Vinyl Madness
I did a bit of a double take when I saw this record sell on eBay: Thad Jones, Mad Thad, Period SPL 1208. The reason for the double take was I remember owning this record but do not remember seeing it in my collection for many years. Sure enough, I perused the shelves and I apparently do not own this record any more. Do I have any idea what happened to it? Well, have some idea: I sold it. When, why, to whom, I have no idea. My guess is that the copy I had was in poor condition and I was weeding out some records from the collection. Or it could go all the way back to 1990, when I sold a large batch of records in order to buy a boat. Careful readers know the story: I sold the records, bought the boat and there was a hurricane and the boat sank. Vinyl karma? Anyway, I do not have a copy of Mad Thad. This would have been a nice one to own. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG. The final price was $940. This is the second highest price for this record, according to Popsike. Whenever I did sell my copy, you can rest assured I didn’t get anything close to that price.
Horace Parlan, Movin’ and Groovin’, Blue Note 4028. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. It was listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The final price was $1,154.99. The seller, funkyousounds, had a lot of other nice jazz vinyl LPs on its latest auction. Here’s another: Horace Parlan, Speakin’ My Piece, Blue Note 4043. This was another original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was just VG and the cover VG+. The final price was $910. And one more: Herbie Nichols Trio, Blue Note 1519. This was an original mono Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was in VG- condition and the cover was also VG-, with a seam split, wear and discoloration. The final price was $341.
Here’s on that’s closing in six days: Johnny Griffin, A Blowing Session, Blue Note 1559. This is an original New York 23 label. The record is listed in VG++ condition and the cover is listed as VG+. The name “John Griffin” is written in black marker on the back cover. The seller claims this is an autograph. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t. Don Lucky, are you out there? Bidding is at $1,225.
Seems like a good price for the Griffin regardless of the autograph.
Don’t look like J.G.’s autograph to me. At least not like the one I once got from him, albeit reluctantly on his part.
the same seller has a nice copy of Solidarity Unit, Inc., which is a wonderful private press avant-garde album. Price isn’t too outrageous either.
I’m an idiot. I thought that was the final price for the Griffin.
And yes Clifford that’s a great one, although I could see it hitting the $1K bin.
I love the Mad Thad album cover.
It’s a very classy reference too one of my favorite old movies : The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a german
expressionistic movie from 1920.
It’s about some one who’s going quite insane 🙂
For the album cover they used the same monotone purple colloring, the same letters (Font) and
the expressive high shadow on the background. Pretty good art director at Period records..
i know its recorded by Rudy van Gelder but i don’t know who did the photography/art direction?..
do not own the album, would settle for a japanese or re- pressing or so, but don’t know if they have ever been made..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpF4MoeeBVI
oh yes, @Maarten, wonderful film. I hadn’t immediately flashed on a connection between the two. I think I have seen a Japanese reissue before…
Wow, Maarten, the cool stuff I learn here at Jazz Collector. 🙂
Marten beat me to it, but I also absolutely love the Mad Thad cover. Being a visual art plebeian, I cannot explain why, but I sure do love it. Being almost totally colorblind, I find those soft single-color washes (purple? pink?) are so soothing to the eye.
Further to Maarten’s query, there are three different Japanese LP reissues of Mad Thad using the original cover. Two are on Columbia and one is on Jazz Historical/Everest.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304131029868?hash=item46cf9f3b6c:g:cEgAAOSwQbJhMT2R
George Benson’s dog signed copy of Cool Struttin.
It seems like Mr. Benson either purchased these records in terrible condition, or simply did not handle and take care of them properly, most of the records in the collection are G/ Vg +…… that Sonny Clark lp is listed in G+, interesting because i have never seen a record listed in G condition without any skips. Never, and the sellers states it does not skip
V – technically, a G record shouldn’t skip, if we go by goldmine. maybe they are rare seller that actually does…?
George B. must have a rabid Rottweiler !
George Benson’s copy of Cool Struttin’ with the dog chewed cover and a G+ record inside went for nearly $1,200.
That starts making $3k+ for a clean copy a lot more attractive
Regarding condition of Mr. Benson’s ‘Cool Struttin.’ Decades ago when I had a record store in Chicago, I bought several collections from musicians and such. Generally condition was good, these records had been played and enjoyed. And even though there were always “collectible” artists/labels, the condition was too poor to sell at a high price, back then $50.00 was a high price, thus I put them in my ‘blems’ bin and sold’ em for $1.99 to $3.99.
Boy, I’d make a killing with those records nowadays.
Sometimes musicians use records for different purposes. That leads to ruined records. The hardest part for me was telling someone you admired that their records were destroyed. These days, it seems it doesn’t matter, as long as the right markings are in the dead wax. The funniest story along these lines, was told by Fred Cohen about when Roland Kirk tried to sell his collection, insisting they all were in GREAT condition. LOL.
Back in the day before computers Jazz musicians “ruined” records by constantly dropping the needle on a track multiple times in order to learn the secrets of the masters. To me this a normal occurrence in trying to learn the music. Most of the time the records were well worn, but still played. Sometimes ya gotta break a egg if ya wanna bake a cake …