Down By The Riversides (With A Blue Note)
Here’s some more jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay.
It’s been a while since we’ve tracked a nice copy of Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This one was an original pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover. It sold for $1,913.
Here’s a nice Riverside: Ernie Henry, Last Chorus, Riverside 266. This looked to be an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $270.
While we’re on Riversides, here’s one two numbers apart: Johnny Griffin Sextet, Riverside 264. This one was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $349.95. My dad used to search high and low for the Riversides in the bargain bins of a couple of record stores along 8th Street in Greenwich Village in the ’60s. I wish he would have bought some of these, but he wound up with a lot of Cannonball, a lot of Wes Montgomery and some Bill Evans. No complaints, really. I still have many of those great records from my dad.
This Riverside was part of the auction last week from the Jazz Record Center: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of West Montgomery, Riverside 320. This was an original pressing that looked to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $565.55.
there have been so many gorgeous Riversides which ended up in the $ 1 bins or which just went unnoticed, never to be seen anymore. In the latter category I mention 12-252 “Chicago Sounds” – Wilbur Ware Qnt and 12-248 “Seven Standards and A Blues” – Ernie Henry Qrt.
Wow, neat story about your dad. He had great taste in music. I’ve always wondered if the Kenny Drew album ‘I Love Jerome Kern’ is any good? Has anyone ever heard it? It definitely has a neat cover!
Kenny did some three albums in duo format dedicated to the great American songwriters. They came on the Judson label, an affiliate of Riverside. The other player in the duo was Wilbur Ware. I for one prefer the trio album he made for Riverside of Pal Joey songs (12-249). Bassist is again Wilbur Ware and on drums is Philly Joe. They are really cooking.
Thanks for the info, Rudolf. I will have to keep an eye out for 12-249. Collecting Riverside LPs is fun because they seem to be a little easier to locate in used record shops and at record shows. Plus, many of them are somewhat affordable compared to the albums issued on labels such as Blue Note and Prestige. Another thing I’ve noticed is that even copies which look as though someone went ice skating on them play pretty well.
Bill, I’ve noticed the same thing about Riverside albums and the visual condition not reflecting how they play. Honestly, i dismissed it as a small sample size observation. I have also noticed the same thing about Impulse. As opposed to a Blue Note or even more so Prestige, they are more likely to have consistent surface noise when they don’t look great. I’ve tried to formalize this observation with some research, but it’s a pain because I’m not privy to enough data.
I actually believe, that Impulse originals are the highest Quality pressings of any Jazz label. I can justify this by saying I think this was somewhat a peek in pressing quality before a lot of companies started going cheap. From my understanding, Impulse, and to a lesser extent Riverside, had a higher budget than Blue Note and Prestige which may have allowed them to use a more HQ pressing plant. This is conjecture though and would love to hear the opinions/observations of anyone else. Pal Joey is a fine album, it was actually the second Kenny Drew album I ever had. I bought it for $1 at a garage sale, but 1112 Black Label with alternate cover not an original white label with the dancer cover. I do dig it.