Jazz Scene 12" 78rpm album David Stone Martin Gjon Mili

$

595

V/A The Jazz Scene
album of six 12" 78rpm discs
Mercury Records (no cat # for album)

Here is truly a piece of jazz history in unbelievable condition from my personal collection. I purchased this set from a jazz dealer friend about 10 years ago for $500 - at that time the typical price for a copy in average condition. Although the outside of the binder has faded a bit with time and exposure to light, the contents are about as close to perfect as you can get for an item that is half a century old.

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Released in 1949, this collection was a limited edition of 5000 copies, and was obviously a labor of love on Granz' part. This copy is number 925. As you can see from the scan, it is autographed by Norman Granz himself.

The tracks (disc matrix #s in parentheses) are:

disc 1 / Duke Ellington: Sono (2077)
Duke Ellington: Frustration (2078)
disc 2 / Charlie Parker w/Neal Hefti: Repetition (2071)
Neal Hefti: Rhumbacito (2072)
disc 3 / Coleman Hawkins: Picasso (2073)
Lester Young: I Want to Be Happy (2198)
disc 4 / Ralph Burns: Introspection (2075)
George Handy: The Bloos (2076)
disc 5 / Charlie Parker: The Bird (2081)
Willie Smith: Sophisticated Lady (2074)
disc 6 / Machito: Tanga (2172)
Bud Powell: Cherokee (2199)

The six discs grade from E- to N- in terms of surface quality (most in the upper end of that range), all very clean with excellent lustre and shine. The discs play grade between 8.5 and 10 on a 10 point scale (again, most play at the higher end). At the end of this description I describe my grading scale in more detail. The discs are more like vinyl than shellac, so they play much more quietly than a typical 78rpm disc. When I've played these records for friends blindly, they could not believe that they were listening to 78rpm discs!

The labels are clean - no writing or stickers. One of the labels has a skinny 3/4" tear/wear at the outer perimeter. No spindle trails!

But that's not all ... the first page of the album is a fold out with an illustration by David Stone Martin:

Although the condition of this item is uncommonly fine, it is 56 years old, so the interior pages do have some yellowing, especially around the edges. One defect of note are these 2 light stains on this pair of pages:

Also, each page that follows a disc tends to look like this:

Naturally, I will package this item very carefully. If you look at my feedback, you will see many comments regarding the quality of packaging I use - and many of these comments are in regard to shipping 78s.

Shipping: please use the ebay calculator to estimate your shipping charge (weight = approximately 8 pounds). After the auction has closed, I will package the item and send you an ebay invoice with the exact amount. I will ship via whatever method or carrier you choose. Those living in the US will automatically receive an email link to track the shipment. If you desire insurance, I prefer to insure through stamps.com because the USPS rarely honors insurance claims.

Please check my other auctions, I will be listing a few dozen very desirable small group jazz 78s over the coming week.

PLAY GRADING: The visual condition of a 78 is rarely an indicator of how well it plays, so I play grade all 78s on a 10 point scale. I rarely sell discs that grade lower than 6, and discs that play grade 9 or 10 are rare. Note that these are overall ratings; the first few seconds as well as the loudest passages of a disc tend to be noisier than the rest. Often the grade is given as a range (e.g. "6.5 - 8"), meaning you will hear that range of sound quality. I do not sell cracked or chipped discs and I am careful to note any label or major surface defects in the description.
10: plays exceptionally well for shellac, indestinguishable or better than a mint LP of the pre-stereo era. Noise is minor.
9: excellent sound; plays with negligible surface noise, near LP quality
8: excellent sound; plays with minimal surface noise
7: good sound; plays with moderate surface noise
6: typical 78rpm sound, average condition, surface noise is somewhat distracting
5: tolerable sound; surface noise is about as loud as the music
split grades (6/8, 7/8, etc - one grade for each side of disc. 7.5=somewhere between 7 and 8, etc.)