Catching Up On the $1,000 (Plus) Bin
Here’s a few I missed, including one for the $4,000 bin and one for the $2,000 bin.
Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This was an original original pressing with the New York 23 on side 2. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover looked to be VG++. It sold for $4,617. Do you ever think about what these artists would feel about their records selling for this kind of money? This single record is a lot more than Mobley ever made for a record date and probably isn’t that far from what he got paid for his cumulate output as a leader on Blue Note. Amazing, when you think about it.
John Coltrane, Blue Train, Blue Note 1577. This was also an original pressing from the same seller. It was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $2,045. That’s the first time we’ve ever seen Blue Train sell for more than $2,000 in the Jazz Collector Price Guide.
May as well stay in the $1,000 bin:
Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $1,157. The listing for this record looked remarkably similar to the listings for the previous records, but it was a different seller. I haven’t sold on eBay in a couple of years — I guess they have a standard format you can pull, if you want. I’ll have to consider that when I return, which may be soon.
Bill Evans, Waltz For Debby, Riverside 399. This was an original blue label mono pressing that was in M- condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,151.
Madame Mono and Jazz5060 are the same seller. “Husband and wife” duo.
A “husband and wife duo”? Man,that must be one swingin’-and well-furnished-crib!
Really? They can never get divorced — who would get the Blue Notes?
Ron Rambach is Jazz5060. He is one of the backers of MusicMatters, the 45RPM Blue Note reissue series which is top notch. Totally committed to the field.
still not sure what to do with “sunsetstripvinyl”, the guy who gives partial pictures of the front sleeve only. his auction finishes in one day. any advises out there?
I e-mailed “sunstripvinyl” and he would not send any pictures of the records because he claimed people would steal his images. Also zero feedback from earlier big ticket items sold. There is no reason for me to believe he actually has any of the collectable records offered.
thanks Aaron. I will abstain.
Once thought Blue Note 1568 was a rather rare item. Seems to be a lot of them coming out of the woodwork now, all in near mint, pristine condition. Kinda weird to me. If you consider the record buying public of the time was into playing the records, come what may, the number of great condition copies for sale these days is a bit bewildering. at least it is to me.
“Do you ever think about what these artists would feel about their records selling for this kind of money? This single record is a lot more than Mobley ever made for a record date..”
I think about this a lot. Being a somewhat musician, saxophonist, it is as Dolphy said,to paraphrse, once played, in the sir, gone. And one cannot expect residuals. And the same applies to visual arts, surely Edvard Munch made nowehere near he astronomical amount recently paid a version of his work, ‘The Scream.’ Methinks the artist of our world are the ones most in need of our support, yet get it least.
“Amazing, when you think about it.”
Yes it is. All for a piece of plastic.
Corrections:
‘in the air’ not in the sir!!!
‘nowhere near the’ not nowehere near he!!
Geez I need better glasses.
You can think of it as a piece of plastic, or you can think of it as a piece of history. Owning the plastic is a few bucks; Owning the “history” . . . priceless.
I’ve contacted sunsetstripvinyl numerous times to email me pictures, I never got any responses. This guy snags images off the internet and uses them for his auctions. I smell a scam artist.
LenniB, I’ve thought about this too but I don’t see to much wrong with it. The problem is that many artists don’t get the proper consideration at the time of there making art. Why does society not give many artist there due until many years later? I don’t know. This isn’t universally true either, I mean Miles was successful in his time and made plenty of money. Stravinsky, Getz, Brubeck, and many others were well compensated as well. Now do I really care if Mobley lived in luxury, not really. But I do believe if he was better compensated we would have had even more Mobley music to listen to.
At least society has learned more and the system compensates artists more proportional to there success. It’s not flawless by any stretch, but it’s improved a lot in 50 years.
Mike F et al, yyes, really there is no problem with the astronomicak prices these records are getting theses days ohter than the fact I sold mine too early, back in the 60’s.!!! And regarding valuation of artists during their creative period, it is perhaps the nature of art as a commodity. the musicians were paid an agreed upon amount , made the record and moved on.
Compensation is always a tricky issue, what is fair value? Anyway, paying close to 5 grand for a record is still a lot for what I consider to be a piece of plastic. To be sure, a piece of history if you will, a relic of a moment in time, yet all in all to the majority of humanity, a piece of plastic.
yes but a very very nice piece of plastic.
I agree its’s Strange so many great copies are surfacing
LenniB, I agree with everything you say. Compensation is a tricky issue, but also a very interesting one. The other interesting issue to me, is why people catch on to things too late. Now factor out all the Mobley fans who were too young to dig him in the mid 50s(that would be me), why didn’t people appreciate him on the same level that people do now. That’s a very interesting issue to me as well. I don’t really have an answer so much as I have the opinion that I try to learn as much as possible about what art(jazz in particular) is going on at the moment. Then by appreciating artists who are doing things now I can(on a very small level) correct what I see as the injustice of artists being unappreciated until after there death.
Put simply, I like to keep my ear to the ground and appreciate what’s happening now, as well as what happened in the past. Maybe one day I’ll hear the next Mobley( hasn’t happened yet).
I think people would have dug Mobley from all generations but lack of exposure and air play from the 50’s to maybe the CD era kept many a great musician’s work in the dark. The reissue programmes by Cuscuna and the like broadened the audience around the globe. You know its still really quite difficult to hear real quality Jazz on the airwaves. For people to discover this music they really have to put quite a bit of effort in. During the 60’s 70’s and part of the 80’s no real international exposure, no air play….No money!!!!
Hank was appreciated and respected during the golden era as reflected in the sheer volume of dates he appeared on and led. For sure if he had survived long enough i’m sure he would have enjoyed the later adulation and fame Rollins has had. I agree with you Mike F, the Collecting thing is very enjoyable etc. but we have a duty to keep this great American art form alive and healthy. We can only do that by supporting and embracing new Jazz music. The next Mobley / Coltrane is surely out there…..
Amazing that someone would pay over two grand for a copy of Blue Train based on an ebay posting that doesn’t have the original low contrast (dark) cover variation, and doesn’t mention if it even has the illusive New York 23 address on the second side of the LP. Close but no cigar as they say…
I am a collector, but for the music, although I have some rare records. After reading this entry, I examined my copy of Blue Train, BN 1577, and discovered something odd: instead of West 63rd St, it says West 61st St. Is this a typo? Or what?
Thanks for any assistance
Its says “West 61 St.” on the back of the jacket, not the label I presume?
That is correct.
D’uh. I got my house numbers garbled, and thought I had some anomaly, but on further examination, I just have a later edition with Blue Note’s new mailing address. In the words of Emily Litella, never mind.