Variations on a Vinyl Theme
Here’s some random jazz vinyl we’re watching on eBay, starting with Miles Davis, The New Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige 7014. This looks to be an original New York yellow label pressing with the original green cover. Coltrane’s first LP with Miles. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition. The bidding is at $56 with five days left on the auction. From the same seller, and also under $100 (for now) is Lou Donaldson, Lou Takes Off, Blue Note 1591. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record is listed in VG condition and the cover is VG++. Bidding is at $51 with five days left.
Whilst we’re look at records that are in the under $100 range there is Stan Levey, This Time the Drums on Me, Bethlehem 37. This looks to be an original red label pressing listed in VG+ for the record and VG for the cover. The seller is not very effusive with this description and at one point describes it in mint condition, which it clearly is not. The start price is $80. For those in the know, this record features some very lovely playing by Dexter Gordon.
This next one caught my eye because I’ve been watching a bunch of auctions closing today by the seller carolinasoul. This next one being Tommy Flanagan, The Cats, New Jazz 8217. This is an OJC pressing in M- condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. The bidding is at $56 and the auction will probably be closed by the time most of you read this. I was never a huge fan of the OJC pressings, but I bought them in the day to fill in gaps in my collection. They always felt kind of flimsy to me, but I never had much complaints about the sound quality. Hey, you get the original music, the original liner notes, the original cover. What can be bad?
Loved me that Stan Levey lp.
The Miles Davis PrLp 7014 is a second pressing. The characteristics are the letter types of label and catalogue number, the probability of a laminated front and the fact that this is a G E M made cover. G E M made covers typically between PrLp 7060 – 7090. The G E M origin can be seen bottom right of the rear.
BTW, the seller honestly makes a note of his copy being a second issue.
Aha! Rudolf beat me to it. Yes, that PRLP 7014 is the second version of the green cover (and don’t forget there’s a third blue version too). The first version has the word “Prestige” and the “lp” lettering in a different cursive typeface and does not have the “HI-FI” wording.
It’s also interesting to note the error on the labels that states “The New Miles Davis Quarter” when it’s actually quintet. These sorts of detail errors seem to have been quite common for Prestige in the 1950s and even affected Miles when he moved to big corporate Columbia as evidenced by the mis-spelling of Cannonball’s surname and the tracklisting transposition on Side 2 labels of Kind of Blue.
This Stan Levey album is a jewel. Must have in any collection…but not collectable by today’s standards….
That Stan Levey album seem to have a significant scratch. I would not dare to bid on that….
Martin, the third Miles Davis “Quartet ” issue, with the blue sleeve, has N.J. Bergenfield labels, but is without an adress on the rear.
I feel like we talked about that Levey here some time back. Maybe not. But I recall that there was something about a variant on the cover, so I went looking. Indeed, there are versions (not many) with an alternate cover that has in big bold red letters “On the Jazz Kick”. See one here: https://gripsweat.com/item/312183707042/stan-levey-this-time-the-drums-on-me-lp-bethlehem-bcp-37-dg-mono-dexter-gordon
Curiously, this cover is not documented on Discogs, where there are two BCP-37 listed, the original and a repress, both in 1956. Would this record have sold so well as to warrant a repress in the same year? Seems odd, and the two listings don’t provide any pressing details to compare. But still no listing with this cover.
Japhy: I have seen a couple of times overprints on existing Bethlehem sleeves. I never saw this one, but the idea is always the same, an added text whilst the original design is maintained. The effect is cheap and does not enhance the overall presentation. I have the Levey sleeve where he is just buried under his drums.
Interestingly, with many of those alternative covers on Bethlehem, the added text is not printed on the image underneath the laminate. Instead it was applied with white decals on top of the cover. One could remove the decals quite easily with a fingernail if one were so inclined, and I’ve seen worn covers where a white graphical element has been scraped away to reveal the original image underneath. I have a @BurtGoldblatt.design instagram account that highlights the designer’s work, and I have a few of these examples highlighted if anyone is interested in checking it out. Shameless plug for the countless goldblatt fans out there.
What_can_brown – I picked up a collection once that had quit a few of the Bethlehem covers with silk screen overlays.
My theory was that Bethlehem did this either for promotional purposes or they wanted to see if adding the artist’s name to the cover art would increase sales.
Although it’s obvious that the silk screening was done one top of the lamination but was it done on the individual laminated slicks or completed covers.
I learned offset printing techniques as a photographer (Time-Life, WSJ, NYT, Conde Nast, etc, the usual) and they went through quit a bit of trouble for this for only a few copies of each and I would love to know why.
P.S. The BLP 1568 Rare label variation has always bothered me as if you think of Blue Note as having small press runs and how you load paper from printer to printer to add the different layers. I’m pretty sure the mixed labels could have been introduced at any point, not just the beginning or end of the run. It would take a much longer explanation with illustrations to show the possible variations but the “Sheldon” in me won’t bore you guys.