This week’s theme: Bird in the studio for Dial and Savoy, 1947. Featured musicians include Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Bud Powell, Errol Garner, Red Callender, Doc West, Early Coleman, Wardell Gray, Howard McGhee, JJ Johnson, Dodo Marmarosa, Barney Kessel, Don Lamond, Tommy Potter, John Lewis, Nelson Boyd, Dyke Jordan.

I mentioned that the seller Carolinasoul has a lot of nice jazz records for sale now (and seemingly always), including a couple from the Transition label: Doug Watkins at Large, Transition 20. This is an original pressing with the booklet. The record and cover are both listed in VG condition and the bidding is in the $300 range with more than three days left on the auction. Donald Byrd, Byrd’s Eye View, Transition 4. This is also an original pressing with the booklet. Gotta love those original collectors who kept the booklets. This one is graded VG+ for the record and VG for the cover. Bidding is also in the $300 range. One more non-Blue Note from the same seller: Gil Melle Plays Primitive Modern, Prestige 7040. This is an original New York yellow label pressing listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. Bidding is in the $200 range with more than three days left.

While we’re in the stratosphere: Sonny Clark Trio, Blue Note 1579. This was an original West 63^rd Street pressing. The record was listed in VG++ condition and the cover was probably VG++ based on the pictures. The final price was $2,370. Johnny Griffin. The Congregation, Blue Note 1580. This was an original West 63^rd Street pressing with the Andy Warhol cover. The record was in VG++ condition and the cover was VG+. The final price was $1,593. Wardell Gray Memorial, Volume 2, Prestige 7009. This was an original New York yellow label pressing. The record and cover were in VG+ condition. The final price was $1,246. Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This was an original New York yellow label. The record was VG+ and the cover was VG. The final price was $3,450. Whew. I’m out of breath just typing in these numbers. Must be the atmosphere pressure in the stratosphere.

Whilst on the subject of Al Haig, sort of, the same seller is offering Al Haig Trio, Vogue L.D.E 092. This is an original 10-inch test pressing with white labels. I imagine it would be quite rare, perhaps even one of a kind. The record is listed in VG+ condition and the cover is Ex. The bidding is in the $775 range with more than four days left on the auction.

Also whilst on the subject of marketing, sort of, we have Cannonball Adderley, Somethin’ Else, Blue Note 1595. This looks to be an original pressing with the West 63^rd Street label, ear, deep grooves, Van Gelder. The record is listed in VG++ condition and the cover is probably VG+ based on the description and the picture. Bidding is in the $700 range. I mention marketing because this is what the seller has to say about the record: “Simply put, one of the top-5 most beautiful, important, gorgeous and coveted jazz albums of all time. Very few jazz albums even come close.” You can click the link if you aren’t sure which seller would employ such embroidered language or, if you are a regular reader here and discerning follower, you can simply make an educated guess and you will be correct.

Here’s one from the Jazz Record Center that ended up in the $1,000 bin: Mal Waldron, Mal-1, Prestige 7090. This was an original New York yellow label that looked to be in M- condition for the record and M- or VG++ for the cover. The final price was $1,009. For the record, pun intended, we checked with Popsike and that is the highest price recorded for this particular record. Mal 2, Prestige 7111, the one with John Coltrane, has sold for a high price of $1,400. Left Alone, the Mal Waldron record on Bethlehem, has sold for a high price of $1,625.

We were watching this kind of weird copy of Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519. The consensus seemed to be that this was a Liberty pressing using older labels. When we spotted the record on Jazz Collector the bidding was in the $85 range. It wound up selling for $233.28. I have one of similar vintage but with Lexington Avenue labels. It has no deep groove, but it does have the ear and the RVG stamp. Wonder what that would sell for?

I meant to write about this earlier: McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy, Blue Note 4264. This was an original Liberty pressing with the Van Gelder stamp. It was probably in M- condition for the record and cover and was sold by the Jazz Record Center for $810, which seemed quite high to me. I checked the Jazz Collector archives and came upon this article from 2014 “Really, McCoy?”  in which readers were surprised that a copy sold for as much as $171. I will say that the $810 is a new high point for The Real McCoy, nearly double the previous high. Must be inflation.

Speaking of inflation, I also saved a few from an early June Jazz Record center auction because I couldn’t believe the prices. Here are:

Wardell Gray, Los Angeles All Stars, Prestige 147, 10-inch LP, VG++ condition or so for the record and the cover. Price: $799.

Art Farmer Quintet, Prestige 181, 10-inch LP, VG++ condition or so for the record and the cover. Price: $850.

Finally, to close the book on a crazy auction we were watching a couple of months ago,
Gigi Gryce and His Big Band, Jazztime Paris featuring Clifford Brown, Blue Note 5049. Final price: $1,253.44

I knew just about every record on which Dexter played, but obviously I did not. I’ve listened to one side of this and it’s pretty good, although I’m still waiting for a Dexter solo. This record looks to be from 1952. Anyone out there have any more insight/information? If you enlarge the picture on the site, you can clearly see the sidemen, which also includes Chico Hamilton and Conte Candoli.

Ahem.

I will answer the question directly and then go into some level of explanation. Since the launch of what I affectionately called The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown almost exactly a year ago – September 29, 2009, if anyone would like to go back to the archives – I would say that my “collection” has increased by about 50 records, while the number of records in my house has grown by several hundred, at least.

I distinguish between my collection and the number of records I own because I still have intent to get rid of many records, but I also realize that in the past year I have added records to my collection that I did not previously own. For example: A few weeks ago I received a call from a lady who knew an older guy who lived in Coney Island and he had some old records and he was not on the Internet and could I help this guy possibly get rid of his records. So I called the guy and he said he had a bunch of old jazz records from Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Count Basie. I’m thinking, nah, not even worth the trip to Coney Island. Then he mentions Wardell Gray and all I can see in my mind’s eye are the two Prestiges and the next thing I know I’m on the Belt Parkway heading toward Coney Island. He had about 60 records, mostly junk, except . . . the Wardell Gray was an original pressing of Way Out Wardell on Modern Records, which I didn’t own, and there was an early pressing of Dexter Blows Hot and Cool on Dootone, which I didn’t own, and several others and all of a sudden there are a few more records in my collection.

Anyway.

The idea of The Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown was to stop buying and start selling. However, several things have happened in the interim:

1. For a while I was selling records consistently on eBay – 30 records or so every week, like clockwork. But then my real business – I’m doing a lot of corporate consulting and what I call corporate writing – suddenly took off and there was no time or energy for selling records on eBay. So that stopped in March and I haven’t been back.
2. The other thing that happened is that Jazz Collector starting getting more traffic and higher rankings on Google and I’m getting calls all the time – such as the one with the Coney Island records – to help people sell or evaluate their collections. There was the guy in New York who was moving to California and he had 600 records to sell and he was in a rush and I offered him $800 and suddenly I had 600 more records in my house.

I do, however, have hope for at least getting back to where I started. I’ve signed up for the WFMU Record Fair next month, and I’m planning to bring at least 1,000 records or so. If I can get rid of 300 I would be thrilled. I also have a bunch of records in storage I would love to sell in bulk for a low price. In fact, if anyone is interested, let me know. The records are here in Western Long Island and, as I said, I would let them go cheap just to get rid of them.

So, Rudolf, I hope that answers your question and I hope, perhaps, to someday get back to the Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown and actually count down rather than count up.

I asked the question the other day: Does anyone out there collect 78s? No one replied, so I figured I would get the ball rolling.

The answer to the question, for me, is that I don’t collect 78s. I do, however, have more than 1,000 78s. The reason I say I don’t collect 78s is because if I did collect them, I’d be obsessed about them and worried about filling in my collection and getting all the Blue Notes and searching for 78s and hunting them down on eBay. That is what I do with my LP collection. I have never done that with 78s. Yet, through the years I have accumulated them.

It started back in the 1980s. There was an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper. A guy had a collection of jazz 78s and wanted to get rid of them. Normally I wouldn’t have cared, but I was curious: What if there were some original Bird 78s on Dial? So I called him and, indeed, there were some original Bird 78s on Dial: Yardbird Suite, Moose The Mooche, A Night in Tunisia. Holding these in my hand, it really felt like I was holding a piece of jazz history. The guy had about 1,000 78s and wanted $100 for them. That night I walked into the house and began unloading crates of 78s. Mrs. JC just looked at me and sighed.

Then, of course, I had to get a 78 player. I still have the first one I ever purchased: A crank-handle

RCA. It sounds great. I eventually purchased a used Thorens turntable and hooked that up to my regular stereo system, but that didn’t sound good at all. Through the years, I’ve discovered that the best players for 78s are the ones that were designed to play 78s in the first place, with the heavy tone arms and 78 needles. Right now I use an old Califone record player that they used to use in public schools (perhaps they still do) and I find that it is terrific. They are readily available on eBay, usually for $50 or so.

Anyway, I had these 1,000 78s back in the 1980s and I figured that was it for me. I had a few Birds, and Coleman Hawkins’ Body and Soul, and some Billie Holiday and Ella and Louis Jordan and, really, what more could I want? Then, in the early 1990s I went to Chicago for business and, a few blocks from my hotel, there was the Jazz Record Mart on Grand Street. I went there and the prices for the LPs were a bit too high for my tastes, so I kind of browsed and saw this huge section of 78s, rows and rows and rows. And, on the bottom row, near the floor, I pulled out a mint copy of Twisted by Wardell Gray on Prestige. It was priced at $1. Cool. So I looked some more and, literally, there were hundreds of Prestige 78s all in mint, unplayed condition, all priced at $1 each. I called my friend Dan Axelrod and told him what I’d found. “Bring them home,” he said, “And bring some for me.”

So I went out and bought a rolling carry-on suitcase and went back to the Jazz Record Mart on Grand Street and bought a couple of hundred mint Prestige 78s and I loaded them into the suitcase and rolled them back down Grand Street to the Hilton Hotel. The toughest part was lifting them on the plane and putting them in the overhead rack. A couple of hundred 78s is quite a load.

Now, I really thought I was done with 78s. Why would I ever need more? I had Bird and Hawk and Billie and now Prestiges with Miles and Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt and Ammons and Wardell Gray. But it’s never enough, is it, with us collectors? Whatever we have, it’s never enough.

So, through the years, I’ve accumulated more and more 78s. A few Blue Notes here and there. A few more Billie Holidays, and Louis Jordans. An Ike Quebec boxed set on Blue Note (see the picture with this post). There was a guy who had a store – really more like a museum – in the Empire State Building. His name was Morty Savada. It was said he had something like a million 78s. I went there one day. Just to look. Of course I came home with a pile of records.

Wouldn’t you?