1981 New York Times article on record collecting
white_tea
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I signed up for New York Times' new select program, which allows you to get free articles from as far back as 1981. I unearthed this one on record collecting. It's interesting to see how far it's come along, yet it's still relatively the same. But I guess you can say that about everything. Read it if you want. IN PURSUIT OF RARITIES AMONG JAZZ RECORDS[/b](NYT) 1368 wordsPublished: February 8, 1981By LEO HABER Hardly a month goes by that the mail doesn't turn up a sheaf of three to six pages containing numbered lists of jazz records that one never expected to see again. Many of these lists are carefully typewritten and photocopied, and some of them have been done up by printers in a fancier way. Almost all have been sent out by private individuals, not by dealers. These individuals are participating in the latest ''underground'' rage: the jazz auction of out-of-print LP's among private collectors. Interest in jazz is growing, and the jazz auction has become a way of life for many fans. The truth is that 78's have been sold and traded among jazz collectors for ages - and still are. But the exchange of old LP's - the subject of this article - seems to have risen to unbelievable heights in the past few years. It is arguable that this phenomenon was actually provoked by the fallow period in jazz after the death of John Coltrane in 1968. His avant-garde followers played the music into a cul-de-sac. It was then that the aficionados of jazz had to do something to keep the sacred flame burning during the time of darkness. And so, the avid exchange of older jazz LP's through the private jazz auction. Who participates in this pleasant diversion? In the absence of a scientific survey of the clientele, some educated guesses can be made. The suspicion is that the majority of those buying and selling in jazz auctions are middle-class white males between the ages of 25 and 55. The very young are not as enamored of the past, and collectors' items invariably highlight artists of the past. Nor do the very young have the money with which to compete in auctions for treasured records. This hard economic fact also limits the disadvantaged in our society and even, I suppose, collectors over 55 who are husbanding their resources for retirement. Women seem to be out of it. There are few women collectors of jazz records.[/b] What do the makers of jazz lists sell and what do their fellow collectors buy? The answer is simple: almost everything. There is hardly a jazz artist or an old album that cannot find its devoted buyer if the seller perseveres enough. It goes without saying that there are perennial favorites that garner the greatest number of bids in any jazz auction with the greatest frequency. One would expect that the titans of jazz who appeared on major labels at the beginning of the LP era in the late 1940's and in the 50's would be such favorites. Much of their LP material came from 78's. This means Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Condon, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman on early Columbia; Stan Kenton and George Shearing on Capitol; Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald on Decca; Fats Waller and Artie Shaw on RCA, and so on. But surprisingly, these are not the artists or the labels that command the highest prices in the jazz auction game. Far more impressive on the jazz auction lists are the smaller labels that proliferated in the 50's and 60's and that specialized in modern jazz.[/b] The artists they brought before the public were titans too - Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and early John Coltrane on Prestige issued with a yellow label on the face of the record; Bud Powell, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan and Fats Navarro on Blue Note with a blue and white label and a New York address; Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Coleman Hawkins and Randy Weston on Riverside; Charlie Mingus and Lennie Tristano on Atlantic, and Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Gerry Mulligan and Sarah Vaughan on Emarcy-Mercury. There were other jazz labels of substance and many other artists. The list is endless. Emphasis on label colors and company addresses is not inconsequential. It is based on a very crucial aspect of the passion of record collecting. Your committed jazz collector of oldies is usually not interested in reissues of LP material.[/b] (Reissues of 78 material on LP are not suspect.) Nor does he care for collections that glean their tracks from other LP's. He wants the ''first edition.'' Ergo, the yellow label to identify the oldest Prestige. Swingsville and New Jazz, both offshoots of Prestige, must have red labels and purple labels respectively. Atlantic should have a black label. Blue Note, after its alliance with Liberty Records and its change of address, sinks in value even though the later pressings and record covers and liner notes are exactly the same. There are exceptions to this rule against reissues, provided that no electronic tampering has taken place. The most well-known exception to the reissue rule is the label factory that seemed to produce the largest number of jazz records of that era, encompassing almost every living artist of value and some dead ones, too - Norman Granz's labels, which began as Mercury/Clef and Norgran and evolved into Verve with many of the records appearing on two of these three labels. No matter. The auction bidder of today will fast for a week to pay for early Verve and for all of Clef and Norgran. The artists he covets? Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Dizzy, Bird, Getz, Tatum, Stitt, Tal Farlow, Bud Powell Torme, Krupa, Rich, Peterson, Teagarden. Not even mentioned yet are the most coveted records in the jazz auction -the pieces de resistance. In this instance, it means that jazz collectors covet the records of lesser-known artists on small and evanescent labels of the past that went with the wind. Luckily for those who might be embarrassed by this quirk of human nature, the jazz performers in question are, in the main, artists of the first rank who never gained the plaudits they deserved from an uncaring world.[/b] Did you ever hear of labels named Transition, Celebrity, Alladin, Signal, Candid? The box accompanying this article lists 21 records in a tiny sampling of fine artists who never managed to take the world by storm. All of the 21 records are quite rare and command the highest prices in out-of-print record shops like Dayton's in New York - if they are available. Here are 21 Jazz LP's on 21 labels that ordinarily command prices above $30 in the jazz auction game. The artists are listed in alphabetical order. Naturally, all records must be in excellent shape and original issue if they are to inspire the highest bidders. This list is by no means exhaustive.: 1. Ted Brown: Free Wheeling, Vanguard 8515 2. Serge Chaloff: Boston Blow-Up, Capitol T-6510 3. Sonny Clark: Trio, Time 70010 4. Sonny Criss: Jazz-U.S.A., Imperial 9006 5. Ted Curson: Plenty of Horn, Old Town 2003 6. Kenny Dorham: The Arrival of K.D., Jaro 5007 7. Al Haig: Today, Del Moral-Mint 711 8. Elmo Hope: Here's Hope, Celebrity 209 9. Illinois Jacquet: And His Tenor Sax, Aladdin 803 10. Thad Jones: Leonard Feather Presents Mad Thad, Period 1208 11. Lee Konitz: In Harvard Square, Storyville 323 12. Booker Little: Out Front, Candid 8027 13. Teo Macero: Explorations, 10'' Debut 6 14. Dodo Marmarosa: Piano Moods, 10'' Dial 208 15. Warne Marsh: Music for Prancing, Mode 125 16. J.R. Monterose: In Action, Studio 4-SS 100 17. Herbie Nichols: Love, Gloom, Cash, Love, Bethlehem 81 18. Red Rodney: 1957, Signal 1206 19. Cecil Taylor: Jazz Advance, Transition 19 20. Mal Waldron: Mal-3, New Jazz 8201 21. George Wallington: Prestidigitator, East-West 4004 Note: I must stress again that major names in jazz and major jazz labels frequently command high prices. Thelonious Monk on Riverside (not the Japanese reissues) and Bud Powell on Verve are cases in point. But the above list merely attempts to highlight some lesserknown
artists whose achievements the jazz auction buffs will not let willingly die.
artists whose achievements the jazz auction buffs will not let willingly die.
Comments
my oh my have times changed.
dope post.