Going in the opposite direction, I received an email with the subject line: NJ RECORD BASH SIGNOFF. This was a long-time event, nearly 50 years, according to the email. It was usually held in June at a motel or hotel in New Jersey. This is another one I used to attend regularly, back in the 1980s and 1990s. I remember one time getting there early and setting up a table and the guy next to me was setting up and he had a pile of original Prestige Swingville records in mint condition and I bought the entire pile for about $5 each. I still have those records. Sorry to see the Bash go, but the financial model must be a challenge these days, what with eBay and social media and people no longer getting together to socialize as they used to.

I’m on the mailing list for the labels doing reissues, such as Craft and Blue Note, but unfortunately I’m not on their promo lists for review copies. In any case, the email in box had a promo for new issues from the Original Jazz Classics series from Craft, including Introducing Lee Morgan, The Young Lions from VeeJay, and This Here is Bobby Timmons from Riverside. Blue Note is taking orders for a three-LP Tone Poet set of The Complete ‘Round About Midnight at the Café Bohemia from Kenny Dorham. This would comprise the original Blue Note 1524, plus the two Japanese LPs issued in the 1980s.

A reader writes that he recently  found a series of Jazz Review magazines at an estate sale. Most of these seem to be from the late 1950s and early 1960s. He’s been selling them on eBay, but if anyone is interested they can contact me and perhaps get access to some of them before they are offered to the general public. This is one of the listings that has already sold: The Jazz Review.

There will be a New Jersey Record Bash this year, June 19-June 21 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Edison, New Jersey. I used to attend this even fairly regularly, sometimes as a vendor, sometimes as an attendee, always as a buyer. It was always a good event, but I haven’t been in years. You can get details at their site 49^th Annual Jazz Record Collectors’ Bash.

Speaking of record shows, the WFMU Record fair is back in New York this year, Nov. 8 and 9 at the Metropolitan Pavilion. That was always one of the best shows around, so I’m planning to be in New York for that one, strictly as a buyer. Not looking to sell anything . . . yet.

I’m on the mailing list for Craft Recordings and they recently sent me a press release announcing reissues of six albums that are being released on vinyl in the next few weeks. They are Bill Evans, Interplay; Bill Evans Moon Beams; Here’s Lee Morgan; Introducing Wayne Shorter; Benny Golson, Gone With Golson; and Looking Ahead with Ken McIntyre and Eric Dolphy. These are part of the Original Jazz Classics collection. When the OJCs first came out on Fantasy in the early 1980s, I was not a huge fan. Didn’t like the soft vinyl and soft covers. Hey, I’m a collector of original pressings. I bought some for the music, but always tried to replace them with originals. What’s the verdict on the current crop of OJCs? Maybe I’ll pick one up, just to report back to you all. I sold or traded my original copy of the McIntyre/Dolphy record, so that’s a possibility. I’ll also take a gander at the rest of the series.

This one is about two months old, so it may no longer be relevant, but someone sent me a list of CDs she is trying to sell. Lots of Bird, Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Miles, Clifford Brown, Sarah Vaughan, Lee Morgan, etc. As I said, she may have gotten rid of them already, but if anyone is interested, I can try reaching out to her. Just send me an email.

Someone posed this question to me: “Do you know anything about Jell Records in Newark, NJ? In the 1960s Jimmy McGriff released a Christmas LP.” My answer was no, I do not. Anyone out there?

This one is very old, sent to me about a year ago. I put in a file and forgot about it, until now. Perhaps it is still relevant, perhaps not: I own “das Chet -Baker-Buch” an illustrated portrait by Herbert Joos. Bonz Edition Number One. 039/100 1990 Herbert Joos/Bonz Verlag. Printed in Germany. Any information about how much the book is worth and any collectors out there who would be interested in buying. I also have several Chet Baker vinyl records and CDs. Many thanks for any info and kind regards.”

Another one I know nothing about: Hello:  “I’m looking for the two 45s and two 78s that Beverly Kenney recorded but these songs never appeared on albums.  Any ideas or clues?”

Now that I’ve opened the inbox, I realized I was also opening up a can of worms for myself. I still have more than a dozen old emails to go through, dating back a couple of years. If I find anything interesting, and still relevant, I’ll post it one of these days. Sorry to anyone who sent me an email, expecting it to be posted on JazzCollector.com, and did not see it.

Finally, our friend Stuart Levine, who just wrote the post about Blue Note Gold in Tokyo, reports that he is looking to obtain a First Stereo, black label Riverside pressing of Bill Evans Sunday Night at the Vanguard. So if anyone can help, you know where to find me. I wouldn’t mind a black label stereo original myself. As it is, when I listen to Sunday Night at the Vanguard, I typically listen on my Japanese pressing.

Also in the inbox was a link to this record: Lionel Hampton, Jazztime Paris, Blue Note 5046. This was an original pressing from the Jazz Record Center. The record looked to be M- and the cover was probably VG++. It sold for $1,009, joining the $1,000 bin. Who wouldda ever thunk it: Lionel Hampton in the $1,000 bin. The power of Blue Note persists no matter what, it seems.

I have a few other updates while I am cleaning out the Jazz Collector inbox, including:

This year’s WFMU Record Fair is over and the dates for next year’s are now available: April 27-April 29 at the Brooklyn Expo Center again. I didn’t hear from anyone about this year’s show. Did anybody go? Want to send a report? You can put a comment on this post or, if you are really game, you can send me a more detailed account and I can put it up as a guest post.

This looks like a really cool new vinyl release: Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane: The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. It’s a vinyl issue, and I can’t wait to get my copy. Once I do, I will do a review as well, although that will have to wait: Heading out later today for a brief holiday, which may or may not affect my posting. Although, to be fair, my posting has been anything but consistent lately, due to a super heavy workload in the work that actually pays the mortgages around here.

One of our readers sent me a link to this record, noting that the price seems to be rising: Phil Woods, Warm Woods, Epic 3436. This copy was in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. It sold for $605.55. Doesn’t seem that out of line for this record. If you look on Popsike, there are copies that have sold for higher prices, although probably in better condition. That’s one of the things that I’m noticing — for many of these classic records, condition is less of an issue than it used to be. Can’t help wondering if that is because people are collecting them to own them as opposed to listening to them.

Same reader sent me this link as well: Freddie Hubbard, Open Sesame, Blue Note 4040. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and excellent condition for the cover. The final price was $2,026.

And to follow up on a couple of other items:

That copy of Hank Mobley Blue Note 1568 from the Jazz Record Center is now at $3,927 with more than three days left on the auction. Seems pretty clear that my guess will come up short. I will have to close the contest by end of day today, just to be fair to everyone. If anyone would like to adjust their guess, I am OK with that, but it has to be done by midnight my time (New York) today. I really do intend to give a prize, probably a book or a record, but nothing too rare or valuable.

Speaking of rare and valuable collectibles, there may be an opportunity to pick something up in Brooklyn today, where the 2017 WFMU Record Fair begins. I will not be there with a booth, having sold all of my duplicates at the fair two years ago (See You in Brooklyn? Not Anymore). If I could, I would go to early admission today, but I have work deadlines. If you don’t get there early, many of the best collectibles tend to be sold. In my experience, dealers come in from all over the world, spend the money for a table so that they can gain admission as the sellers are coming in, and anything decent at a decent price gets scooped up before the general public gets in. But it’s still fun. I would go tomorrow but I am doing something even cooler: As part of the Tribeca Film Festival there is a showing of The Godfather and The Godfather Part II at Radio City Music Hall followed by a panel discussion featuring Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and Robert DeNiro. Pretty cool, huh? Perhaps I will go to the WFMU Record Fair on Sunday to look at the scraps and leftovers.

I got notice in email of the upcoming “43rd Annual Jazz Record Collector’s Bash” scheduled for June 23-24 in Edison, NJ. I used to attend this event regularly, but it’s probably been more than 20 years since I went. Now that I have my home in The Berkshires, spending a weekend at a Hilton Garden Inn in Edison NJ poring through 78s and LPs versus being on the lake is very hard to justify. Anyway, I’m sure it will be fun and, who knows, maybe it will rain the entire weekend and I’ll choose Jersey over The Berkshires. Not likely, but you never know.

Speaking of events, we are getting close to the annual WFMU Record Fair, which will be held in Brooklyn again this year, the weekend of April 28-April 30. I used to be a regular here as well, as a seller, but as some of you may recall, I had either a breakdown or an epiphany (See You In Brooklyn? Not Anymore) and sold all of my duplicates to one of my favorite dealers from Japan. That was two years ago and I have ZERO regrets. I am tempted to bring a bunch of records this year just to pare down my collection but, to be honest, just the thought of loading records into the car, hauling them to Brooklyn, setting up a table and sitting there for three days is about as appealing to me as listening to Donald Trump lie about anything and everything.

Finally, there was an interesting note from a reader whose grandfather was a bass player with Louis Jordan in the 1950s. He sent me a couple of pictures, one of his grandfather playing with Jordan, the second of a young man that he thought might be Charlie Parker. I could see pretty quickly that the man in the second picture was not Bird, so I told him so. There’s still an open question of whether this person was anyone of note. It is not someone I recognize, but perhaps someone here may know. In any case, below are the two pictures:

years, I would do the record shows less frequently, and I would accumulate more duplicates, and the boxes of records would expand and expand, until there were many boxes and I ended up at times either renting storage space to house them or building extra cabinets so I could peruse them, even though they were records I already owned and had sitting on a shelf at another part of my house. The bottom line is that I’ve been hauling boxes of records to and from record shows for about 30 years. And, remaining in the same general geographic area, I’ve been seeing the same guys, wearing the same clothes, hauling the same records, for the same 30 years. The exceptions are the guys that got too old to haul records any more, or died, or the one transgendered dealer who is still hauling the same records, but is now wearing dresses instead of jeans.

Anyway, a year and a half ago I worked the WFMU Record Fair in Manhattan and the night before the fair I had driven down to Baltimore and hauled home 30 boxes of records, and I pulled out some duplicates and sold them at the show and nearly paid for the entire collection in one day. But I had many, many more boxes of duplicate records and I worked the next WFMU Record Fair last year and sold off more of them, but still I had boxes and boxes of records and no time or interest in selling on eBay and I was getting really tired of hauling records and my back was also getting really tired of hauling records and I decided that I just wanted to get rid of some of these records. So I took all of the records that would not be sellable on eBay and I put them into boxes and loaded them into the car and vowed not to bring them back into the apartment in Manahattan. Instead, I drove out to Infinity Records on Long Island and basically told my friend Joe he could have the records and the boxes for whatever he wanted to pay me, which wasn’t much, but it was quite a relief just getting rid of all of the boxes and not having to worry about them again.

Still, there were maybe 500 remaining records plus Downbeats and other stuff and they were stuffed into boxes and put on shelves waiting to be released once again at the next WFMU Record Fair, which was this weekend. And on Friday I loaded these records and Downbeats and other stuff into the car once again and drove out to Brooklyn and unloaded them and did all of the stuff you do at one of these shows. And I walked around and looked at other tables and saw the same guys, in the same clothes, with many the same records I’ve been seeing at various times during the past 30 years. And, of course, I still got the same old adrenaline rush and bought a few records, even a few more duplicates, just because they were there and the price was right. And I spent the day at my table, chatting with the occasional customer, and at the end of the day I had barely sold enough records to cover the cost of the table and I went home and knew I had another day at the record fair and then I would have to haul the records one more time, loading them into the car, bringing them back upstairs to the apartment, sticking some of the boxes into the closet, putting other records on shelves, and the whole thing started to feel old and tired.

Or maybe it was just me feeling old and tired.

And it was 11 p.m. and my back was aching and I was thinking of this 30-year pattern I’d been in and I turned to The Lovely Mrs. JC and said something to the effect that there was a piece of me that wouldn’t mind just selling all of the records in one shot, never loading them back into the car again, and not worrying about what to do with all of my duplicate records. And The Lovely Mrs. JC looked at me and smiled and said: “You should do it.”

And I went to bed and I thought about the records and the years of hauling them and the money I had paid to store them and how they kept accumulating year after year after year and how good I felt the year before selling eight boxes of records to Joey. And I got up in the morning, walked Marty the dog, had a bite to eat and headed over to Brooklyn not knowing what the upcoming day would have in store for me. And I went to my table and saw the same guys in the same clothes with the same records and I realized that I didn’t even really know any of these guys even though I’m one of them and have been for 30 years. But I’m a jazz guy, and there’s always been just a few of us, and we tend to be among the outsiders within this broader community of outsiders still obsessing over vinyl records. And I started thinking about the conversation with The Lovely Mrs. JC the night before and hauling records and storing records and cleaning records and these were records I already owned and were just doubles that I had accumulated over the years.

And then it happened. Call it what you will: Epiphany, psychotic episode, revelation, nervous breakdown. I looked across the aisle and saw a dealer from Japan who had been to my house many times and who I liked very much and I thought to myself: “Would he? Would he just buy it all? If he wanted them, how much would I take? How much would he offer?” And I impulsively walked over to him and I could see he was busy and I told him to stop by my table once he had a chance; I had something I wanted to discuss with him. Then I went back to my table. A few people came by and bought a few records and I counted the records I had on my table and looked over some of the nicer items, including a few original Blue Notes and Prestiges and I came up with a number in my head and this number in my head was a pretty low number for the records involved because by this point I wanted to do it, I wanted to sell the records, be rid of duplicates, not worry about hauling them or storing them, and I just wanted to go back to Manhattan and join my family for lunch and the theater. And maybe 15 minutes later he came by and asked what I wanted to talk about. And I said I wanted to sell him everything, all of the records on my table. And he thought I was kidding and smiled and chuckled and said, “no, no.” And then he thought for a second and said, “unless it was a low price.” And he still had a big smile on his face because he still thought I was joking. And I had the price in my head and it was a low price and I didn’t even make an effort to negotiate and I just said the price out loud. And he did a double take and the smile disappeared from his face and he looked me in the eye and he realized I was serious. Then I pointed to a box with several original Blue Notes and Prestiges and I said that the price was what it was and it included everything, including the records in that box. And he went over to that box immediately and started looking pulling each record out of the sleeve to look at the condition and the address on the label and the deep grooves and all the things any of us would do confronted with the opportunity to buy a bunch of nice jazz records at a very fair price. And then he pulled out a few more records and looked at them and then he started counting the records on the table and I could almost see the calculation taking place in his head: “If I buy these records, how much am I paying per record.” And when he calculated the number in his head and then said it out loud and realized I was serious, he looked me in the eye again and simply said, “Yes.”

Fifteen minutes later I was in my car. I texted the Lovely Mrs. JC and told her I had done it. She was with my son and daughter and they were having lunch for an early Mother’s Day celebration and they were going to see the play Fun Home on Broadway. I told her to order me some pizza and get me a ticket for the play. I was leaving Brooklyn and my records behind.

Because of the light early action, I was able to walk around the show and check out the other booths. There was some good jazz, not a whole lot. Joe at Euclid Records brought some nice mid-priced stuff, so if you get there today, you want to check him out (after you’ve checked me out, of course). One guy had a copy of the Magnificent Thad Jones Volume 2, Blue Note 1527, but the record was marked at $1,500, which didn’t even give me a starting point for a conversation. I still have a few Blue Note originals, including Lou Donaldson Swing and Soul and one of the later Bud Powells. I marked them down and I’m willing to negotiate, so I’m surprised they didn’t sell. Perhaps today. The venue itself is quite nice, great for a record show with ample sunlight coming in from three sides. See you in Brooklyn?

BTW, discerning readers will note that the picture with this story is a retread from a previous show. When I got home I realized I forgot to take a picture, so . . . .

I just received a note that the 40th annual Jazz Record Collector’s Bash will take place June 27 and June 28 at the  Hilton Woodbridge in Iselin, N.J. Not a lot of details yet, but there are always sellers with lots of records and there are usually films and discussions and music as well. I used to attend regularly and scored some nice records, but I haven’t been in years. June 27 and June 28 are prime bass-fishing season up in The Berkshires, so nature calls. I will, however, be at the WFMU Record Fair, which will take place this year May 30-June 1 in New York City. I will have a booth for Friday only, selling some of the duplicates from my recent score in Baltimore. Normally I would also be bass fishing on that particular weekend, but I have a personal engagement in Manhattan, so I’m stuck. But I’ll also have some nice records with me.

Here’s an interesting article: The Vinyl Revival: Who — and Why — Are Those Folks Buying Records Again. It’s nice to see that younger people are discovering what we’ve known all along: There’s no better medium for owning and listening to music than vinyl.

The Art Blakey A Night At Birdland Records Volume 1 and 2, Blue Note 1521 and 1522, have been added to the Library of Congress list of recordings to be preserved in the National Recording Registry. Nice honor for some great records. I would have been nice to have seen the original covers with the release, or even the original 10-inch covers, rather than the reissued cover. But that’s just a quibble. Always nice to see jazz recordings from the era receive honors and accolades, long overdue, wouldn’t you say?

So one problem was the lack of sleep. Then there was the idea that if I were somehow able to get the records before Friday, I could bring some of them to the WFMU Record Fair and recoup some of my investment immediately. The Lovely Mrs. JC was a strong proponent of this idea. Wisely, she has always been the one managing money in our household. If it had been me in charge, we would likely have 30,000 records, and not just a mere 10,000 records. And we’d be broke.

But I still needed a car to carry the records. Fortunately my niece has a Toyota Highlander, which I had used previously to haul about 1,500 records. I arranged to pick that up on Tuesday, so I had the option of going down before Friday if I wanted. Wednesday was out of the question because I had work projects to complete, but Thursday was a possibility. I reached out to Rob in Baltimore. Thursday during the day wasn’t great for him. I wrote back: What about the evening? Sure, he said, anytime after 6:30 p.m. If I were to drive down and arrive at 6:30 p.m. and spend two hours looking at the records and loading them, then drive back to New York, I could expect to be back home in the range of midnight on the early side and 1 a.m. on the late side. But I’d have so much adrenaline flowing I probably wouldn’t even notice the drive. Besides, I wasn’t sleeping anyway, so getting home late, with the records in hand, was probably better for my health than simply staying home and obsessing about the records. So I sent Rob back a note saying that I would be there around 6:30 in the evening on Thursday. Fine, he wrote back. He was looking forward to it.

After another sleepless night on Wednesday, Thursday was finally at hand. At about 2 p.m. I put the leash on my dog Marty and got into the car and headed to the Lincoln Tunnel for the trek to Baltimore, which I figured to be at least 4 hours during rush hour. You may remember Marty as my good luck charm from when I bought the Iriving Kalus collection. No way was Marty staying behind. The trip to Baltimore was uneventful. I was able to grab a bite along the way and still arrive at Rob’s place at about 6:15. I called him up to tell him I was there and he said to meet him in the back. It was a small apartment/office building. I pulled up to the back and met Rob there. We went down a short corridor and up a couple of small flights of stairs. Not the best for hauling boxes of heavy records, but there was nothing we could do about that. Once I got to the apartment, I put Marty in his crate and took a look around.

The records were in brown boxes from Home Depot, the kind you might use if you were moving books. They weren’t all that sturdy and I was glad that I had brought five sturdy record boxes from home. I had counted about 200 collectible records from the list that Rob had sent me. My plan was to isolate the collectible records, put those in my boxes and bring them back up to the apartment when I got back to New York. I would leave the rest of the records in the car for a few days until I was able to drive them up to the house in The Berkshires, where there would be enough room to unload them and sort through them. I was going to use a separate car completely to haul records to and from the WFMU Record Fair.

I looked at all of the boxes on the floor. It looked like a lot more records than I had seen on the list. I could see immediately why Rob wanted to get rid of all of these boxes at one time. I could also see that they wouldn’t easily fit in the car. Before I even began looking at the records, I asked Rob if it would be OK if I didn’t take the classical boxes with me. I told him that I would just donate them to Goodwill anyway, so if he could do that, it would be very helpful. Sure, he said. No problem. The classical boxes were taken care of.

Oh, yes, Rob said, there were also these three other boxes. Boxes he had forgotten about and hadn’t included on this list. He wasn’t even sure what they contained. I opened the top of one of the boxes. I saw two things. A broken 78 and an intact 78. Both were on the Prestige label. I looked further into the boxes. More 78s, more Prestiges, all intact, none broken.  I asked Rob if it would be OK if I took the three new boxes instead of the classical boxes, assuming I had room in the car. Sure, he said. No problem.

Now I was prepared to look at the jazz records, which were on the other side of the room from the classical boxes and the boxes of 78s. One box was a little smaller than the others. I grabbed that one first. It was filled with 10-inch LPs. I pulled out the first record. Miles Davis, Volume 2, Blue Note 5022. My hands were trembling with excitement as I turned the record to its side, looked the cover over carefully on both sides, and pulled the record from its jacket. This would be the first test of whether the drive down to Baltimore was a complete waste of time or an opportunity to buy a jazz collection that I could potentially treasure for the rest of my life. I gently took the record from its cover and pulled it over to the nearest light.

What happened next? Stay tuned for Part 5 tomorrow.