A Question About Blue Note Labels in Transition
Category: Blue Note
Jeepers Creepers, Where’d You Get Those Eyeballs?
If you’ve been on eBay this week, you’ve probably noticed the listings of the seller bobdjukic, who has a few hundred records listed, not all jazz. He’s a seller who often puts up nice stuff. I’ve never bought from him, so I don’t know his reputation. One thing I do know: His listings get noticed. I was glancing at the listing for Johnny Griffin, A Blowing Session, Blue Note 1559. This seems to be an original pressing in less than VG condition with a cover that’s just in G or G+ condition. Not great by any means. I was not surprised at the $100 price tag — nothing about Blue Note prices surprises me anymore — but by the number of page views the item received: It has a staggering total of 1,579 views and there are still four days to go. In all the years I’ve been listing on e-Bay, I’ve never had a single record receive that kind of viewership. I’m not sure what this guy does to attract eyeballs, but whatever it is, it is working.
Updates: More Monterose and More Blue Note
Jazz Collector is certainly expanding my horizons. Today I spoke to a bass player in Rochester who was friends with J.R. Monterose and, in fact, produced a CD that is probably J.R.’s last recording. He’s sending me a copy and I’ll let you know about it when it arrives. Quite possibly we could end up as a repository of the first and last known recordings of J.R. Monterose. Pretty cool. Also, I had a long conversation with Ron Rambach, who has a company called Music Matters, which reissuing of a good portion of the Blue Note catalogue as
How Would You Like These in Your Collection?
We’ve gotten so tied up in the J.R. Monterose stuff the past couple of days, we forgot to go back to eBay to catch up on all of those hot records we were watching last week. So we just took a look and, WOW! The prices are quite staggering, and we will be adding more records to the $1,000 bin — and $2,000 bin — and $3,000 bin — than we have ever previously added at one time. Here’s the list:
Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This was an original pressing with the red vinyl. It was in M- condition, both the record and cover. It sold for $3,059. The seller was Herschel78, who had a bunch of hot records last week, a few more of which will appear in this post. I had tried to reach out to Herschel78 to find out more about these beautiful records, but he never replied. Perhaps I’ll try again.
Cliff Jordan, Cliff Craft, Blue Note 1582. This was an original pressing in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $2,303.
Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. This was another original pressing in M- condition. It sold for $1,692. A second copy of this record, this one in VG+ condition for the record and the cover, sold for $676.
Lee Morgan Volume 3, Blue Note 1557. This was a Mint copy, sold by our friend and Read more
Quickie Quiz
When Dexter Gordon first came back and recorded for Blue Note in the 1960s, his first two dates were Doin’ Allright and Dexter Calling. His next recording was as a sideman. To whom was he a sideman, and what was the name of the LP? Extra credit: Who were the other musicians? You can look it up, but it’s more fun if you don’t.
Today on eBay: Tal, Drew, Kenny Dorham, True Blue
We had a couple of hours to kill last night, so we did something we used to do every day: Scroll through a full 24 hours worth of jazz records listed on eBay. It was good timing, because we found some nice items for our Jazz Collector readers and one item we plan to bid on for ourselves.
Our friends at Euclid Records have a nice batch closing today, including: Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 224. This is an original white label pressing and is listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The current price is $1,256, so, Kenny Drew, welcome again to the $1,000 bin. Also from Euclid is The Tal Farlow Album, Norgran 1047. This is the 12-inch version with the beautiful cover by David Stone Martin. It is in M- condition for both the record and the cover and is currently in the $60 price range. My friend Dan Axelrod, who was Tal’s good friend and protege, swears that the 10-inch version of this record offers far better sound quality than the 12-inch version. I suppose that’s why he has more than a dozen copies of the 10-inch version. Nonetheless, the 12-inch Tal Farlow Album is quite lovely to listen to and quite collectible and is certainly a worthy addition to any collection.
It always pays to read the eBay listings carefully. Here’s an example why:
More and More Blue Notes: Quite a Week on EBay
It is quite a week on eBay this week. Yesterday we pointed out two quite compelling Blue Notes for auction and if you were dig a bit deeper you would notice that the seller of the Cliff Jordan-John Gilmore LP, herschel78, has quite a trove of additional treasures. I will point some of these out momentarily. We have also received an email from a seller named pretovelho, who has just put up about 200 records, including a large number of Blue Notes, some of which will will point out here as well. We are also putting up a few nice records under our nom-de-ebay AJDoctor, one of which is the first Moondog LP on Prestige, entitled Moondog, Prestige 7042. This one is in nice shape and already has a bid of $99. As for some of the other choice items we’ll be watching this week, here is a sampling:
The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson Volume 1, Blue Note 1505. This is an original Lexington
This Week on EBay: Some Blue Notes . . . Plus
Got home late yesterday afternoon from Providence, where my son had directed a play (quite well done, I must say) and popped onto eBay to see what was there for my friends at Jazz Collector. As soon as I did my normal search under jazz records, the first two items that popped up were real beauties: Lee Morgan, Volume 3, Blue Note 1557 and Cliff Jordan/John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. Both of this records are listed in near mint condition and both sellers promise that you will never see a better copy. Digging a little deeper, the seller of the Jordan LP has a bunch of other, similar, high-end beautiful condition jazz collectibles on auction this week. It promises to be an interesting week, with a few more additions to the $1,000 bin. It is my expectation that each of these records will sell for more than $1,000 — in fact,
Sonny’s Crib, No DG, At What Price (Redux)?
The other day we were watching a copy of Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This is a copy in very nice condition, with the West 63rd Street address, but no deep groove. The seller had a buy-it-now price of $1,000 and we didn’t think it would sell for that, but we wondered what kind of value collectors would place on it. Well, we’ll get another chance to find out: The seller has just re-listed it with a buy-it-now price of $500. Tempted?
For The Price Guide: Riversides, Blue Notes
In addition to the Dinah Washington LP mentioned below, we are adding a few more records to the Jazz Collector Price Guide today. At some point, we surpassed more than 4,000 entries in the price guide. We find it quite valuable to use in buying and selling records, and also to help establish values for insurance and estate-planning purposes. We hope you all find it valuable as well. Here are a few more additions:
Kenny Drew Trio, Riverside 224. This was an original white label pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $898.88.
Here’s another nice Riverside: Zoot Sims, Zoot!, Riverside 228. This was also a white label pressing, in VG+ condition for both the record and cover. It sold for $158.50.
And what would the Price Guide be without Blue Notes. Here are a few new ones: