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Re: [ARSCLIST] 100K+ Jazz records going to Oberlin
The valuation of that collection by Mr. Neumann seems very low to me. I
would think that on average even $10 a record is low and my bet is that
depending upon what is in there it could be much higher. I would think
that even prima facie that collection is in the 7 figures quite easily.
AA
Matt Sohn wrote:
Jim Neumann is the stepfather of one of my best friends from
childhood. He ran the Beehive record label. They had to rent a
warehouse for the records because the foundation of the house was
cracking under the weight of all the records..
-Matt Sohn
From:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-collection_p_dec04,1,3415188.story
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We had it coming, but jazz is going
By Howard Reich
December 4, 2007
It's billed as the largest privately held jazz record collection in
America, and it's heading out of Chicago.
More than 100,000 jazz recordings tracing the history of the art form
-- from swing to the avant-garde -- will be donated to Oberlin
Conservatory of Music, in Oberlin, Ohio, by Chicagoans James and Susan
Neumann.
James Neumann, who graduated from Oberlin College in 1958 as a liberal
arts major, began acquiring inexpensive jazz albums as a teenager,
long before the LPs became collectors' items. He eventually amassed a
collection of the complete recordings of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk,
Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and more, he says.
Why didn't the Neumanns donate the treasures to a Chicago institution?
"I tried to," says James Neumann, "but I was rejected. ... A lot of
organizations didn't have room for it."
Because Oberlin Conservatory plans to open the $22 million Phyllis
Litoff Building for jazz studies in 2009, the school could accommodate
the Neumanns' trove (which also includes posters, autographs and other
jazz memorabilia).
James Neumann places the value of the collection "in the neighborhood
of $500,000"; its complete recorded contents will be transferred to
digital files.