Classic Blue Notes from Jazz Record Center
Our friends at the Jazz Record Center have quite an auction closing this week, including several of the rarest of the rare Blue Notes, starting with Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is a deep-groove West 63rdStreet pressing, no New York 23 label, but it is still considered an original. This one looks to be in VG++ condition for the record and probably VG+ or VG++ for the cover, depending upon how the buyer might feel about a “professional restoration” and a “lightly audible scratch.” This bidding on this one has already surpassed $2,000 with three days of bidding to go.
Here’s another one already in the $2,000 bin:
Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This is an original West 63rdStreet pressing. The record and cover both look to be in VG++ condition. There is one bid at $2,000 as of this writing. Also from Mr. Clark we have Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This is an original pressing with the New York 23 labels. The record and cover both seem be in M- condition. The bidding is at $2,075.
Here are a few more:
Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. M- for the record, probably VG++ for the cover. Bidding is in the $1,650 range.
Lee Morgan Indeed!, Blue Note 1538. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing with the frame cover. The record is probably VG++ or M- and the cover is probably VG++. Bidding is at $1,575.
Lou Donaldson, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, Blue Note 1537. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record is M-, the cover is probably VG++. I still don’t own an original copy of this. Birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Dare I show this to The Lovely Mrs. JC?
How about this: J.R. Monterose, Blue Note 1536. This has a Lexington Avenue label and cover, but no deep grooves. There are no mentions of ears of RVGs so I am curious what this is. We know it is not an original, but it is something. I have a copy of the Herbie Nichols 12-inch Blue Note with similar characteristics. This one has already been bid to more than $560, so I wonder if the bidders are carefully reading the listing.
the Clarence Peters gets under my skin a bit, would like to have that one. And that Mingus boot with Dexter.
the montrose listing does in fact say there is an ear “P” and an RVG. how very odd.
It seems that Blue Note often used old stock labels and cover slicks for reissues in the sixties. So technically this probably is a New York-era record with “original” labels in a “non frame” cover.
Interesting to see how those resorted covers do. I did that with my copy of The Magnificent Thad Jones. No idea what it would do to the value, but then again I don’t intend to sell any time soon.
Also I’m most interested in that Byard Lancaster on Palm! It needs to come home with me 🙂
Sorry I missed the ear and RVG. It is clearly not an original, however, so it is still a big price. I tried to sell the Herbie Nichols of the same vintage for $100 a few years ago on eBay and at record shows but got no takers.
I’d enjoy hearing from anyone who knows more about JRC – its history, operations, business model. Like, how does it happen? Is it a situation where Fred was simply fortuitous enough to amass hundreds of boxes full of pristine Blue Notes and other LPs 30 or 40 years ago? I mean, does he just walk into his storage room and say, “Let’s see, this week I’ll list one of these 15 copies of Mobley 1568 I have… These Sonny Clarks? Got plenty of those… A couple Lee Morgans will be good…”? Or, is he still an active buyer, and simply well-established and well-connected enough to get leads on great pockets of records? I was in his shop once about 15 years ago and I recall him being an older man. How long has he had JRC? Is he basically a one-man operation? Is some of it consigned? Inquiring minds want to know.
Clifford/GST, the Mr. Peters and Mr. Lancaster lps are good’uns. I had them both once, decades ago.
from what I recall, he does do a fair amount of consignment for big-ticket items. Not sure what the split is.
@Japhy: Jazz Record Center opened it’s doors in 1983 and is run by its owner Fred Cohen. Like Clifford mentioned, a lot of the high-ticked items/collections being sold on eBay nowadays are sold on consignment. Fred has a good reputation and obviously has many contacts. A rare item sold by him can fetch up to twice as much (or even more) than when sold by the original owner.
Well, it seems the top bidder thought better on the J.R. Monterose and retracted their bid. Back down to $410.
We are contemplating the weekly Blue Note flood.
$600 for Clarence Peters? Ugh. Bought that LP in mint condition for like $100 many years ago..was not in love with it and sold it for $200 or so at the time after making an audiophile recording of it. At the time I was ecstatic haha…
yeah, 600 is insane for that record. I like it but would not fork over that kind of cash to get a copy!
Hard to explain the happenings on EBay but that’s probably why we watch this stuff.
I actually have a very scratchy, but playable, copy of “Sonny’s Crib”‘ alas, with no cover, that i bought for a buck, a couple years ago. I have to recount that tale here sometime this year.
That Jazz record Center (blue note 1588) was auctioned off in the past with a end date of 0ct 23,2018. and a sale price of $2345.00… i assume the sale went thru. since feedback was left for the record. popsike also recorded the sale/date
This is clearly the the same record that was auctioned off in OCT/2018 you can see it’s the same exact jacket and record, notice the stamped name on side 1 – and the back off the jacket here is the link
of that auction
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonny-Clark-on-Blue-Note-1588-/292774534510?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137
click on the link above this page for that same record and the record is clearly the same. even though jrc gets a lot of records, from my experience lot of them get returned for not being in condition described.. I have know about Fred from the mid 90’s from back in the day before Ebay, when you had to go thru goldmine and discover magazine for jazz lp auctions. I won’t get into details, but a lot of these expensive blue note lp’s he list , have been relisted before .only this time it was relisted before Ebay takes away the ability to view past auctions as you only have a certain time to do it
eh, Popsike doesn’t necessarily indicate the record was paid for, but the feedback left would indicate payment and perhaps it was returned *or* the dude didn’t read the description, paid, and changed his mind. Either way, that is certainly not a clean example of 1588.
Feedback was left by seller (Fred of jrc)…. and by the buyer, therefore this transaction went through, as eBay does not allow a change of mind after a auction. Records look a lot better when you are selling them versus buying them especially on original classic blue notes, and from my experience jrc records get returned a lot based on grading, hopefully the new owner will be satisfied, as its not good to have records returned over and over and handled, transported from mailings, etc , not good
I miss Jazz Collector.