Artie Shaw Personal Record Acetate from Estate Sale

$

120

You are looking at a one of a kind record from Artie Shaw's personal collection that was purchased at the estate sale held at his home. The acetate is in excellent condition and plays quite well with only the normal low level pops associated with recordings of this era. On one side is "Get Out Of Town" featuring Mel Torme on vocals and "Under My Skin" on the other side.The red album pictured is not included in this sale and was only used to show where this record was stored.

The estate sale started at 9:00 AM and I arrived at about 9:05. Upon entering the house my eyes were immediately drawn to Artie's clarinet, saxaphone and grand piano on display. Although I would have loved to own one of Mr. Shaw's personal instruments the price tag of $25,000 to $35,000 was a bit out of my price range. I walked through the living room past numerous original paintings to ask where the records were kept and was told "upstairs". Along the walls of the stairway were Artie's collection of African tribal masks. I arrived at the second floor to find hundreds of record albums and books. Thumbing through Artie's personal collection, of the music he appreciated, I came accross the greats of Jazz and Classical but I was looking for Artie Shaw records. There was another rack of records and on the back side of that rack on the bottom shelf I saw 10 old red and blue leather albums. I first opened the smaller 4 to find 10" records of what looked like one of each of the Vocalion, Bluebird, and Victor collection. It seemed as if Artie had saved one of everything he had done and most of these looked as though they had never been played. Mr. Shaw had moved around numerous times in the United States and Europe since these records were released and retained these albums around through it all and kept them in excellent condition. I then started to go through the larger albums containing 12" records.These had labels that read Fine Sound Inc. and Radio Recorders with typed in names; "Stardust", "Summit Ridge Drive", "Begin The Beguine" etc. The next album had similar artist copies but Artie had hand-written in pencil on some of the labels "unreleased". I could not believe that these records were for sale and immediately set them aside leaning them against the wall. Just then two men came up the stairs rather rapidly and quickly started rifling through Artie's collection of classic records calling off the artists names to each other followed by "these are way overpriced". I was still concentrating on my find and the next album I opened was worth the search. These records were different having the standard middle hole plus three more with grease pencil inscriptions of the titles: " Get Out Of Town", "Under My Skin", "What Is This Thing", "Night And Day" etc... These records are the acetates that were cut at the recording sessions for Artie to listen to. These albums were also set aside against the wall. One of the collectors came around the corner to find me on my hands and knees going through these old albums and dove down to join me. I wouldn't say he pushed me out of the way but he was definitely interested in looking over the remaining albums. He went through the three albums in the rack and then asked me if the stack against the wall was mine. "Yes". "Can I take a look?". "Sure". He went through the larger albums first and paused several times before asking me "are you sure you are going to buy all of these?". By that time I knew the answer was yes.

I have been Artie's neighbor for over 10 years. After his passing on Dec. 30, 2005 an estate sale was held at his home in Newbury Park, CA with all proceeds going to The Artie Shaw Foundation. I was one of the first to arrive at the sale and was able to purchase these fantastic recordings. Now you have the opportunity to make this the highlight of your record collection. This is the first time I have offered any of these records for sale and now is your chance to own a truly unique peice of musical history with the gaurantee of an original certificate of authenticity. I promise that the description of this item is accurate and that the item is authentic. Please Email me if you have any questions.