Appreciating Those 10-Inch Blue Notes
I’ve been spending the past few days listening to some of the 10-inch Blue Notes from the recently acquired Baltimore collection. Man, are these great, especially because they are in such nice condition, pretty much M- for all of them. It’s not just the sound that I am appreciating, but the fact that they are right “of the era.” Pure bebop and early hard bop, rhythm sections right in the groove not trying to do too much, young and brilliant musicians finding their voices. It’s a real treat and doing it all at once is a lot of fun. So, when I was searching eBay this morning, this is one of the first records that came to my attention: Wynton Kelly, New Faces – New Sounds, Blue Note 5025. This is an original 10-inch Lexington Avenue pressing that looks to be in what I would probably consider VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover, although the seller seems to use more plus signs than a CPA during tax season. This one was not in the Baltimore collection, so it represents a hole in my collection. The price is now about $160 with about 12 hours left in the auction. I’d perhaps be interested, but the wacky grading scares me off a little, even though the seller has lots of feedback and a 100% rating.
This one is somewhat appealing, but I’m also scared off by the possible condition, and the price has gotten too high for me anyway: Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This is an original West 63rd pressing. The seller lists the record in VG+ condition, but does mention that it plays with some surface noise, which always scares me a bit. Or course, I do appreciate the honesty of the seller and the fact that he actually listened to the record. The cover on this is VG+ and the bidding is already close to $400, so this particular copy won’t be seeing my shelves.
Of all my 10 inch records in my collection, only two are in excellent condition while the rest are in good to poor condition. It is quite difficult to find 10 inch records in good shape. Imagine what type of stylus was played on these things!???!!?
I agree. Between the hard “vinyl” used back then and very tight covers that tear, any record that was played more than once or twice can be easily dropped a grade or two. Unfortunate as I love these real originals and their authenticity is never in question.
Oh, the irony. It was, perhaps, 3 years ago. I was completely new to record collecting. I phoned “Jazz Collector” and told the person who answered that I was looking for first pressings of Coltrane. I was told, “Sorry, we don’t usually handle records that sell for under $100. As I watched the older 50s jazz record prices zoom up, I was thinking to myself: Well, now is the time to be buying 60s jazz. But I didn’t know enough then to go out on my own.
JOK – I concur and have found it difficult to find clean 10″ records.
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I too avoid sellers who are “plus happy”…if it’s not near mint, two +’s is all that’s needed to get the point across, no need for the overhyping.
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The Opener is a great record. Way out of my price range right now but someday…
Al – Did any of your 10″ Blue Notes have inner sleeves? If so, what kind?
Maybe one or two had original inner sleeves, just plain paper. Most of them had no sleeves at all.
I recently found a 10 inch RCA of Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra, featuring Bix Beiderbecke.–(LVA–3040.) It looks like it only has one light scratch. There’s an autograph that says “From Paul” but I have no idea whether it’s Paul Whiteman’s. –Very Interesting. I also have many old classical records on shellac, including a few Caruso. They look near mint but I have no way to test anything.
Al: are you sure the inners were original? I never saw 10″ Blue Note inners. All my Blue Note 10″ albums now have inners, but they are not original.
Sorry Rudolf, I wasn’t clear. None of the 10-inch Blue Notes had an inner sleeve. Out of the 80 10-inch records in the collection, on all labels, only one or two had an original sleeve. I think a Sinatra on Capital and perhaps one of the Bethlehems.