Jazz Vinyl Update: Saxophone Colossi
Let’s catch up on some of the rare jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay, starting with: Sonny Rollins, Saxophone Colossus, Prestige 7079. This was an original pressing with some very nice pictures. The seller provided very little information and he had less than 30 feedbacks. Still, the record sold for $1,247. Here’s another copy of Saxophone Colossus that sold at around the same time from a well known and highly regarded seller. This one was listed in VG condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. It sold for $1,050. Interesting that the prices were so close, despite the disparity in the condition. Shows the value of knowing the seller, either from experience or just by brand name, even on eBay.
This one was interesting as well: Joe Henderson, In ‘N Out, Blue Note 4166. This one certainly looks like an original, with the mono cover, New York USA labels, etc. But the seller never makes mention of the ear in the deadwax, so you do wonder. It looks to be in VG++ or M- condition for the record and cover, and it certainly looks cool with the original shrink wrap and price. It sold for $511.01, so someone must have been pretty sure, or quite hopeful, that there is an ear in the deadwax. This is the second highest price we’ve ever seen for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide.
Colossus always one of my favorite records. Got this one decades ago, it’s an original but the owner wrote on back cover. But who plays the cover.
The previous owner also played it a bit, so no mintminuslikenewmuseumquality here.
However from what I know records are made to be dug and digging is done by playin’.
That Joe Henderson In n Out – a copy with ears,cost me all of $130 around two weeks ago from a London store. This “not mentioning the absence of the ear” is mounting up to an eBay scandal.
There is only one circumstance in which the missing ear is acceptable: a small selection of Liberty-hybrids exist where the pressing is fairly well indistinguishable from a Blue Note original, but the price reflects the “no ear” status.
http://londonjazzcollector.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/mum-mum-ive-got-no-ears/
LOndon Calling, compliments with your website!!
lennib,re:”from what I know records are made to be dug and digging is done by playin’.”
I agree fully,but I think it’s worth exploring what the HECK so many old-school listeners/collectors were thinking of when they treated their lps so poorly(in far too many cases). I can see a small name stamped on the rear,or some initials written discretely just cover a cover…but the NUTS who felt only a LARGE DEFACING OF THE BACK/FRONT COVER with MAGIC MARKER would keep their ‘buds’ from ripping off their records,well… I guess that shows you. They’re(often)dead,and we ‘younger’ collectors/bidders are left with the too often scratched-up and scribbled-upon evidence of their demise!
-that’s “discretely just inside a cover”.
I had hoped that someone more temperate than I would answer ceedee, but none did, so here goes on behalf of the undead old guys who originally collected his records: What you see as defacement on the back cover may have been done by Miles Davis, who didn’t want to give an autograph and didn’t say so, and the wear and tear may have been caused normally in the collection started by a 14 year-old boy. There’s more, but we’ll let it go.
Ceedee, I dealt, collected and in between owned a record store and in talking with a lot of the “oldsters” who bought these records new, they were just that, records to be played at parties and left on automatic record changes and covers often used as drink coasters and also many of the cats who wrote on the records “spun” at various places, from what I heard, a lot of taverns and such and they marked their records to keep them from being stolen by other djz.
…I was fortunate enough to be able to have Sonny “deface” the cover of my original first pressing of his masterwork for me with a Sharpie (Ref. the old Jazz Collector posting: “Sonny Live and Well: Better Late Than Never” for a photo Al posted) along with many other LP’s by his contemporaries over the years, but I would never consider writing my own name on an LP like that, even if only to mark ownership. Some people like to do this with books as well, and I never understood that one either. Thankfully, that is why pencils have erasers… (Note: For large magic marker removal, try using a q-tip with just a hint of nail polish remover, or A Mr Clean Magic Eraser and some really really fine metal grit(black) sandpaper… These can work wonders at cleaning off the names of previous owners with minimal damage to the cover slick, but be careful you can really #&%* it up as well !) I guess what I am saying is, over the years you learn the hard way that there are just some things you don’t lend out if you expect to get them back in one piece… Namely your LP’s, CD’s and depending on the neighbor, your tools !
Interesting..I think I grew up at a time where the worst thing one might find in a used lp were some leftover seeds!(If you’ve never rolled your own,never mind…)
The idea that scrawling or scribbling “graffitti-style”on a cover to protect(?)your stash never occurred to me. (And by ‘stash’,of course,I mean your record collection,not your-oh,forget it!)
Those gatefold Liberty Blue Note covers were great for separating those seeds and stems and sometimes a remnant lingers.
I too cringe at writing in books. Ever notice how those who highlight in books seem to run out of speed by the middle. Rarely do they go to the end with their highlighting fetish.
If it was cheap to buy and plentiful at the time, like these vinyl LPs were then its unlikely most people would have handled them with cotton gloves. They were used and abused like 8 track cartridges, cassettes and reel to reel tapes. Its only now, 50 years later, when folks are trying to find clean playable copies that they have become valuable items. But at the end of the day they are just records and paying $1000 for one just seems over the top to me.
FYI… Sonny’s website mentioned a great interview he did recently for “Tavis Smiley” on PBS. Here’s the link:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/jazz-saxophonist-sonny-rollins/#top