Jazz & Blues Auctions
For us, Jazz and Blues music very much speaks to the soul. Historically so important to music, the sounds that first appeared onto shellac records in around 1895 are what we now deem to be early Jazz music - from this period there can also be found Blues recordings featuring African-American slaves on the plantations of the deep south. Such recordings are now extremely scarce and when they do turn up can command extremely high prices under the hammer!
More commonly seen, though not necessarily cheaper, are records from the mid 20th century that feature Jazz and Blues musicians. We’re looking here at the ‘big’ US labels such as Blue Note, Riverside, Prestige, Bethlehem, Mosaic, Pacific Jazz, Fantasy, Atlantic, Verve (Clef and Norgran too) and Contemporary, though also UK releases on labels such as Esquire, Tempo and London can be equally as collectable.
For collectors of these genres, the artist is also key. Typically, records fetauring ‘Trad’, ‘Swing’ and ‘Cool’ Jazz musicians do not hold a great monetary value, rather (if we’re talking Jazz records) the more sought after artists are the cats who came after this, the harder end of Bop, the free form style of playing, the ‘avant’, challenging and diverse performers such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane (and indeed Alice Coltrane), Dorothy Ashby, Hank Mobley, Jutta Hipp, Lee Morgan, Sonny Stitt, Lee Morgan, Sonny Clark, Bill Evans, Elysian Spring, Thelonious Monk, Art Pepper, James Tatum, Sun Ra, Don Rendell and Ian Carr.
When we look at Blues records, there’s quite literally hundreds of sought after musicians – usually we can say ‘the earlier the better’ though this understandably isn’t always the case. Records, 10”, LP, 7”, EP or otherwise(!) featuring artists such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie Johnson (and Blind Willie McTell for that matter!), Freddie King, Ma Rainey, Mississippi John Hurt, the ‘harmonica boss’ Dr Ross, Etta James, Otis Spann, Lead Belly, Sonny Boy Williamson, Skip James can all be desirable.
If you have records in the collection dating from the early country blues all the way up to the modern blues of Jack White we’d love to see them!
