A Jazz Vinyl Potpourri: Blue Notes, Pres, OJCs
I haven’t been on eBay for a few weeks, so let me sidle over there now to see what treasures are lingering for those willing to pay a small fortune for rare vinyl that will surely increase in value at some point in the near or distance future. Ah, right on top among the search for highest price auction records is this great record: Duke Jordan, Flight to Jordan, Blue Note 4046. This looks to be an original deep groove West 63rd Street pressing. The record looks to be in VG+ condition, based on the seller’s description. The cover is listed as VG++, but from the pictures, it looks more VG-plus-ish to me. The auction closes later today and, as of this writing, there is one bid at $1,350. From the same seller, there is Freddie Hubbard, Open Sesame, Blue Note 4040. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing, probably VG++ condition for the record and VG for the cover. The bidding starts at about $1,000 and so far there is no action.
Here’s an interesting beauty: Lester Young, Norgran, 1022. This is an original deep groove yellow label pressing, with a “For Demonstration Only Not For Sale” stamp placed prominently on the beautiful David Stone Martin cover and again on both sides of the labels. The record is graded in M- condition and the cover is Ex. The auction closes in a couple of days and the start price is about $775, with no bidders yet. I’ve always found the Norgran/Verve Pres records to be hit and miss, music wise, although the packages are always attractive. I came across a Sonny Rollins interview on YouTube the other day where he was talking with reverence about this stage of Pres’s career, so it is causing me to re-assess. Check out the clip – Sonny talks about Pres playing Three Little Words and how Sonny used to play it every single night. I can vouch for that, because in the early and mid 1970s, I used to go to see Sonny every night at the Vanguard or the Half Note in midtown, and every single night he would play Three Little Words.
In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t been posting as frequently as I used to at Jazz Collector. 🙂 A few weeks ago in a post called Random Notes from the Jazz Collector Inbox, I posed the question: “What’s the verdict on the current crop of OJC” pressings from Craft recordings. I received a thoughtful reply the other day from reader Alun Severn from the UK. He writes as follows:
“What’s the verdict on the current crop of OJCs? Maybe I’ll pick one up, just to report back to you all.
Well, it’s a confusing situation, I think. I can see no real logic evident in what gets pressed as a premium Craft OJC at around $35+, and what gets pressed as a bog-standard OJC reissue at around $20 or so. The premium ones I refer to are the Kevin Grey/Stoughton-jacketed ones with the obi strip.
In my experience, the premium obi-stripped ones are superb. I have bought a number and have yet to have a problem of any kind. The bog-standard OJC reissues are another matter entirely. I have returned at least one because it arrived warped and dirty. I can clean dirty records, and do, but I will not accept warped records. I’ve had one or two that certainly sounded no better than a mid-80s Fantasy distributed OJC, and possibly not as good. And I’ve had a couple (Moonbeams and How My Heart Sings come to mind) that to my ears sound excellent.
Conclusion: I have become very wary of the bog-standard OJC reissues but if here in the UK I can find the premium obi-stripped ones at not too inflated a price then I get them without hesitation knowing that they will be as good and as any of the premium remasters Kevin Gray is currently involved with.
I hope this helps. Regards, Alun”
Thank you, Alun. Very helpful, indeed. At least to me.
Nice to see your active commentary back on this site Mr. A. Always a pleasure.
Re that Pres lp depicted, over the 50 plus years I was a Jazz record collector/enthusiast/listener I ran across say 20-30 copies of this record. And everyone, including my copy, had that red “For Demonstration Only Not For Sale” prominently stamped across the front cover and labels.
One of my absolute favorite DSM covers. As lennib noted it seems next to impossible to find without the “Demonstration” stamp. I have only seen this record a couple of times in decades and decades of scrolling the bins. At some point I just bought one despite my desire to have a “clean” copy. DSM covers certainly don’t hold the caché they once did but I still dig ’em.
My copy is without the promotional stamp.
Rudolf, you’re my absolute hero
Rudolf A-
If anyone would have a clean cover, it would be you?!
Nice to know such an item exists.
It cannot be anything else than a honorific title. But thank you anyway. The appreciation is mutual, I can assure you.
How about me? My copy also does not have the promotional stamp. 🙂
My copy also has no promotional stamp.
RE: CRAFT OJC vs OJC. My understanding is that the current standard OJC pressings are from digital sources. The CRAFT OJC pressings are fully AAA and cut by Kevin Gray. All of his premium remasters (OJC, Blue Note etc) do not sound like the original pressings. Frequency extremes are clearly defined, backgrounds are mostly dead silent, and there is a sense of space around the musicians. Gain is lower, and listener perspective (stereo and mono) is more distant. Stereo spread is also much wider. KG and others maintain that what he produces is much closer to the sound of the original master tapes. However, many just want a better version of the early pressing the have listened to for decades- a better version of the familiar. That said- just try to find a mint copy of a 1st pressing of a Riverside Bill Evans or Chet Baker, or Prestige Miles Davis title for $39. It may not sound exactly like an original pressing, but it *is* an order of magnitude better than a generic OJC copy.