The First Blue Note, Anyone?
Perusing eBay this morning and came upon this listing: “Ridiculously RARE Blue Note Number 1 Meade “Lux” Lewis Pink and Black label.” It stopped me in my browsing tracks because this is a record I have never had the opportunity to own or even to see in person, only as random and rare listings on eBay. It would be nice to own, the first Blue Note release, but the price tag is quite steep. This copy is listed in E+ condition, which is great for a 78. The start price is at $700 and so far there are no bidders, but I’m sure that will change over the course of the next six days until the auction closes. The seller says there were 200 copies pressed with this label. I don’t doubt him, just wondering where the information came from. Just a couple of weeks ago there was this article about this record on Discover Music, The First Blue Note Record is Released: Meade “Lux” Lewis ‘Melancholy Blues.’ Looking on Popsike, the high water mark for this record in the past was about $2,000, and there have been at least four other recorded instances of the record selling for more than $1,000. Pretty cool.
Back to the world of LPs, this one just sold: McCoy Tyner, Nights of Ballads and Blues, Impulse A-39. This was a stereo pressing with the orange label and, we assume, the Van Gelder stamp. The record and cover were in VG+ condition and he final price was $225. The values of these McCoy Impulse records always tend to surprise me only because they were pretty common on the shelves when I first started buying jazz LPs and you could usually just go into any store and get one for $4.99 or whatever the going rate was. Fortunately, that’s precisely what I did. The same seller, carolinasoul, also had this one: Joe Henderson, Mode for Joe, Blue Note 84227. This was an original stereo pressing that was in VG- or so condition for the record and the cover. The final price was about $170.
That Meade Lux Lewis 78 has always got under my skin a bit. Pretty fascinating.
Also wild: $170 for a wrecked Mode For Joe…
That’s an interesting 78, musically and label-wise. Loved those early Blue Note 12” 78’s with all that boogie-woogie beating me eight to the bar.
I’ve owned 4 different colored labels of BN-1. The color shown here, orange/black, and also pinkish/black, yellow/black and the ubiquitous blue/white label.
Never knew which color was when in the issuing sequence. ‘Twasn’t the internet back then and other than oldster collectors, ‘tweren’t many sources of info.
Of course these 12” 78’s have long ago vanished from my hands.
the first… like the label… it was there from the beginning, with just some few changes.. never listened to it, so i looked upthis track on you tube (what a record player!).. looks like this one has blue labels already, but the song is the same… strangly enough, if it would remind me to anything… it’s thelonious monk…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf31ryay5S8
by the way.. how nice the first Blue note has the number 444-11
The McCoy Tyner sale reminds me that the price on Impulse lps has really been steadily rising over the last year. Since I collect this label, it’s nice to see values rising, but not for the ones I’m still looking for.
The price of the McCoy Tyner lp is another reminder of the escalating prices of Impulse lps. Collecting this label is staring to get expensive.
I was buying a blue and yellow copy in mint condition from a guy who “needed to take a look at it” before agreeing to my price – handed over and he snapped off the rim…. no sale.
Bill, as an Impulse collector, I’ve noticed the same. For the past half dozen years, that was nearly the only label I could afford, even as I enjoyed JC w/emphasis on Blue Notes. The other jazz lp prices that are skyrocketing are the 1985 Cadre Rouge French Pressings of the Blue Note classics. I used to buy them for $8-15… not quite as easy these days.
I too collected Impulse records (the first 250 releases) along with BN, and several other “noisier” labels. For me, many Impulse covers are as beautiful as any from that period. When I “deaccesioned” my collection(s) I held on to a few of my favorites for the covers alone. The full frame photos of musicians performing (Kule Sé Mama, Dear John C., After the Lights Go Down Low), in a reflective posture (Coltrane Hartman, Blues and the Abstract Truth /2nd jacket, Tauhid), or smoking (Three For a Quarter, Heavy Sounds, Wrapped Tight, countless others) taken by a handful of skilled photographers, are as well known for their saturated colors as the images of the musicians. Truth be told one does wind up with a bit too much Gabor Szabo, Gary McFarland and lesser Oliver Nelson titles when collecting Impulse, however that was a small price to pay in the pursuit. Watching the prices rise does my little prescient heart good.
Early BN 78’s are one of those great undervalued / undocumented niche markets of Blue Note collecting. Probably due to the antiquated format itself, their know fragility, and lack of covers. Nevertheless, they represent a piece of Blue Note history, and it is exciting to think that Alfred Lion himself most likely picked up the first order and distributed these early copies personally… I’ve owned a few of the pink and black label BN 01 78’s over the years myself, and I never thought I would part with the first one, but sometimes other priorities come into play and when the market is right you sell. No regrets, as it is still among the highest sale prices on Popsike for this one. Since then, I picked up another copy, albeit in slightly less pristine condition for a “song” in comparison.
Just a brief bit of trivia on the first pink and black label BN 78’s for everyone who may not already know:
– As legend has it, Alfred Lion started off the label printing 50 copies of BN 01 / BN 02 the pink & black labels were merely the result of a printing error, corrected soon after.
-Despite opinions to the contrary, I believe this accounting to be somewhat true. However, they had a second run of them and used up the remaining pink and black labels bringing the total up to around 200 pressings with the pink and black labels. All things considered, this seems to be a reasonable estimate for an independent start up label at the time.
-This hypothesis is supported by the fact that there are two known variations of the BN 01 pink and black labels to the stampers in the dead wax:
(1.) The rarest initial first pressing run that just has 444 11 / 443 12 stamped in the dead wax.
(2.) Then the ones with the suffix “A” after the numbers in the runoff which are apparently the second master versions pressed around 1940, as opposed to 1939.
– Last but not least, there is a type change on the label of the original labels the W & M. Original pressings have the W criss-crossing, and the M in both Melancholy and Meade have the M slanting, twice on side A and in the Meade on Side B.
I’ve inherited a collection that includes a copy of the rare first pressing of Blue Note 1 (“pink” label, criss-cross “W,” with 444 11 / 443 12 dead wax stamps). It’s wild to think that only 50 to 200 of these were ever made. The disc is an amazing piece of jazz history, but I lack the turntable and needle to play a 78 shellac, and I’m thinking I would like to sell it and use the proceeds to build out parts of my collection of greater personal interest. But given that I can’t play it, I’m not able to grade the audio, which could complicate my selling it. Any thoughts on how/where best to go about doing so?