Myself and the delightful BarRoomQueen ventured out of London last weekend to visit friends and we partook of a few drinks in their local pub. (would have been rude not to!) Anyway, one of the locals (and a friend of our friends) who lives in the village was in the pub and, knowing we are big Stones fans, said "I've got something to show you, back in a second" - he returned with this small white book written by Charlie Watts about Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker.

Here is the front cover :


Here is the back cover :


The book was in excellent condition, not quite perfect, and is in the form of an illustrated poem. This guy obtained it back in the 60's and was showing it to us to see what we thought. We had never seen it before or even heard of it and so couldn't comment on potential value or rarity.

I was wondering if any of the knowledgeable collectors out there could shed any light on the book's 'collectibility' and if it is rare or if in fact several copies are in circulation.

It is a charming book and it was a thrill to have seen it.

well I know it, there´s a reprint with CD or LP wich wassold here I think a month ago or so

the box which goes with this book is very often available on Ebay.
the 10 inch record is rare.
great stuff.
Bless Peter King for his good work...

I have the original book from the 60s and the reprint. The original book fetched 500$ easy on ebay sometime ago.

I'm lucky to have the original boxset autographed by the quintet when they played Chicago thanks to he great "Chooch" McGee! Buy one on E-Bay - you'll love it!

Perhaps Charlie will get round to re-releasing it again, one day, with a new Introduction.
I assume he owns the original author's copyrights.
And for sale at a sensible price.

Actually the name of the boxset is From One Charlie...

And the boxset is a reprint of the book published in, what, 1964 or so...
Quite valueable, the original one!

>> published in, what, 1964 or so... <<

ahh here it is - i've been combing through Rolling With the Stones, i knew it's mentioned in there somewhere!
page 30: "In 1961 he wrote a book on Charlie Parker, Ode to a High Flying Bird, eventually published in 1965."

Thanks for the feedback, I will let the owner of the book know.......although I am sure he will never part with it.

Not much to add here, most of the comments are correct. The original 60's book is indeed very rare and can fetch over £500. It was reissued in the 1990 as part of a boxed set that came with either a 10" or a CD. The 10" is killer rare, I think 1,000 or less were done (I will have to confirm). Appart from the contents varients (CD/10" ) there are 3 country varients. It was issued in the US, UK and Japan. The nicest one is in Japan where you get an extra insert and a nice yellow obi strip (I will photograph if anyone is interested).

I think there were only 20,000 in total but again I will have to confirm, it was certainly no more than 40,000. The US had half of them and the UK and Japan split the rest. Charlie signed a good number of the books but don't know how many, it won't have been much more than 1,000 if that many.

Below you can see a selection of some of the promo stuff:

Top left: Ronnie Scott's UK Premiere invitation
Top Right: Table tent decoration for Ronnie Scott's Premiere
Bottom Right: Band Promo photo
Bottom Left: Japanese Programme



Blue Note US Premiere Invitation



Promo Poster



Matt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-08-12 12:44 by mattleeuk.

Thanks, Matthew....I have two of the reissue 10" box sets, one sealed, one open.

JR

By the way, the trumpet player was only 19 when they played Chicago as part of a mini tour of the US...pretty impressive.

On a quirky note, I sat in the front row during the show and the sax player was right in front of me. He was wearing a suit, the trousars were cuffed, but the back of the left cuff was down...it drove me crazy during the whole show! I wanted to reach out and turn it up or tell him to fix it...no, I'm not OCD...

Lastly, Charlie played a novelty sax part to open the show...the same bit that opens the record...