A 10-Inch Potpourri
Back in business with some more random rare jazz vinyl, focusing today on records in the 10-inch pile, starting with Charlie Parker All Stars, Dial 202. This is an original pressing that looks to be in VG+ condition for the record and probably VG or VG+ for the cover. Front cover looks nice; back cover has some writing and stains. This one is closing tomorrow at a start price of about $350 and so far there are no bids. It may seem amazing to most of you but, after all of these years, I still don’t have any of the original 10-inch Birds on Dial. It’s not for lack of interest or lack of trying. I’ve just never seen them at a price/condition I felt comfortable paying. Here’s a record that looks quite nice: Horace Silver Trio, Blue Note 5034. This looks to be an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. Not only a rare record, but extra rare to see one in this condition. This auction closes in two days and there is a single bid in the $400 range.
Chet Baker Quartet Featuring Russ Freeman, Pacific Jazz 6. This is an original 10-inch pressing that also looks to be in M- condition. It just came onto eBay so there are more than nine days left on the auction as I type this. The start price is $235. Putting this record into my watch list, I got the sense that perhaps the seller was being a bit optimistic, but Popsike tells me that a copy of this record as once sold for $370, so I guess not, particularly for one in such fine condition.
The same seller is offering Dizzy Gillespie, Horn of Plenty, Blue Note 5017. This also looks to be in M- condition for the record and the cover, and it also has a start price that, at first blush, looks optimistic, also at $235. So we will swing over the Popsike and, voila, there is one example of this record selling for $300, but that is the only one more than $178. So, we will keep an eye on this over the next week or so and see if the seller is overly optimistic or realistic in sensing the rising tide for original Blue Notes, of virtually any ilk, any artist, any condition.
I believe the Chet is a second/third pressing (similar to the version with the pinkish cover). It’s my understanding the black/white cover was first. Can anyone confirm?
The seller of Horn of Plenty has very high prices on all the albums he has listed. $200 for After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, any takers?
GST, not sure whether the pink or orange cover is first, but the black/white cover is definitely later since the record inside has matte, not glossy labels.
The Dizzy isn’t particularly good music, to me, at least.
Re seller of Dizzy item:
I don’t think I ever knew anyone who would pay a buck fifty($150.00) for a Bunk Johnson 10”lp on Good Time Jazz. In fact I dont know anybody who’d pay anything right now for a Good Time Jazz label lp.
Re Seller of Dizzy item:
I’ve purchased two albums from this seller and I recommend him for the more collectible lp’s. One lp I purchased was a Blue Note, the other a Zoot Sims on Storyville. The lp’s I received were in archival condition. A few years from now, there’s a good chance my purchase will seem a relative bargain.
Even if I sometimes buy at a premium I tend strongly to favour not to pay more than market prices today. What the market will be tomorrow we do not know. Of course if you only extrapolate you are sure to find higher prices 😉
Something has puzzled me about theses 50s 10″ LPs for a few years and I hoped some of the more experienced JC collectors might have the answer..
Were the Dial, Blue Note and Prestige 50s 10″ LPs manufactured with inner sleeves?
Or did any of the US labels manufacturing 10″ jazz LPs in the 50s use inner sleeves?
I own a few of these original 10″ LPs and am very fond off them – Monk’s Genius of Modern Music Vol 1 and 2, Jazz at Massey Hall. All were NM when I bought them and none of them came with original inner sleeves.
I’ve not seen a US 10″ from that time with what appears to be an original glassine or paper inner. I also haven’t seen one of these 50s 10″ LPs in a loose fit baggy. I presume none of the labels factory sealed their LPs in the early 50s either?
I hope someone can solve the puzzle.
To the best of my knowledge US 10″ LP’s came without inners. Ï have had factory fresh Blue Notes which came with the Blue Note history leaflet. The leaflet had left traces on the vinyl after many years of storage, which is a proof of the album having been initially sold without inners.
Hey Rudolph, That’s very convincing proof. Thank you for weighing in. “Factory fresh with the Blue Note history leaflet”. Mmmm…
I have what seems like an onion skin with a 10″ Prestige LP 211 Gene Ammons. The LP is very well taken care off and in M- condition for both cover and vinyl. The onion skin looks very old so I have no reason to belive that it is not original. on the Blue notes 10″ I have never encountered any inners.
As a matter of fact, I have had a new album of Bennie Green in the 210 -series (214 ?),which had a neat onion skin inner. The record had the new yellow black label design. Ditto for a second pressing of Miles # 200.
Can we assume there is a link between the new inners and the new yellow black label ?
Re the Granz labels, Ï am pretty sure (Ï have got to be cautious) no inners there. Ditto for CR AND P.J.
Bethlehem had white paper inners.
Rudolf, that is very interesting! My copy is the yellow/black fireworks label. You could be absolutely right.
I bought some fantastic LP’s that had been bought and uncirculated and very well taken care of by an elderly gentleman in his collection. Everything else had to my knowledge original inners and just like almost from the store. These onion skins are very fragile indeed and I guess even more so the 10″ ones since the jackets are kind of tight.
The Blue Note 10″ I got had no original inners.
Rudolf and Shaft, Thank you for the fascinating insights gleaned from your collections. Have you ever seen any of these 50s 10 inch LPs sealed in a baggy?
No, I haven’t.
For me the sessions made especially for the 10″ format are the most valuable in my collection. Most of them have been re issued in 12″ format, but not all. Still I prefer the original artefact.
Concerning the 10″ albums which got lost in the transition from 10 to 12″, I made a detailed study for London Jazz Collector. Many 10″ Blue Notes got lost. For Pacific Jazz the most striking example is # 16, the Bob Brookmeyer qrt. Just disappeared, never to be seen again on P.J. Though leased to Crown early sixties.
John, no original baggies found here. I have some 50’s LP’s with loose outer baggies. An Errol garner comes to mind. Columbia made som inner perforated inner baggies as well. Al, here at jazzcollector mentioned in one of his buying collection stories that one collectiona had quite a few of theese outer baggies. For example Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm section on Contemporary. As a side note I enherited this same title but on Stereo Records (original stereo pressing from 1958) and he claimed it never had an inner bag of any kind. He was always super careful with his LPs (as I am).
Shaft, the discussion was on 10″ albums, where, to the best of my knowledge, no baggy seals, nor sealed inners, à la Columbia.
Of course, Contemporary was the champion of 12″ albums protected by a loose baggy. Savoy should be mentioned too.
Rudolf, I agree and yes my comments concerning LP’s above was about 12″-inchers.
I think we have most things pinned down now about the 10″. Maybe it should be mentioned that some 10″ LPS in Europe had special plastic inner bags that were a part of the sleeve packaging. Like fold-out and glued together. Common with classical editions.
i found the soulsisters at goodwill a few years ago hadn,t heard of it before seeing the players was pleasantly suprised at the quality of the music
Shaft: indeed, it is amazing to witness the care with which European record firms, esp. the English, packaged their vinyl, starting way back to the 10″ period. Sturdy inners, lined with polyester film for the EMI and Decca groups. Philips and Vogue all had paper inners, the latter mostly onion skin paper. I don’t know of any European label producing 10″ albums without inners.
Speaking about quality control, I recently encountered an unplayed yellow label copy of MJQ’s 10″ Prestige PRLP 170 that had such severe pressing bubbles that it made me wonder how it had slipped through the packaging/QC control at all…