Memorabilia Sales
While researching The Boston Jazz Chronicles, I met people with collections of souvenirs and mementos from their lives in and around music. People saved all kinds of items, far more than the photos and sound recordings I expected to find. They saved ephemera, too. I saw handbills, posters, newspaper clippings, tickets and ticket stubs, postcards, stationary, backstage passes, concert programs, business cards, events calendars, matchbooks, playbills, cocktail napkins, and invitations. The collecting bug bit me, and it is only a short step from being a buyer to being a seller. Today I buy, sell and trade pre-1990 memorabilia and ephemera for all different kinds of music.
Many of my items are from New York City and Boston in the 1960s and 1970s. These are originals, not reproductions, and what you see here are the actual items for sale—no substitutions. The Troy Street watermark does not appear on the actual items.
For terms and conditions of sales, refer to my Sales Policy page.
I sell books, jazz magazines, photos, and other ephemera on Ebay, seller ID TroyStreetSales. View my current eBay listings.
On offer is an original flyer for the Saturday Jazz Parties staged by trumpeter Walter Bowe and his pickup band, the Angry Young Men (in this case, the Very Angry Young Men). Bowe staged the parties at 20 Spruce St, downtown near City Hall in New York City. The building is long-gone, but Bowe might have had a loft there. On this night, he was joined by frequent collaborator Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and others including Calo Scott and Art Blakey Jr. The flyer is undated, but is from late 1961 or early 1962. Peas and rice while supplies last! Bowe would soon move from jazz parties to radical politics.
This flyer is printed on plain paper and measures 8-1/2 x 11 inches. I’m grading it very fine only because the paper has yellowed a bit over the years–else the condition is near mint. The Troy Street Images watermark does not appear on the actual flyer. Price: $29. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
Club Ruby was a small room on Baisley Boulevard in Queens, across the street from what were then the grounds of St Albans Naval Hospital (today’s Roy Wilkins Park). In 1966-67, New York promoter Jim Harrison presented some sessions that were every bit as hip as what was happening in Manhattan. On May 19, 1966, the club hosted a tribute to Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown and Booker Little. Featured were seven top trumpeters of the mid-1960s: Freddie Hubbard, Blue Mitchell, Bill Hardman, Tommy Turrentine, Richard Williams, Lonnie Hillyer and Charles Tolliver. Tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson also played.
This original flyer is printed on lightweight plain paper and measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches (14 x 21.5 cm). The flyer came back from the print shop with the image a bit off-center on the page. Condition is fine. Small pinhole in bottom left, light stains and some wrinkling along the bottom edge, A 1/4-inch closed tear on the bottom edge. Price: $26. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
Slugs’ was the legendary NYC jazz club and musicians’ hangout owned by Robert Schoenholt and Jerry Schultz from 1964 to 1972. As one account has it, you went to Slugs’ to hear a Blue Note album being played live. It closed in 1972, not long after trumpeter Lee Morgan was shot dead there. This flyer shows the schedule from October/November 1966, featuring the groups of Benny Powell, Ornette Coleman, Grant Green, Curtis Fuller, Lou Donaldson, and Stanley Turrentine/Shirley Scott.
This original flyer is printed on plain paper and measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches (14 x 21.5 cm). Condition is near mint. Price: $29. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
The rock/jazz/blues horn band Blood, Sweat & Tears had their bags packed for an overseas tour when they stopped at the Boston Garden on April 17, 1970. David Clayton-Thomas, Lew Soloff, Bobby Colomby and company played for a sellout crowd. Their concert was sponsored by the Now Crowd at radio station WRKO-AM, which at the time was a national trend-setter in the world of rock radio.
This original flyer measures 8.25 x 11 inches (21 x 28 cm) and is printed on plain paper. It is in near-mint condition. Price: $29. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
On offer is an original flyer for a concert at MOMA on July 27, 1961 featuring Horace Parlan and the Playhouse Four with the leader on piano, Booker Ervin on tenor, George Tucker on bass and Al Harewood on drums. It was one of a series of “Jazz in the Garden” concerts presented by the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and Metronome magazine.
This original flyer measures 8 x 9 inches and is printed on plain paper. The reverse side is blank. Condition is Very Fine. It has been folded once vertically. The Troy Street Images watermark does not appear on the actual item. Price: $23. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
In the mid 1960s, guitarist Wes Montgomery was a star in both the jazz and pop fields. Before he climbed those heights, though, he had a trio with his brothers, bassist Monk and pianist Buddy. This 8×10 black-and-white photo was distributed by John Levy, Wes’s longtime agent, for Verve Records, Wes’s company 1964-66. The photo is undated. The Montgomery Brothers did not record for Verve, so this photo might date from 1961-62.
Print condition is excellent, with just a small bend on lower left corner outside of the image area. The name of the previous owner is stamped on the back. The Troy Street Images watermark does not appear on the actual photo. Price: $19. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
On offer is the souvenir program for the 10th Annual Newport Jazz Festival, held July 4-7, 1963. Artists that year included Monk, Nina Simone, Cannonball Adderley, McCoy Tyner, Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Joe Williams, Duke Ellington, and Sonny Rollins. The program is loaded with black & white photos by Joe Alper, Bettye Lane, Jack Bradley, and Lee Tanner. Dan Morgenstern, Pauline Rivelli, and Marshall Stearns contributed articles. Full-page ads for record companies: Columbia, RCA Victor, United Artists, Capitol, Impulse, Philips. Robert Saabye designed the cover, the first of three consecutive programs to feature his mysterious abstract.
This program is 36 pages, measures 8.5 x 11, and stapled in heavy wraps. Condition is Fine–clean, tight, no splits, lies flat, no marked or torn pages. Very minor wear, a little toning along the edges of the white back cover. Price: $49. Contact me for more information or to purchase.
The 17th annual Newport Jazz Festival took place at Festival Field in Newport RI on July 10-12, 1970. It was a heady mix of jazz, blues and a touch of R&B, with Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Ike and Tina Turner, Buddy Rich, Ella, Cannonball, T-Bone Walker… all the cats.
This original two-sided flyer measures 8.5 x 10.5 inches (21.5 x 26.5 cm) and is printed on heavy plain paper. You could fold piece and use as a mailer, but this copy is unused and its condition is very fine. The Troy Street Images watermark does not appear on the actual item. Price: $29. Contact me for more information or to purchase.