what is your most valuable album....

[paul secor]

Off the top of my head -

Mingus at Monterey - signed by Mingus

Cecil Taylor FMP box

Albert Ayler: Spiritual Unity - 1st issue w. booklet

Cecil Taylor/Albert Mangelsdorff/Frederich Gulda & others (Brain)

Rev. Robert Wilkins (Piedmont)

Trane: Ascension - 45 rpm single

Some of these might be worth something, but only if I wanted to sell them and only if someone wanted to buy them - too many ifs to be bothered with.

The most valuable albums in my collection are the ones with the music I love the most. And many of those don't cost that much - but they're priceless to me.

[Larry Kart]

If the cover of my copy of Sonny Murray's "Sonny's Time Now" hadn't been damaged in a basement flood some 20 years ago, that probably would be it. The LP itself is in good shape.

Didn't you have that problem last year, too? Same house?

Same house, two very different problems -- at least in terms of cause, not results. Both problems corrected now, fingers crossed.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

IT HASNT COME IN THE MAIL YET. x1000000000000000000

[ghost of miles]

Just from a personal standpoint, probably my CD copy of George Russell's STRATUSPHUNK, which I managed to get signed by all four Indianapolis members of the group--David Baker, David Young, Al Kiger, and Joe Hunt.

[jeffcrom]

In terms of monetary value, I have a nice copy of Sun Ra's A Fireside Chat With Lucifer on the Saturn label. It was marked $10, but the guy gave it to me for $9. It regularly sells at auction for $250 or more. And the music's pretty good, too.

I have a fair amount of rare stuff; it's not always the music I reach for the most often.

[porcy62]

I have a couple of Beatles original first pressings, that I payed definitely too much, some Mosaic payed a lot, and a fair amount of BN and Prestige bought just before they became prohibitive.

And the Ellington Centennial box set, the main reason because I still own a cd player.

[David Ayers]

Well yeah some people are saying cash value, some rarity/love-of-the-hunt value, some just answering what they like best.

Scarcity does bestow a value, though there is nothing you can't get off a blog these days. Also some things that were rare years or decades ago might be commonplace now. But I guess I do have an answer based on what was hard to find at the time and has stayed with me as favorites - Japanese pressings of Mohawk and Consequences (both Fontana). I don't have anything worth much cash-wise, I don't think.

[Brad]

The Bud Powell Mythic Sounds box - a gift from a friend on Organissimo

for single lps, probably Warne Marsh Meets Gary Foster on Eastwind - certainly the most I ever paid for an lp!

If I had the Mythic Sounds box, that would be my answer too. But since I don't I will go with the Blakey Mosaic.

[Swinger]

Miles Davis : Plugged Nickel box set.

Its prices are usually quite high nowadays.

Off the top of my head -

Cecil Taylor FMP box

Damn I envy you for having that box set

[paul secor]

Just from a personal standpoint, probably my CD copy of George Russell's STRATUSPHUNK, which I managed to get signed by all four Indianapolis members of the group--David Baker, David Young, Al Kiger, and Joe Hunt.

Now that's very cool!

[medjuck]

Not sure, but these three are probably worth something:

Frank Sinatra A Man and His Music (Reprise) in a fancy slipcase, numbered (1598) and signed by Sinatra

Duke Ellington Fifteen Swing (Grinnell College)

Various For Example (FMP) 3 lps and 140 page book

I should also mention the Art Ensemble of Chicago People In Sorrow (nessa) first pressing, still sealed. I found this when we emptied my father's house a few years back.

Maybe more when I think about it.

What's the Ellington? A concert recording? Do you know the date it was recorded?

[Chuck Nessa]

What's the Ellington? A concert recording? Do you know the date it was recorded?

Concert at the college on Jan 10, 1957. The notes say "The following day, our own Herbie Hancock, spured on by Jimmy Woode, Sam Woodyard and Quentin Jackson, who graciously consented to a 'jam session' in Younker Lounge, for two hours captivated the audience as they uninhibitedly and effortlessly improvised..."

[clifford_thornton]

Check it out here.

[GA Russell]

I have two autographed Al Hirt LPs, an If LP signed by Dick Morrissey and a signed Mark Murphy Rah LP.

I wouldn't expect to get much for them now, but perhaps after Murphy passes the Rah will be worth something.

[medjuck]

I have two autographed Al Hirt LPs, an If LP signed by Dick Morrissey and a signed Mark Murphy Rah LP.

I wouldn't expect to get much for them now, but perhaps after Murphy passes the Rah will be worth something.

Hey does that copy of RAH have the lyrics he used on the early pressings? "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places/Of the horses at the races......"

[P.L.M]

ART PEPPER LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD (CONTEMPORARY 3 LP) autograph by the master.

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND THE MAGIC BAND: LICK MY DECALLS OFF BABY (original Vinyl Straight: Reprise american print, autograph by the captain in 1974 with a little Drawing from his hand).

Both, good as new (and, no, I won't sell any on E.BAY)

That's it.

Edited December 10, 2010 by P.L.M

[Guest Bill Barton]

The one that immediately springs to mind is a test pressing of Tanuki's Night Out by the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band that is autographed by both Toshiko and Lew. As I recall, I won this in a promotional contest from Jazz America Marketing when they were about to release it stateside.

[GA Russell]

I have two autographed Al Hirt LPs, an If LP signed by Dick Morrissey and a signed Mark Murphy Rah LP.

I wouldn't expect to get much for them now, but perhaps after Murphy passes the Rah will be worth something.

Hey does that copy of RAH have the lyrics he used on the early pressings? "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places/Of the horses at the races......"

Yes. I didn't know there was a later pressing version.

It also has two recordings of My Favorite Things - one with jazz references and one without.

It is a Japanese issue.

[B. Clugston]

The hardest albums to track down that I own were the 8 CD box set Document: New Music From Russia-the 80s and the LP "New Vitality" by Vladimir Chekasin (both on Leo). I have one of 30 copies of a single made by singer-songwriter Natalie Rose LeBrecht.

A few others I would probably have a hard time replacing would be The Ericle of Dolphi, one of the Sam River's Black Africas on Horo, Edward Vesala's Kullervo and Albert Ayler's Albert Smiles with Sonny.

[clifford_thornton]

The Ericle of Dolphi is just muy expensive now; the others you could do for under $40 a pop.

[Chuck Nessa]

Time to forget $. My most valuable albums are any number of Ellingtons, some version of the Armstrongs, some version of the Mortons and my own stuff 'cause that is how I ran my life.

[AndrewHill]

You guys have cool stuff

No lps really except a copy of The Hard Swing by Sonny Stitt on the trumpeter label, in M- condition, and a very nice copy of Tommy Turrentine on Time.

Cd's though, I have a couple that might fetch a few bucks:

Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons' Firebirds signed by Prince Lasha

Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw's Complete Sessions on BN

Sonny Murray's Sonny's Time Now on DIW

Tony Oxley's Baptised Traveller on Columbia UK

Ray Russell's Dargon Hill on Columbia UK

Conrad Herwig's Latin Side of Coltrane on Astor Place

David Murray's Flowers for Albert (COmplete Concert) on India Navigation

Love Cry Want on Newjazz

Ornette Coleman-Of Human feelings on Antilles

[sidewinder]

Tony Oxley's Baptised Traveller on Columbia UK

Ray Russell's Dargon Hill on Columbia UK

Nice !

[mikeweil]

I have a copy of Randy Weston's LP on his own Bakton label, the one later reissued on Atlantic - dunno whether that's valuable. 

I have quite a few rare artist-produced LPs:

Walter Zuber Armstrong

Marc Levin

Jane Ira Bloom

Lloyd McNeill

[clifford_thornton]

Tony Oxley's Baptised Traveller on Columbia UK

Ray Russell's Dargon Hill on Columbia UK

Nice !

Yeah, those CDs are very hard to find and have excellent music. I have the Realm LPs but they definitely did a good job with the reissues.

Wouldn't mind a vinyl copy of the Tommy T on Time, either!