Updating Some Jazz Vinyl Auctions
Tough to follow up on that great story by Rudolf, so we will just go back to watching eBay and catching up on some of the items we were watching last week, starting with: Paul Quinichette, On the Sunny Side, Prestige 7103. This was an original New York yellow label pressing in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. When we were watching it last week it was in the $230 range and it wound up selling for $328. If you ask me, that’s a bargain for a nice original Prestige from the 7100 series. Of course, not as big a bargain as Rudolf may have paid, but a bargain nonetheless. From the same general area was John Coltrane, Tenor Conclave, Prestige 7074. This was also an original New York pressing that looked to be in M- condition for the record and cover. It sold for $399.97. One more from that group of Prestiges: Eric Dolphy, Far Cry, New Jazz 8270. This was an original pressing that looked to be in beautiful M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $880.
Here’s a Blue Note that did not sell:
This one I had my eye on to see if someone would fall for the trap of paying top dollar for a later pressing of a potentially rare record: Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House Volume 2, Blue Note 1516. This is a United Artists pressing, so perhaps you’d expect it to sell for $40 or so, but the seller priced it more like an original, with a start price of $299. It did not sell and is now relisted for $99. Good luck.
Far Cry sold for a logical price. Truly another masterpiece, with Booker Little on top !
I think the market is now for the very best sessions, with legendary players. And that’s good news.
Here’s another recent Far Cry auction that went for a lot less. The cover is listed at VG+ but the record at NM-. I’m not sure if a cover is worth $600. I think the higher price has something to do with the fact that other great Dolphy items were listed as well. http://www.ebay.com/itm/160812250558
The whimsy of the Quinichette cover causes me to consider this question for the jazz collecting veterans: Apart from players or price, what are your favorite album covers?
As for the cheaper Far Cry, I thought the NM- grading was a little suspect; writing on labels not mentioned in description, cover didn’t look all that great. I think I’ve bought from that seller too and not been super-impressed…
I’ve always like the Quinichette cover, but does it remind anyone of breasts? It’s a really good album, worth checking out by anyone who hasn’t given it a listen.
Mike,please call your therapist immediately!
He’s on speed dial.
Clifford, I bought something from that seller too back in December. I don’t remember all the details, but I remember returning it.
FWIW – I have bought multiple LPs from swanstone and have been quite happy.
Breasts, no. As I am not an egg-fan in particular, I always found the Quinichette cover to be of a dubious humour/word play and disgusting. The strange thing is that, whereas Esquire as a rule provides alternative U.K. cover art, the Quinichette album came out on Esquire with the same eggs picture.
Once overcome my egg aversion, I find the album itself very tasty indeed.
I find many Prestige covers of the era more attractive than the Blue Note. Hannan, Reid and others did a fantastic job for Prestige, too.
My all time favourite album cover is “Ray Bryant Trio” prestige 7098. Don’t exactly know why… it is the quitessence of the jazz feeling and atmosphere…
I agree with Michel: Hannan and Reid Miles are very artistic and avant garde. My favourite is OLIO Prestige 7084; for the combination of picture of the artist and design, I dig Movin’ Out Prestige 7058. But there are so many more.
I am listening to one of my favourite tenor saxophonists, Warne Marsh of which the cover art is as phoney as “On the sunny side”. The title is “the right combination”, Riverside 12-270 – Joe Albany and Warne. The cover shows a guy sitting in front of a big safety vault, apparently unable to find the right combination to open it. Very funny indeed!
I’ve always had a fondness for Bennie Green – Soul Stirrin’ as great cover art. Nothing particularly striking about it but I love the colors and the font.
Stevie: I think it is the casual way of the letter type and the green colour which catches the eye. It is a lovely cover indeed.
For the less successful (and/or ridiculous) covers of the fifties, Jazzwax, in its weekend edition, has a series named “Oddball cover of the week”. Fun guaranteed.
It’s not one of my favorites, but for some odd reason I’ve always liked the cover of the Prestige reissue of Tenor Madness, Prestige 7657. It’s sort of incongruous, a mid-’50s album with a picture of a much older Rollins with shaved head, heavy beard and dead-on glance off the center of the camera, seemingly rapt in what he’s about to play. I have a feeling my soft spot for the album may have more to do with the fact that this was one of the first jazz albums I ever bought and I loved the music immediately. It took me years to realize that there was another version with a different cover. Talk about naive.
Two of my favorite Prestige covers are chosen for their evocative images:
Red Garland: All Morning Long (original, tug boat on waterways photo) 7130
Frank Foster/D. Byrd All Day Long
7081
There are so many great jazz album covers, but a few favorites(at least right now) are Jackie McLean’s “One Step Beyond,” Wayne Shorter’s “Night Dreamer,” Lee Morgan’s “Search for the New Land.” One of my least favorite is the record I just finished listening to, “Tender Moments” by McCoy Tyner. Great music, but the cover…the photo’s bad, the font’s terrible… Anyway, fun to see other people’s favorites.
I have too many favourites to mention, so I’m just going to cough up a few right here from the top of my mind: Spring by Anthony Williams (could hang in a museum if you asked me), Ah Um by Charles Mingus, Monk’s Music by Thelonious Monk Septet (priceless with Monk in that little red cart), This Is New by Kenny Drew, Six Pieces of Silver by Horace Silver and then so, so many others. Thank heavens I bought the original, album sized books of California Cool West Coast Cover Art and Cover Art of Blue Note volume 1 and volume 2 when they had just come out, ’cause now these originals are out of print and pretty expensive. These ‘what are your favourite this or that’ polls will remain impossible to answer, really.
Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West on Contemporary is a fun cover that I have always liked. And of course, great music lies within. Also like Red Garland’s Groovy on Prestige.
Al: your weak spot for that horrifying anachronistic design of the re-issued Tenor Madness shows that collectors are just sentimentalsts.
jutta hipp at the hickory house, speakin’ my piece, let freedom ring, takin’ off, my point of view, steppin’ out,smoke stack, in’n out, some other stuff, it’s time!!!, spring . (all blue note).. reid miles is the king of typography.
speak like a child (!!!!!)
You’re spot on, Maarten. Speak Like a Child is an absolute beauty of a cover. One to frame, I’d say 😉