By Susan Sliwicki

Jazz music and 45s are the order of the day in this edition of Market Watch. But which format took top honors for this countdown?

10. $1,800 — Various artists, 500-plus vintage picture sleeve 45 RPM collection. If your New Year’s resolution was to branch into collecting picture sleeves, this lot offered a great way to get started without totally blowing your budget. In a move that’s atypical for bulk lots, this seller included a photograph of virtually every single picture sleeve included the listing — kudos on such a thorough effort. We were saddened to read these were from the seller’s remaining store stock, as he was moving on to new ventures. The seller assigned an “average” lot grade of VG+ to the group, with some NM vinyl and sleeves and VG vinyl sleeves also in the mix.

9. $1,863.18 — U2, “Three” 12-inch single. Ireland may not be known as the record-rarity capitol of the modern world, but when you’ve got a rare, hand-numbered pressing of a U2 12-inch single, who’s going to quibble? “This is probably the most desirable U2 collectible and a treasured item for any collection,” the seller wrote. “U2 ‘Three’ is special, because it is the earliest U2 collectible you can find.” This copy of CBS 12-7951, which was made in England and released in 1979 by the Irish division of CBS, comes in VG condition. The sleeve shows obvious wear and tear, plus some handwriting.

“This is not just a pile of junk,” the seller wrote. “These are all very saleable, collectable, whatever. If you are just collecting, the buy it now is a helluva deal. If you are looking to resell, well, you aren’t doing too shabby either as an average price per record.” We agree.

8. $1,900 — Lee Morgan, “Lee Morgan Vol. 3,” LP.  This Mint Minus mono record on the Blue Note label (BLP 1557) is sure to please any jazz fan, if not for its lovely, glossy condition, then surely for its sonic quality. “Overall a beautiful first clean copy; sound quite amazing in my Celestion speakers,” the seller wrote. “The winner should be pleased with this first copy.” The laminated cover, which grades in NM shape, shows light wear on the front, browning spots on the back cover and a small split on the top seam, the seller said.

7. $2,005 — Marlon “Madman” Mitchell, “Ice Cold Baby” b/w “Bermuda Shorts,” 45. You know you’re hard-core rockabilly artist when you can perform a song about a much-maligned fashion staple of the suburbs to back a song about a once-amorous girl giving you the cold shoulder. This VG++ treasure  on the Vena label (HC-100) is a “killer two-sider” issued in 1957 from Alabama indie rocker  Marlon “Madman” Mitchell. Other than some minor stacking soil on the label and superficial sleeve marks on the vinyl, this record is in great shape, the seller said. “This the copy you’ve been waiting for,” the seller wrote. “This is a gem; bragging rights come with it at no extra charge.”

6. $2,100 — Art Blakey, three jazz LPs. One bid was all it took for this trio of rare, original pressing Art Blakey LPs to find a new turntable to call home. Other than giving the titles — “Orgy In Rhythm” (Blue Note 1554), “The Jazz Messengers at The Café Bohemia Vol. 1” (Blue Note 1507) and “The Jazz Messengers at The Café Bohemia Vol. 2” (Blue Note 1508) — the seller literally only shared that there are “clear graphics front and back and no splits.”

5. $2,121.33 — The Split Decision Band, “Watchin’ Out” b/w “Dazed” 45. When an online seller puts “Funkyou!” in his tagline, you can bet you’re in for something fun. But whether this NM ’70s soul record, issued in 1978 on the Network Records label from previously undocumented soul mecca of Des Moines, Iowa, lives up to that hype will have to be decided by the new owner, who valiantly battled to squeeze in the 34th and winning bid.

4. $2,313.88 — The Five Chances, “All I Want” b/w “Shake-A-Link,” 45. The Five Chances only put out one record on Chicago’s Blue Lake label  — BL-115 — and what a visually interesting label it is. The seller had nothing definitive to say about the condition of this record, other than that the “labels are clean with stacking ring marks” and that it “plays fine with some surface noise and light scratches.”

3. $2,750 — The Beatles, “The Beatles” (The White Album), double LP. They’ve been broken up for more than 40 years, yet the Fab Four never seem to miss the Market Watch countdown. This time, they appear with a “mega rare” U.K. export copy of The White Album with the yellow and black Parlophone label (P-PCS 7067 and P-PCS 7068). The poster and color pictures earn the best grades of the lot at Mint Minus. The seller graded the cover “almost Excellent +,” while the records themselves are in VG condition with a lot of small hairlines that the seller says don’t appear to affect playing. The labels scored a VG+, and the inner sleeve is in Excellent, according to the seller.  “This is a wanted record and you won’t find this again!” the seller warned. “Highly collectible!!”

2. $3,000 — Bobby Rich, “There’s a Girl Somewhere for Me,” 45.  This record on the Sambea label (SBS-101) is making its debut on eBay — at least, according to the seller — who touts it as super-rare, impossible-to-find Northern soul 7-inch. The seller had little else to share, other than it’s a first pressing (vs. a reissue or copy) from 1974.  The record earned a visual grade of VG++, but “plays mint,” according to the seller.

1. $3,989.89 — The Crowd Pleasers, acetate. Apparently this record really is by a group of crowd pleasers — or at least, their VG+ record of covers and originals on the Musicol label pleased potential buyers, who exchanged 27 bids before a winner was declared. “Unreleased acetate from one of the hottest soul/funk party bands on the Columbus, Ohio, scene,” the seller wrote. “Kicks off with a smoking instrumental funk jam and includes covers of Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’  and Neil Young’s ‘Down By the River.’”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Goldmine compiles its Market Watch countdown from eBay auction results and seller descriptions. Any images shown with Market Watch stories are the same ones that appeared with the seller’s description of the piece.

In the decade between the end of World War II and the advent of rock ’n’ roll, Tony Bennett emerged as one of the premier pop singers of his generation — the heir apparent to figures like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and other iconic balladeers whose versatile and engaging vocal styles had already translated to huge successes in the 1930s and 1940s.

Despite his popularity in the postwar era, though, Bennett had grown restless by the 1970s. The time had come for him to explore something new, preferably on his own terms, and in an environment of his own making. After more than 15 years on Columbia and a short stint at MGM Records, Bennett struck out on his own and launched Improv Records, a label that lasted only a couple years but generated several fine recordings during the mid-1970s.

Concord Records gathers 16 tracks from his brief period on Improv into a single collection, Tony Bennett: The Best of the Improv Recordings. The compilation, which is culled from the four-CD boxed set, Tony Bennett: The Complete Improv Recordings, is set for release on July 12, just three weeks prior to Bennett’s 85th birthday.

“These tracks capture the moment in Tony Bennett’s career when he had complete artistic freedom,” says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Catalog and Jazz A&R at Concord Music Group. “As the head of his own label, he was the person who was calling all the shots and running the show. He was free to record what he wanted to record — music that was really important to him and resonated with him . . . I think the results are nothing short of stellar.”

Will Friedwald, who wrote the liner notes for the collection, admits that Improv was short-lived and not a commercial success, releasing about ten albums before shutting its doors after only two years. However, the period was an artistic high mark in Bennett’s overall career.

“Tony Bennett’s own recordings for his label would fall roughly into three categories,” says Friedwald. “Orchestral sessions with his regular musical director at the time, Torrie Zito; quartet sessions with the Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet; and most famously, duet sessions with pianist Bill Evans.” Each of these categories is well represented in this collection.

Despite the label’s less than stellar commercial performance during its short existence, says Friedwald, “the Improv sessions would result in some of the most amazing music of Bennett’s career.”

TRACK LIST:

This Can’t Be Love
Make Someone Happy
Isn’t It Romantic?
Life Is Beautiful
Blue Moon
Thou Swell
You Don’t Know What Love Is
My Romance
The Lady Is a Tramp
You Must Believe in Spring
Reflections
I Could Write a Book
Maybe September
As Time Goes By
While We’re Young [live]
I Left My Heart in San Francisco [live]

By Will Romano

Alex Skolnick was just 16 years old when he joined the San Francisco-based thrash band Legacy, which later morphed into metal stalwarts Testament. Skolnick’s work with Testament on genre-defining recordings such as 1987’s “The Legacy” and 1988’s “The New Order” spoke to a generation of hard rock fans hungry for dark, heavy music, which was only beginning to infiltrate the mainstream consciousness at the time.

Matt Zebroski, Nathan Peck, and Alex Skolnick. Photo courtesy Magna Carta

Yet, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, who could have guessed that Skolnick would soon exit Testament and later migrate from the adrenaline-fueled metal community to the more traditional world of jazz?

Since his discovery of iconic artists such as Miles Davis and Pat Metheny, Skolnick has earned a degree in jazz from New York City’s The New School and, much like the guitar teacher of his youth, Joe Satriani, grown emotionally and technically as a musician. Though Skolnick occasionally rejoins his one-time Testament bandmates, the Brooklyn resident has often steered clear of the heavy metal scene altogether, in part, by spearheading his own guitar-led instrumental jazz band, Alex Skolnick Trio.

Growing in confidence as a bandleader and composer, Skolnick continues to surprise audiences and even shatter expectations, while offering insights into his musical identity. Alex Skolnick Trio’s latest album, “Veritas,” which shares its name with the Roman goddess of truth, reflects the guitarist’s love of traditional jazz even as it contains moments of funky fusion (“99/09”), acoustic melancholia (“Alone in Brooklyn”) and Indian music-inflected jams (“Bollywood Jam”). Fittingly, it’s perhaps the Trio’s most lively, honest and original statement to date.

Given the musical flavors of “Veritas,” the temptation is to conclude that Skolnick has found spirituality or that he’s a 21st Century update of jazz-rock icon John McLaughlin. But perhaps this would be missing the point or purposefully overlooking the intense commitment Skolnick has made to jazz and guitar playing, in general. “I think the music on ‘Veritas’ represents who I am,” says Skolnick. “What’s come out on the record is what’s inside me.”

Goldmine spoke with Skolnick about “Veritas,” his diverse musical career and what truth in music means to him.

Goldmine: Your new record ‘Veritas’ has touches of metal, but is mostly a jazz album.
Skolnick: It’s definitely jazz. I’m playing with jazz musicians and even an upright bassist [Nathan Peck]. I’m playing a hollow guitar with F holes. It’s the music I love and these days I want to play the music I love.

Goldmine: Why did you switch from metal to jazz?
Skolnick: I can’t explain why I’m drawn to certain things. I think it’s like explaining why I played guitar in the first place. I had come from an academic background. My mother’s a law professor and I was expected to go into some profession similar to that, like law or medicine. The thing is, I don’t like hospitals. I do like guitar strings, however. I think it’s that simple. I like holding the guitar. It feels good. So, when it came to jazz it became such a part of me as a listener and fan. I was compelled to make that a part of me as a musician.

Goldmine: The title of the Trio’s new album is “Veritas.” What does the idea of truth mean to you as a musician?
Skolnick: Two main thoughts that come to mind: one is that when you play music, or you’re any kind of artist in the public eye, you are written about, a lot. You are described; it is part of the process. It’s not often that your own voice and your own image of yourself get through all the clutter. This was doubly true for me, because I come from the heavy metal world, which I was playing professionally since I was 16. You’re immediately categorized as a certain type of person, a certain type of musician, and I feel like I’m finally able to assert who I am outside of all of that stuff. So that’s one reason. The other is that the artists that I gravitate towards are truth tellers. One example would be Pat Metheny. When you see Pat Metheny play he’s telling it like it is. He’s not looking for trends.

Goldmine: With the inclusion of Indian-inspired music on this album, it feels as though you’re on a spiritual journey. What can you tell us about a track like ‘Bollywood Jam’?
Skolnick: It feels a bit like a journey and I hope I’ve begun to evolve. But, the song ‘Bollywood Jam’ came about by accident, really, because I saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire. I’m not up on Bollywood films, but I did see that one. I was captivated by the music. I did some research into the composer, A.R. Rahman, and it turns out he’s the leading composer of Bollywood films. I thought the Trio should try something similar to his style. I came up with the basic ideas for the song … and these different parts started to come together, like the main riff and main melody, and it just took on a life of its own.

Goldmine: What’s the deal with the song “99/09”? What do the numbers mean?
Skolnick: The song starts out with this funky rhythm, which is inspired by Prince. So, 99 is a reference to Prince’s “1999.” I think of the song as a … collaboration between Prince and John Scofield, a jazz guitarist who has a lot of funk in his playing. 09 is the year the song was written.

Goldmine: Who’s in the band these days?
Skolnick: Well, it’s the same drummer who’s been there all along, Matt Zebroski. He’s as much a part of this band as I am. I can’t imagine doing this without him. The bass player is Nathan Peck, who’s been with us for the last two recordings [2004’s "Transformation" and 2007’s "Last Day in Paradise"]. When he first joined for the “Transformation” record, we barely had a month to work on the material. But with the new album, a lot of history has passed between the three of us and we know each other so much better. There’s no substitute for that, as far as I’m concerned. I could hire great session musicians and do a decent jazz record. But that’s all it would be — a decent jazz record. I want something more.

Goldmine: Your interpretation of other artists’ material is intriguing. In some cases it’s difficult to discern what song you’re actually playing.
Skolnick: I think Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”, from “Last Day in Paradise,” was the first time we’d recorded a cover and it wasn’t obvious, until late in the song, that we were covering anybody. The Judas Priest song, “Electric Eye”, from “Transformation,” was a little bit like that, because we changed the beat. It was arranged in the style of modern jazz piano music. The first album, “Goodbye to Romance: Standards for a New Generation,” was nearly all covers. Since then we’ve recorded a number of original songs that we’re really proud of and are going over well live. While we were in rehearsals on the road … we just decided to jam on “Fade to Black.” But we’re in the process of including more originals in our live sets. So, the fact that we chose to record “Fade to Black” is perfect, because it’s like a statement about phasing out the covers.

Goldmine: After Testament you recorded with Savatage and later the band that evolved from it, Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO). What can you tell us about those experiences?
Skolnick: Savatage was a very bittersweet situation. On the one hand I got to do an album with a band that I liked in high school. The flipside is that the gig came about because of a tragedy: Savatage guitarist Criss Oliva had passed away in 1993. That was around the time that I had left my band, Testament, because things hadn’t been working out, and I found playing with Savatage appealing. It was like, ‘Hey, why not?’ Then again, I knew I was heading in a different direction from the band, but I just didn’t know where. For some reason, joining Savatage just didn’t feel right. I’m not sure why that is. It’s a little like our conversation earlier — who knows why things happen? It wasn’t one particular thing. Maybe I felt I needed to … be one of the main creative voices in the band. If I had stayed with Savatage I wouldn’t have been.

Goldmine: Producer/songwriter Paul O’Neill really revamped Savatage and provided the overriding vision for the highly successful TSO touring/recording machine.
Skolnick: I’d agree with that. All I can say is that some guitar players are just happy to play guitar. Then there are others who want to be creative people. I guess I’m the latter. I don’t view myself as just a guitar player.

Two-time Grammy Award winner and one of contemporary jazz’s leading vocalists, Diane Schuur, will be releasing her Vanguard debut, The Gathering, on June 7th. With a distinguished career that spans nearly three decades, Schuur’s new album is unique in both material and style, and features special guests Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Mark Knopfler, Larry Carlton and Kirk Whalum. To celebrate the release of The Gathering Ms. Schuur will be performing at B.B. King’s in New York City on Wednesday, June 15th. Showtimes at 8:00 PM & 10:30 PM.

The Gathering is a collection of 10 classic country songs, mostly written during the golden era of the 1960s, and is the first time Schuur has featured this genre of music.  On selections like Willie Nelson’s “Healing Hands of Time,” Roger Miller’s “When Two Worlds Collide,” Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” and Tammy Wynette’s “Til I Can Make It on My Own,” Schuur’s great vocal versatility shines through.

The Gathering was recorded almost entirely in one day in early December in Nashville, TN. The singer has always wanted to record there and work with some of the city’s top musicians. Her new association with Vanguard allowed her to achieve that dream. “I knew when the label approached me it was time to do something I always wanted to do,” Schuur says, “and the way it came together seems like magic.” The album sessions started at 9 a.m. on December 6th, 2010, and by late afternoon all ten songs had been completed. Produced by Music City veteran Steve Buckingham, almost all the recording was done totally live, and most of the finished versions on the album are first takes. Other songs on The Gathering include “Why Can’t He Be You,” “Beneath Still Waters,” “Don’t Touch Me,” “Til I Get It Right,” “Am I That Easy to Forget,” and “Nobody Wins.”

The Gathering Track Listing
1. Why Can’t He Be You
2. Healing Hands of Time (with Mark Knopfler & Kirk Whaalum)
3. Beneath Still Waters
4. ‘Til I Can Make It On My Own
5. Don’t Touch Me (with Alison Krauss)
6. Today I Started Loving You Again (with Vince Gill & Larry Carlton)
7. ‘Til I Get It Right
8. Am I That Easy To Forget
9. When Two Worlds Collide
10. Nobody Wins

www.dianeschuur.com