Rare Insanity
We will ring in the new year with a few nice jazz vinyl auctions we are watching on eBay, starting with a big one: Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is a close-to-original pressing (original in my eyes) in that it has the deep grooves and West 63rd Street addresses on the labels. Some are sticklers and demand that one side have a New York 23 label. This one is in M- condition for the record and Ex for the cover, which is probably VG++ in Jazz Collector parlance. the bidding has already topped $2,500, but it has not yet reached the seller’s reserve price.
The seller bobdjukic as back with another batch of insanely rare records and he brings up an interesting question on this one: John Coltrane, My Favorite Things, Atlantic 1361. He claims this is an original stereo pressing with the blue and green labels and the white fan logo. I’ve actually never know the keys to identifying an original My Favorite Things and I’m certainly not about to trust this guy. Perhaps someone out there can shed some light, mono and stereo? This one is listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price is already more than $100. Three are additional interesting items from this seller, which I will be watching for future posts. Stay tuned.
Hi Al,
Happy New Year to you and everyone out there in Jazz Collector land.
As far as I know, the white fan logo with green and blue label was used between 1960-1962.
My Favourite Things was recorded late 1960’s and released early 1961, so this would fall into the era that the aforementioned label was used. So to the best of my knowledge, bobdjukic is correct that it is a “first edition”.
For the same period, the Mono pressing should have had the red & purple label with white fan logo.
Address on the cover should have been 1841 Broadway, New York 23, New York.
Hope this helps, and hopefully I have it correct, cheers, Mike.
http://33rev.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=68
This is a decent guide for labels
I’m looking to pick up a purple mono of MFT in a few weeks(I need to sell some of my own stuff first!) BTW,this goodie came up while I was You Tube today:I know many fans of this site have seen it,but for those who haven’t,it’s a real treat.
And it places Trane at around the time of his MFT sessions(some months before,judging by his tone?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beCGdmrP8Xc
Happy new year to you Al and to all readers of jazzcollector.com!
Mike J is right. MFT was recorded between October 21 and 26, 1960, and was released early 1961. So yes, this is the correct label for an original stereo from 1961. The later stereo label which was used by Atlantic between 1962 and 1966 looks almost the same, but with a negative image of the fan on the right side of the label, showing a black fan on a white background instead.
By the way, the link title has a typo, it is Atlantic 1361 not 1311.
According to bsnpubs.com, the white fan was in use from 1333 to 1378. So correct as a first pressing for 1361. Goldmine confirms. Don’t understand the attraction for the Coltrane Atlantics in stereo – the instruments are so hard-separated, I find the records an annoying listen, so only have monos.
Happy new year to Al’s Pals, and to Al and family, of course.
Loved this year’s starting title:
Rare Insanity. That is humor.
Here’s another odd claim that bobdjukic is making about his copy of Jackie McLean’s “New Soil” 4013 now on eBay. He states that it is a first edition, first original pressing; yet, it does NOT have “ears” or deep grooves. I asked him for an explanation about how this could be, and he avoided answering me directly by saying some people believe that with Blue Notes, the “ears” are the determining factor for originality but he’s not one of them. Say what? I asked him directly if he believed it was possible for a Blue Note record to not have ears but still be pressed on the Plastylite equipment. He wouldn’t answer the question. Something very odd is going on here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161181475629?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
I have often wondered what year Plastylite stopped using the P. If it was around ’65 or ’66 bobdjukic may have a point.
Drew: thank you for drawing our attention to the evasive reply of Djukic. IMHO Djukic’s copy is a later pressing, original Blue Note, or not, but definitely not a first pressing.
Agree with Joe, stereo version of MFT is annoying. I will look for a mono copy but they are quite costly … White fan stereo can be easily found at 50 bucks in NM condition.
I have seen many many of these so-called first pressing auctions of bobs. They all seem to go for prices well above the going market rate and are often not first pressings at all – his descriptions seem to be incorrect. I find this very suspect, and his evasive answers even more so.
He seems to be connected to LondonJazzCollector, so may be the same person.