Detroit native Curtis Fuller graces us with his presence this week at the Jazz theatre known as the Jazz Bakery. Nestled in the upscale Helms Bakery district of Culver City,  the Jazz Bakery is a non profit performance space run by the lovely jazz singer Ruth Price. I popped in this past Friday to check out the legendary Lee Konitz, who of course still kills it (at 80!) without breaking a sweat.

Mr. Fuller has led on quite a few albums, originals often fetch $500+.  Just try tracking down a copy of his debut on Transition or an orig. Bone & Bari on Blue Note and you could be doubling or tripling that.  And yes...he's that good.  Curtis also sided for Miles Davis and John Coltrane, for a stretch in the early 60's he was the sixth man in the Jazz Messengers and he played on the Wayne Shorter masterpiece Schizophrenia.  Of course he's kept busy since those glory days, check out the cut below recorded in 2005 followed by an amazing vintage cut "Children of the Night"...

Today would have been the big 8-0 for the high flying trumpet man Maynard Ferguson...RIP

As stickers go, these are a cut above the rest.  I've cataloged odd trends and themes in past blogs, but these stickers actually add quite a bit of value when they're found adhered to the original shrink wrap...





The yellow sticker above is an original promotional tool from the 60's, the green tape was added later to preserve the shrink! Below is a sticker used on pressings from the late 70's, early 80's.




The sticker below is an excellent accompaniment to the jacket design and adds a little prestige to the piece.

Among the piles of everyday hits and misses I plow through upstairs in the vinyl vault, there's always plenty of curios.  I've put aside a handful of UK releases that caught my eye recently and decided to check out the stories behind the labels, here's a bit of briefing...


77 Records was started by Doug Dobell who ran Dobell's Jazz Record Shop in London.  He specialized in rare Trad Jazz and Blues recordings.  As far as I could tell, York Records was a short lived Decca subsidiary, with heavy Yorkshire connections, it seems that it might have been run by a "Yorkshire TV" shoppe.  Automatic Record Co. was a Warner subsidiary started by Nick Mobbs that had a few Modern Rock releases in the early 80's...







VJM specialized in 78 and unreleased rarity comps from Blues & Trad Jazz artists, I believe the organization is still around today. Topic started off as a vinyl label releasing Folk titles and still releases UK folk music on CD.