Blue Note Jazz Vinyl For the $1,700 Bin
OK, so when did this become a $1,700 record: Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048? This was an original pressing and it was in M- condition. It was also a review copy. Who would have suspected it would get a top bid of $1,712? I certainly didn’t. Our previous high price for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was more in the range of $300.
From the same seller came a batch of other nice collectibles, also at top prices, including: Rocky Boyd, Ease It, Jazz Time 001. This was an original pressing. The record looked to be M- and the cover was probably VG++. It sold for $668. I owned this record at one time but don’t recall that I ever listened to it. I wound up trading it for something not nearly as collectible. I know this record benefits from the presence of Kenny Dorham, for both musicality and collectibility. How is the record and what can we learn about Rocky Boyd?
Also:
Ted Curson, Plenty of Horn, Old Town 2003. This was another original pressing from the same seller. It was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $628.
We were talking about The Three Sounds last week, but this record is certainly in a different category with Lou Donaldson as a leader: LD+3, Blue Note 4012. This was an original pressing that was in M- condition for the record and probably VG++ for the cover. It sold for $531. In fact, as I recall, I may have traded the Rocky Boyd for a copy of LD+3, so maybe I didn’t do so badly after all.
I own the Rocky Boyd album, but never played it! I will give it a try one of these grey, snowy pre-Christmas days.
Got the Rocky Boyd on a Fresh Sound CD. Boyd doesn’t really seem to have his soloing together from my recollection and it’s not that great of a date in my opinion. However, apparently he played with Sam Rivers and Alan Dawson in Boston. Sunny Murray told me that he knew him a bit during the late ’50s/early ’60s as well, and that Boyd was “very hot” and up-and-coming then.
The Ted Curson record, I’ve never heard it or anything by Ted Curson not with Mingus. I have Mingus at Antibes and Charles Mingus Presents with him but don’t remember the trumpet being stand out. Is Plenty of Horn a good listen?
Any thoughts as to why these records are bringing such high prices all-of-a-sudden?
Are there two or three people with deep pockets bidding against each other?
It is just plain CRAZY.
$1,700!!! Holy… Time for me to pull my solid blue label lp off the wall and remind myself how much money I just saved! I always thought it a decent lp,but given that it’s put together from,well,remnants… it never grabbed me like other early Byrd sessions. I heard the Boyd at a time when I had yet to appreciate Kenny Dorham’s trumpet sound,so didn’t give the date the attention it deserved. I recall Boyd’s sound as ‘hard bop Charlie Rouse’,but no more.The Curson Old Town was never a fave for me,and I think falls short of it’s promise. Dolphy’s on two(?) tracks on flute and plays very much inside,briefly as I remember it. Tears For Dolphy is THE Curson to own if you have little-besides the Mingus “Fables of Faubus” dates,of course!
I used to see Ted with his band with Nick Brignola on baritone at the Tin Palace-NYC-regularly in the 70’s..what a smokin’ band!
the main interest in this record lies in Eric Dolphy playing flute in a couple of tracks: he’s one of my favorites, so a must have.
this record has been declared as original but there is an original’s original too.
as you can read, description clearly states “black vinyl”.
there’s a really first pressing on blue vinyl, a little bit rarer.
I’ve got this.
I listened to this Boyd album. Very well recorded stereo. Boyd a rather run-of-the-mill, modern mainstream sort of guy. Walter Bishop is excellent. I have heard better Kenny, but he does O.K.
This album is for sale as a 180 gr. re-print. It seems Boyd died in the same year as this album was made (1961) whilst on the road with Philly Joe Jones.
Al should know that the musical value of an album is by no means a yardstick for the price to be obtained at EBay.
Mike: Ted Curson also made an album for Prestige with Roy Haynes (7263).