Watching A Pair Of Heavy-Duty Jazz Collectibles
My goodness, here’s a jazz collectible to make the heart flutter (my heart, at least): Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, Prestige 7150. This is an original yellow label pressing, although the record itself is a reissue. No big deal, right? Except this one is autographed by, get this, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. That’s about as an impressing a lineup of jazz autographs as you could get on one record. This one is being auction by The Jazz Record Center so I would be one to trust that the signatures are original. Perhaps Don-Lucky or another autograph collector might shed more light. In any case, the bidding on this one starts at $2,500 and there is already a bid so the record will sell. If I had this one, I’d frame it for sure.
Here we go again: Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is an original original pressing, based on all of our feedbacks and comments last week, and it has the New York 23 on the B Side. This one is in M- condition for both the record and the cover and, based on the seller’s description, it sounds like it’s in amazing shape. The auction closes later today, in about four hours, and the bidding is in the $2,000 range. My guess is that it goes in the $4,000 range. If it was from a seller with more history and more of a reputation using this description it would probably break the $5,000 barrier. Maybe even more. And maybe it will with this seller. We’ll see soon.
The 1568 sold for $3,622. I was tempted to bid but the no-return policy kept me on the sidelines.
What the makes the Prestige 7155 record a reissue? This was originally released on the NJ label IIRC.
…I’ve been thinking a lot about the signed copy of 7150 above ever since Al posted this one. I am still on the fence with it though. On one hand, it is from a very reputable seller, and this is definitely one of those “dream display pieces” for us collectors.
On the other, there is no provenance whatsoever, and more often than not, when an autograph seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Here is how I typically break an autograph down when the reasonable doubt outweighs provenance:
Negatives:
-No provenance.
-The signatures are all oversized as compared with many known original examples.
– They all appear to be written with the same amount of pressure.
-The slants and graphology in general varies somewhat from other known examples. (But really not enough to be a major “tell” of a possible forgery in this case, as signature and autograph variations are commonplace with most artists)
-Each signature is overly clean-cut, and perhaps a little too perfect. Miles seems to be an amalgamation of two signature eras, The tail end of Monk’s is too clean, and Coltrane’s seems a bit off.
-They are on the front cover… It is generally quite rare to get signatures of this vintage on the LP cover for one reason. They usually smudged off. If they were signed in Ink with a fountain pen, there is not a single smudge or fading… The lines would often have more transitions in tone and ink delivery and sharpness, which makes me think that this was signed with a permanent marker of some sort…
Note: For any of you who have ever tried to get a signature on a laminated or semi-gloss LP cover, it is no easy task without the help of today’s permanent Sharpie markers. It can easily be rubbed off by anyone who attempts to touch it, let alone rest their palm on it to sign one after another as in this case. Fine line permanent markers were not readily used or commercially available for the average consumer until the late 60’s early 70’s, and they would still smudge on this type of non-porous surface… Other types, such as ball point pens were available by the late 40’s to early 50’s but generally too expensive for the average consumer and would usually show signs of indentation on the surface to get them to leave a mark on a glossy surface and were not as bold.)
Positives:
– Coltrane was around until 1967, Monk was around until 1982, Miles until 1991. The fact that this one was issued post 1959 makes it possible for someone to get all three of these Jazz heavy-weights signatures at one time on a single LP.
– If they had in fact used an early permanent marker and were very careful, I suspect it would be possible for someone to get these autographs as shown.
Conclusion:
-The negatives outweigh the positives unfortunately and I would probably deem this one much too risky an investment at it’s current price point, but it is certainly one of those “dream” display pieces if it were in fact proven real. At the end of the day, unless we had some realy great provenance like a photo of it being signed, you can only know for sure if you were there to get this one in person…
p.s. – Someone out there really got a “bargain” on that copy of BN 1568… I watched the clock run down on this one just to watch the bidding frenzy in the final seconds while waiting for another auction to close last night. Unfortunately it was a disappointing finish for the seller as it didn’t hit anywhere near the $5000 mark that so many of it’s contemporaries in similar condition have in the past. Could it be a sign we have hit the high-water mark, and the proverbial market waters are beginning to recede. Or was everyone just out enjoying the weather or possibly watching Family Guy instead ? (Heh heh …Mad Men doesn’t start until 10pm on AMC, so there was plenty of time to bid hit ebay last night for a bit.)
i have a signed poster from jazz festival in jacksonville in 1977 i know for sure george benson signed it.others trying to figure out signatures. Marianne 9414672884thank do you know anything about jazz autographs