picture of the bag cover is clearly not M-, and is probably just VG+. The final price was $1,675. Based on Popsike, that is the highest price we’ve seen for The Cats, possibly more than double the previous high.
Whilst we are perusing the $1,000 bin: Duke Jordan, Flight to Jordan, Blue Note 4046. This was an original West 63rdStreet pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The final price was $1,514.89. This one had a start price of about $5,000 but did not sell: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing. The record was listed as M-, but the cover was VG-. It is back on eBay for the same start price. Read more
