USA: THE BIGGEST COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL JAZZ MEMORABILIA IS GOING UNDER THE HAMMER IN NEW YORK

Record ID: 677454

  • Title: USA: THE BIGGEST COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL JAZZ MEMORABILIA IS GOING UNDER THE HAMMER IN NEW YORK
  • Date: 2nd February 2005
  • Summary: (L!1) NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 2, 2005) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT OF VARIOUS JAZZ ITEMS UP FOR AUCTION ON DISPLAY JOHN COLTRANE'S SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK/ NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, USA / UNIDENTIFIED
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Business,Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4VWNKBYIKVRTQY795UA3FZR2Z
  • Story Text: Jazz history artefacts set for New York auction, featuring instruments belonging to greats like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
    It's jazz-lovers dream come true - the biggest collection of historical jazz memorabilia is going under the hammer in New York later this month.
    Most of the items have never before been up for sale and are extremely important in reflecting the history and colour of the jazz movement in the United States.
    "We are honoured to be conducting the first truly major auction of important artefacts relating to the most legendary figures that ever lived of jazz" said Arlan Ettinger, President of Guernsey's auction house which is conducting the sale.
    Ettinger went on to list some of the jazz greats whose items will be sold, "Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman, Thelonius Monk are just a handful of the extraordinary names who are represented in this sale, with materials that from the most part have come directly from the families," said Ettinger.
    Other items at the Feb. 20 sale will include unreleased home videotape recordings of John Coltrane, his soprano saxophone and handwritten compositions of his legendary "Love Supreme." 0 There are also saxophone's up for sale belonging to Charlie Parker, Stan Getts a clarinet of Benny Goodman's and Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet.
    The auction is even more special for jazz fans because there are no reserves on any of the items, because the families of the legends are selling off the items to raise money for various music foundations they have set up.
    Although Guernsey's have a rough idea of how much each item might be worth they haven't put any estimates on the items -- simply because there has never been an auction like this before, so they experts have nothing to go on.
    "We would be a liar if we could look at an item and say 'well that's certainly going to bring ten thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars or any such number' because auction estimates are based on precedent and when there are no precedents, when there has never been a major auction of this sort, what do you look for as your gauge?" said Ettinger.
    However, when pressed, Guernsey's said that Parker's saxophone could fetch as much as 1 million USD, as could a tenor sax that belonged to Coltrane. The Gillespie trumpet could fetch 500,000 USD.
    Ettinger said, "Among the items that I think would vie for top lot might be the John Coltrane soprano or tenor saxophones, the Charlie Parker alto-saxophone, the written pages of John Coltrane as he was preparing his landmark piece called the Love Supreme, those are a few that will certainly will be up there as potential candidates for the most valuable lots."
    Also on sale at the session will be Thelonius Monk's smoking jacket, Benny Goodman's tails and Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson's tap shoes.
    The auction is the first in the United States entirely devoted to jazz items and will be held at Rose Hall, the new headquarters of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park. Public previews of the items will be held on Feb. 18 and 19.
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