Sonny Rollins: Plus Four (1956) Esquire

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Selection 1: Pent Up House . . . Selection 2: Kiss and Run . . . Artists: Clifford Brown (trumpet) Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone) Richie Powell (piano) George Morrow (bass) Max Roach (drums) recorded NYC, March 22, 1956 Music: The … Continue reading

Sonny Rollins: Tour de Force (1956) Esquire (updated)

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Selection: B Quick (Rollins) (Update: Bonus track –  featuring Earl Coleman vocals) My Ideal (Whiting) Artists: Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone) Kenny Drew (piano) George Morrow (bass) Max Roach (drums) Earl Coleman (vocals) recorded Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, December 7, … Continue reading

Leon Leavitt, legendary collector and trader of rare jazz records

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(an occasional post prompted by the interesting exchange regarding said gentleman) What Leon Wanted (1980) Browse through Leon Leavitt’s Wants List, circa 1980 (Wants List courtesy of DottorJazz – click to enlarge). It’s like reading pages from TheJazzCollector’s $1,000 bin. … Continue reading

Eric Dolphy: Latin Caribe (1960) New Jazz re

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Selection: Mambo Ricci (Amalbert/ Ricci) Artists Eric Dolphy (as, bclar, fl) Carlie Simons (vib) Gene Casey (p) Bill Ellington (b) Manny Ramos (d, timb) Juan Amalbert (congas) recorded Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 19, 1960 Music: LJQ brought to … Continue reading

Schadenfreude

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The last few weeks have seen more than their share of casualties buying online, so I thought I might share some of these,  to allow fellow collectors to  experience vicariously the misfortune of others. They call it schadenfreude, such a good word that it has … Continue reading

Tubby Hayes Down in The Village (1962) Fontana

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  Track Selection 1: Johnny One Note . . . London 2012 bonus! Track Selection 2. First Eleven Artists Freddy Logan (b) Allan Ganley (d) Gordon Beck (p) Tubby Hayes (ts,ss,vib) Jimmy Deuchar (t) recorded live at The Ronnie Scott … Continue reading

Wonder why you keep losing bids on most wanted records?

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Ahoudori1947, the bidder anonymised as a***4, is the Ebay identity of the Tokyo group of vinyl record stores “Disk Union”.  I estimate they spend over $1,000 a day every day buying premium collectible jazz vinyl on eBay: That is four wins … Continue reading

Not coming to LondonJazzCollector any time soon

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It occurred to me of late, it is all very well bragging about your latest scores, relishing everyone being consumed with jealousy, oh that’s sooo nice,  but what gets very little airtime are the near-misses, and the downright failures. So I’m launching eFail, the … Continue reading

Esquires Take Flight

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エスクァイア 誌は、非常に、英語はありがとうございました Two dozen or more very desirable UK Esquire pressings of some of Prestige’s most collectible titles from the Fifties came under the eBay hammer in the last few weeks, from the respected US seller of collectible jazz Roverd-90, Harry Hasbun of Gainsville Va . … Continue reading

Ever wondered who trumped your eBay bids? All is revealed!

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After a long run of bids I thought were “realistic” being trumped, I was curious and decided to do a little research as to who are these jazz collectors  putting in “premium bids”on collectible jazz, in some cases £50 to 100 more than … Continue reading

“And how would sir like to pay – cash, cheque or Blue Note?”

Ebay record auctions are a measure of the world’s pulse on collectible jazz. Three or is it now seven trillion people on the planet, and only a few hundred collectors and traders in the whole world set the current “going rate” and confirm how desirable some of these records are.

Ultra-rare records have always earned their premium – the mint Mobley 1568, or 1538 Jutta Hipp whatever, and other entries in the famousJazz Collector  $1,000+ bin. Cheap compared to a Ming vase or Picasso, but expensive to us ordinary mortals. I am more interested in the going rate for “bread and butter” collectible jazz, Blue Note being among the most collectible. I am usually interested first in the home UK sellers to avoid postage premium, shipping delays, customs charges, or problems with dispute returns.In the last week I have noticed a new benchmark for these “mid-field” collectibles:

A handful I was bidding on all went through the roof. What would have sold for £100-175 a few months ago seems to have risen to now £200-275.

Ebay allows you to check back on the location of auction winners via the feedback listing of sellers. In the past when I have followed up high prices in Blue Notes  the South East Asia connection has been strong. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. This time my interest picked up, in addition to our German friends (lots of “Musik” in the history)  an unexpected number of Russian Federation buyers, and damn it, UK audiophiles (buying history includes lots of tubes and components) . I guess if you are going to spend £20,000 on a turntable, £250 on  record is no big deal.

While the whole world is downloading and sharing for free, those of us who want “the real thing” are going to have to tighten our belts, remortgage the house, or just turn our sights on the “less collectible”.

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