Four Updates For the $1,000-Plus Bin
This one comes to us via Clifford, with the comment “Basra into the big boy bin” followed by the pithy commentary “OOF!” Pete LaRoca, Basra, Blue Note 4205. This was an original New York USA mono pressing listed in M- condition for the record. As for the cover, the seller grades it as Ex. From the pictures it is no better than VG+ and probably on the low end of the VG+ scale at best. The final price was $1,575. Prior to this year, the top price for Basra was $820. But this is the second copy this year to sell for more than $1,000, following a $1,350 sale in February, according to Popsike. OOF! Indeed.
Here’s one we had our eye on with the idea of a potential bid, but the price went way beyond what we had expected (that seems to be a familiar refrain these days, doesn’t it?): Jackie McLean and John Jenkins, Alto Madness, Prestige 7114. This was an original New York yellow label. The record looked to be in M- condition and the cover was pretty close to that, probably VG++. The final price was $1,036. According to Popsike, this is the second highest recorded price for Alto Madness, behind an $1,191 winning bid from 2019.
Whilst we’re rummaging through the $1,000 bin – or shall we now refer to it as the OOF! Bin – here’s one more: Bill Evans, Waltz for Debby, Riverside 399. This was an original blue label, deep groove, mono pressing that was listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $1,101.
And not to be outdone there was Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original purple label pressing with the deep grooves. The record was listed in VG+ condition, with some “crackle.” Not a very specific term, but I guess we know what that means. The cover was also listed in VG+ condition. There was no mention of crackle, just some very light staining. The price was $2,076.
I’ve officially been in the game long enough now that I think some of these prices are nuts, but the market demands what it demands, I suppose.
Basra… definitely in my top 5 BN records .. Laroca didn’t make that many lp’s as a leader but somehow he appears on many of my favourite albums, like Page one by Henderson, live village vanguard by Rollins but most of all, ‘To Sweden with Love’ by Art Farmer/jim hall
Some of these prices are indeed, nuts— but in comparison the two first ones, Waltz for Debby and Quiet Kenny sold for quite reasonable prices. Lower than I would have expected for both.
The Bill Evans looked extremely clean, with absolutely no ring wear on the front cover which is a real feat given how fragile those non laminated Riverside covers are. The seller had a video of the record playing (worth watching for the incredible listening room and setup!) and looked to be accurately graded. In that condition it could have sold for twice as much without being a shocking result.
Quiet Kenny is an absolute grail record and near impossible to find in collectible condition. I think this one was quite conservatively graded. Another VG+ copy sold just a few months ago for double that price.
As for Basra, well it’s an incredible record and I’m not surprised collectors would be fighting over a nice copy. Fun hobby we have… it’s all comes down to scarcity and demand I guess. With condition being the multiplier in the end.
Joe Henderson’s performance on Basra’s Lazy Afternoon almost dropped me to my knees when I first heard it back in the late 70’s(blue Liberty Label). In the late 90’s I started to look for a Mono copy as it was “Essential”.
I bought and resold at least 5 copies as each one had either a scratch or needle-drops on “Lazy Afternoon”.
My assumption was that the previous owners were as enamored with that track also and played it first ergo the damage at the beginning.
I had to settle for a clean stereo…..the silence between the notes is anticipation at it’s best.
Basra is one of the greats in the 4200 series, and not easy to track down, but I can’t imagine paying anywhere near that much for an original mono copy. Seems like $500-$800 would be fine for a sharp copy, but… welcome to 2021!
Instagram has been blamed for this recent upsurge in prices but it is likely a result of the intensification of online shopping from the pandemic coupled with a very, very successful Blue Note reissue campaign. Add in the stimulus bucks and it is arguably a blow off top for jazz vinyl prices … or not. The BN reissues have normalized the idea of a $30 price floor for jazz vinyl. If even a small percentage of these buyers of BN vinyl (available at Target!) get turned on to looking for OG copies and other labels, the bidding wars are inevitable. The fact that grading seems to be secondary indicates there are new collectors involved. Wish I would have known this was going to happen back in 1995.
If i knew what the world of collectibles would become i’d be buying baseball cards in 1995 😉
The “$30 price floor for jazz vinyl” has been pretty level since vinyl existed, if you bought Basra when it came out in 1965 for $4, that would be $33 in 2021 US dollars.
wish salaries increased commensurate with vinyl prices.
I am told there is a cardboard shortage because, in part, so much online shopping has resulted in exponentially more boxes being used. People are basically “gripped out,” in record parlance, whether due to stimmy bux, being at home all the time, Instagram, or some combination thereof. The stores that are open basically sell through their wall items in a heartbeat… WFMU is going to be a feeding frenzy next year. Yipes.
Yeah, the 80th Anniversary reissue of “Basra” remastered by Kevin Gray will do just fine for me. If I find a reasonably priced original, great! However, the prices over the past several years has gotten a tad too expensive for my budget. I just hope these copies are going to folks that truly love and will cherish the music.
Basra is a great record and its no surprise it is in high demand. The real change is in the condition grading ; plus, with those records getting rarer the condition is still important, but is not as relevant as it used to be.
It’s interesting how some of these albums seem to have little blips of interest and price reaches a new peak, and then the price settles down (admittedly at a new, higher level). The previous peak for Basra was in 2013, when a few copies on eBay/Discogs sold for around $700-800. Then for the next few years it seems like the average price was around $400.
And check out this site’s post from January 29, 2011. Looks like Al correctly predicted this.
Coincidentally, there is a nice article that was just published by Jazz Times, written by Ethan Iverson about Basra and Pete LaRoca which is basically a remembrance by Steve Swallow.
https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/steve-swallow-pete-la-roca/
Whew, that’s a great article Bill, thanks for sharing! I especially loved this little anecdote:
“One of the tunes on Basra was ‘Lazy Afternoon,’ a tender ballad. We were in full flight, mid-take, with our eyes closed, when Kuhn reached inside the piano to pluck a chord. There were immediate loud and abrupt noises over the P.A. Rudy came running out to the room in the middle of the take and angrily told Kuhn, ‘If you touch those strings again, this date is over.’ We were all sitting there pinned to our seats with our eyes bugged out.”
thanks @Bill!!
Well, this has nothing to do with this post and news travels slow to Jupiter. However I just heard Bob Porter passed.
He was a most interesting character.
I snagged the Alto Madness, it was properly graded. Been collecting various genres for decades. These days I am focusing on a few jazz favorites from the mid fifties to mid 60’s and this was one of them for me. I mostly buy nm or better and at that level purchases in jazz are few and far between because prices at that level usually go sky high even for somewhat common records (like Money Jungle from Euclid records). Sadly, nm or better BNs are out of my comfort zone, and I literally only have a handful of wants on that front and they are not even holy grails, just things I like.