Jazz History Artifacts Set for New York Auction
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jazz memorabilia ranging from Charlie Parker's saxophone to Ella Fitzgerald's evening gown are headed for the auction block next month in New York, an auction house said on Thursday.
Other items at the Feb. 20 sale will include unreleased tape recordings of music by Parker and handwritten compositions and arrangements by composers John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk, representatives for Guernsey's Auction House said.
Parker's saxophone could fetch as much as $1 million, as could a tenor sax that belonged to Coltrane.
Other instruments on offer include a trumpet that belonged to Dizzy Gillespie, expected to fetch $500,000; J.J. Johnson's trombone; Benny Goodman's clarinet; and Lionel Hampton's vibraphone.
Also on sale at the session will be Monk's smoking jacket and Goodman's tails.
The items come from families of the jazz greats, a spokeswoman for Guernsey's said.
Portions of the proceeds will go toward several foundations, including the John Coltrane Foundation, a scholarship fund for young jazz musicians, churches and hospitals in Los Angeles and Detroit, the Red Cross and a foundation set up in memory of Benny Goodman, she said.
The auction is the first in the United States entirely devoted to jazz items, organizers said.
The auction will be held at Rose Hall, the new headquarters of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center at the southwest corner of Central Park. Public previews of the items will be held on Feb. 18 and 19.