Meanwhile, I was on eBay watching a copy of Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This was an original promo record listed in M- condition for the record and M- condition for the cover, although the cover had radio station call letters written in large ink on the back, which would diminish the cover in my eyes and in the eyes of most collectors, I would presume. This one sold for $2,334. Without the radio call letters, I think this would have made it into the $3,000 bin. The other Rollins record I was watching, the UK pressing of Worktime, wound up selling for about $270. About that cover — I never meant to imply that the illustrator was trying to convey anything about drugs but, like GTF and other commenters, I see something in the cover where that can come across, although I do like the cover quite a lot, more than the U.S. version.

Also on my watch list was this item from the seller Keca222, who has been quite active lately: Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 1535. This was an original Lexington Avenue 12-inch pressing listed in M- condition for the record and Ex condition for the cover. It sold for$4,049.99. Wow. Don’t forget the real original pressing of Afro-Cuban was the 10-inch record. For the 12-inch release, they added another side of material that had been previously recorded but unreleased. I remember a post several years back where Rudolf mentioned not considering the 12-inch record the original pressing and, for some reason, that always stuck with me. Now the 12-incher is a $4,000 record and the 10-incher would be, what, maybe $1,500 at most? I have an original 10-inch pressing, but a reissue of the 12-incher. Would love to have an original 12-inch LP, but $4,000 is a bit beyond my comfort zone — quite a bit, in fact.

Speaking of Sonny, that effort to rename the Williamsburg Bridge in his honor is gaining some momentum. According to a report in Bowery Boogie, a Brooklyn Councilman has actually introduced a bill that would make this a reality, and the Brooklyn Borough President is also supportive of the idea. I will follow up on this in the next few days and see what we can all do to help move this along. I cannot describe how cool it would be to drive over the Sonny Rollins Bridge.

Here’s a second item, this one from The New York Times, about the acquisition of Sonny’s personal archive by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which is part of the New York Public Library. The collection includes rehearsals of recordings and practice sessions; a Selmer saxophone; notes, letters and other written material, some musical, some not. The Schomburg Center is located at 515 Malcolm X Blvd. in Harlem. Can’t wait to check it out.

And here’s one from the Wall Street Journal about boxed sets. The article was occasioned by the release of “The Jazz & Blues Artbox,” which consists of 230 DVDs from Bern Jazz Festival Concerts from 1983 to 2002. It is 400 hours or so of music, plus 96 interviews, plus a book and booklets. Oh, yes, and the set its own cabinet as well. Five thousand copies are being produced, which seems somewhat optimistic to me, given the $8,400 price tag. But, who would have thought years ago that a single Hank Mobley record would routinely sell for more than $5,000?

Just as I’m typing this, here comes another note from CeeDee, with a link to: Blue Mitchell, Blue Moods, Riverside 336. This was an original pressing listed in VG+ condition for the record and VG for the cover. The final price was $460.55. This has always been one of the Riversides that has attracted been of high interest to collectors, so this is no surprise to me, particularly as we are seeing a huge rise in prices among collectible records in lesser condition. It used to be that the big bucks were reserved for records in top condition, not that anyone would consider $460.55 to be “big bucks” anymore.

And now one from Fredrik with this link: Lous Smith, Smithville, Blue Note 1594. And this note: “I just wanted to highlight an auction from JRC where a copy of Luis Smith on Blue Note 1594 just sold for $3300. It smashed the previous high price of $1825 by quite a distance. Quite interesting, cause the cover was less than perfect with a large tear on the front, lower right hand corner, and a bottom seam split.”