Jazz Museum

Occasional items of historical interest (not my own!) in the virtual Jazz Museum

1. Miles-Monk-Trane: writing on cover

You wait ages for one autograph, then three come along at once. A few thousand dollars less than the Charlie Parker, but even at $4,305 it is indeed an object of desire, and on a dollar-per-name basis, better value

You wonder if the autograph-hunter asked for his pen back. Excuse me, Mr Coltrane, sir, umm, thank you for the autograph, but the pen, I was wondering if I could just …umm, in your jacket pocket there, the pen, the one with the gold top, you know, my pen? If I could just have the pen, err my pen. please… ?

2. Charlie Parker 1949 autographed original Dial 78 of Yardbird Suite, which sold for $6,000 in August last year. Though not generally a fan of autographs, there is something special about this, especially the dedication “Parkerly Yours, Charlie”.

A man who who came from nothing who single handed turned the course of jazz, self-taught, narcotics addict, living a chaotic life, dead by his thirties, and the B-Side of the record dedicated to his drug dealer, Moose the Mooche. No “”Bird Drinks Red Bull” sponsorship, no celebrity reality TV series, none of the rewards enjoyed by today’s talentless non-entities. Not someone you would ever expect to see an autograph of. But written in the presence of and by the hand of genius.

As a mere watcher I captured the auction: