A Hot and Heavy Threesome
It’s pretty rare for me to come across a rare jazz record on eBay whereby I had never heard of either the artist or the record. Here’s one: The Mike Taylor Quintet, Pendulum, EMI Columbia 6042. This is an original 1966 UK pressing listed in EX+ condition for both the record and the cover. A quick eBay search tells me that I probably should have heard of Mike Taylor because of his association with Cream as a songwriter. But I don’t know his music and his story seems quite tragic: drowning in the River Thames at the age of 30 following years of heavy drug use and homelessness. Anyway, the bidding for this record is pretty hot and heavy, with the price already at $2,100.
Check this one out: Sonny Clark, Leapin’ and Lopin’, Blue Note 4091. This was an original New York USA pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The final price was $3,061. I would have thought that this would be a new high for Leapin’ and Lopin’ but then I recalled this Jazz Collector article from 2018: Leapin’, Lopin’ and Lunacy. Nice headline there, Al.
Oh, look, Leapin’ and Lopin’ is not alone in the $3,000 bin. It is joined by Bill Evans, New Jazz Conceptions, Riverside 223. This was an original white label pressing with the original cover. The seller grades both the record and cover as M- and the pictures show a copy of the cover that is as clean as I’ve ever seen for this record. There were 51 bids, 21 bidders and the final price was $3,629.
The Mike Taylor is great — I have a CD reissue on Sunbeam from quite a few years back. I’d expect an original to reach 1568 prices without much trouble. It’s rare and in demand, especially in that condition. Both of his Lansdowne LPs are extraordinary.
Mike Taylor’s two Columbia Lansdowne LPs are both British jazz holy grails. It’s extremely incredibly rare to see either of them on eBay. I’ve cracked open my popcorn…
I have the Mike Taylor trio LP (a lightning strike of luck on discogs) but fear I won’t get so lucky twice as far as finding “pendulum” for a reasonable price.
As for the Bill Evans I’m perplexed by the non-DG white label. A search through popsike reveals a few hits that have this same non-DG label – one of them is even paired with the second cover variation! The claim seems to be these were export edition copies. Orrin used to claim only one pressing of 800 copies was done. Sadly he’s not around anymore to help solve these mysteries!
Also is the seller of “pendulums” the same guy who sold many suspicious “promotion only” blue notes in the past? I’ve never seen such a promotion stamp on any of my Lansdowne albums and the few ones I have that are promo copies have a promotion sticker on one label and certainly no rubber stamp.
I saw the Bill Evans. Not sure it was the first press. The etching on the side read something about patent pending, which I’ve never seen on Riversides before. Also, it was not double DG. Can anyone write about this? I know there were some some issues for the European market, I wonder if this is one of them. Either way, I’ve never seen a cover as clean as that one!
I saw the Bill Evans. Not sure it was the first press. The etching on the runoff read something about patent pending, which I’ve never seen on Riversides before. Also, it was not double DG. Can anyone write about this? I know there were some some issues for the European market, I wonder if this is one of them. Either way, I’ve never seen a cover as clean as that one!
The patent info indicates it was pressed on the West Coast at Research Craft. I have a least three of these pressings: RLP 12-226 and RLP 12-228 (white labels) both have deep grooves and RLP 12-227 (blue label) does not.
Oops, the blue label is actually RLP 12-277, Abbey Lincoln It’s Magic.
@Justin, so is that considered a first pressing? Does it really matter to anyone that it is not deep groove? Just curious.
I’m with Justin – a 1s West Coast pressing. Same time just another pressing plant that did not use DG dies at the time of release.
Not all Riverside of the (220 – 250 catalog numbers) have DG. It depends on the pressing plant : Abbey for the east coast, Researchcraft for the west coast (with pat numbers). Researchcraft can be found no DG.
I’m also with Justin – the patent pending stuff in the deadwax is typical of West Coast pressings done by Researchcraft and they didn’t always have DG. I consider those pressings to be simultaneous with the East Coast pressings that typically have the faint hand-etched matrix numbers in the deadwax. This is an example of one of the reasons why I’ve become dis-satisfied with the term “first pressing” – we actually have two concurrent “first pressings” here. So I tend now to think in terms of what I’ve started calling “variants” – in this case, I’d have variants 1a and 1b – the “1” indicates their place in the chronology (i.e. both the earliest) and the letter indicates that there are two of them: “a” and “b” each with their distinct attributes.
My other issue with the term “first pressing” is that it makes it sound like a pressing was a single, discrete event. But that’s not always how things worked in the real world where there was ongoing continuous production (sometimes at several different pressing plants at the same time). Just think about all those copies of Kind Of Blue being pressed in 1959 and 1960 at three different plants by Columbia with multiple combinations of matrix numbers ending in 1A, 1B, 1C etc.
I’m still trying to get my terminology straight in my head and when I eventually have something coherent and logical I’d be happy to share it here with Al’s permission.
Martin, Justin, et al — how do you know all this stuff, such as the factories where the records were actually pressed? Martin — you have my permission for sure. Let’s do it in a separate post and not bury it among the comments.
I can’t imagine a pressing run of 800 being split between two factories..
To be honest, Al, I think the current headline is the one you’ll look back and grimace upon. Personally, I love it!
Mark, I think that quote about the figure of 800 being the pressing run is potentially inaccurate. In his book The View From the Within, Orrin Keepnews states “By the end of 1957, a full year after it was issued, total sales had barely reached 800 copies!”. So I think this is potentially the source of the 800 figure but you can see it refers to sales and not pressing numbers.
Martin, an 80 year old friend of mine used to talk to Orrin on the phone periodically and Orrin told him that 800 copies were pressed but perhaps his (or Orrin’s) memory was fuzzy.
One more thing to take into consideration – how many labels in 1957 were non-DG? I can think of Capitol but not too many others.
somebody got a good deal on the Mike Taylor. Surprised it didn’t go higher.
It’s still a good chunk of change! I still doubt the legitimacy of that promo stamp on the back cover..at least I’ve never seen that on a Lansdowne before.
I agree with Mark – I have never seen a UK EMI / HMV / Columbia LP with a promo stamped sleeve, and I have seen thousands of them.
Admittedly 99% of those have been classical, but I would bet they were all pressed and distributed by exactly the same process.
@hardbopster I’d consider this a first pressing, but I’m not sure how most collectors feel about this. I’m with Martin that the assumptions and language around “first pressing” are problematic, especially with albums that were continually in print.
It seems we also assume a first pressing run for Riverside, Blue Note, etc. was always done on a single machine, rather than concurrently on multiple machines. We know Plastylite had around a half-dozen presses: did they always press a title on one press, or depending on their work load, did they sometimes have multiple machines working on the same title to get it out the door faster? Multiple record presses would potentially mean multiple DG combinations.
Unfortunately, records aren’t like books where there’s a numbering convention for identifying a first edition, first pressing., etc. Absent that, I think we have to apply a little leeway in what we consider a first pressing.
Justin – If you haven’t read this yet, you’re in for a treat.
https://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/record-labels-guide/labelography-2/larry-the-plastylite-guy/
Riverside: Short of having proof, consensus determines what constitutes a first press. White label deep groove = first press. White label non-deep groove = who knows??