Category: Blue Note

Updating the Jazz Vinyl Price Guide

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I’ve been spending the entire morning catching up on the Jazz Collector Price Guide and, if time allows, this weekend I will make a lot of additions and finally take the database to more than 5,000 records. Quite impressive, if you ask me, since I’ve logged every one of those by myself, by hand, typing in each entry one by one. Here are some of the recent items that will be added and I hope to do another post before the end of the year with some of the older items I may have missed during the past few months.

Brew Moore in Europe, Debut 127. This is the original Danish pressing, quite hard to find. The record was in VG++ condition and the cover was M-. The price was $373.

Here Comes Louis Smith, Blue Note 1584. This is one of those where you had to look carefully at the listing. The record is listed in Ex+/N- condition and the cover as Ex. The picture shows that the cover has tape all around it, so if I were grading the best I’d give it is a VG-. It would also make me wary about the condition of the vinyl, if the seller considers this cover as excellent. Potential buyers had some of  the same concerns, it seems. The record sold for $495.

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Going Up . . . Up . . . Up . . .

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Here’s some interesting jazz vinyl auctions that closed this week.

We need a new explanation for this one: Horace Silver, Song For My Father, Blue Note 4185. Admittedly this is a great, classic record and this was an original mono pressing in near mint condition for both the record and the cover. Why is there a new explanation needed? Conventional wisdom has said that because of the initial popularity of this record, there has always been a relatively abundant supply of original pressings in decent condition. Conventional wisdom may be changing. This particular copy sold for $405. Our previous high for this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was $334 and, at the time, we considered that to be an aberration. What’s this?

And this? Gene Ammons, Blue Gene, Prestige 7146. This was from the same seller and it was also in near mint condition for the record and the cover. You’d normally expect this in the $40-$50 range, maybe a drop higher because of the condition. This copy sold for $164.50.

This next one got quite a high price, but not a surprising one:

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Cool Struttin’, Giant Steps and Other Jazz Classics

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Let’s catch up on some of the interesting rare jazz vinyl we’ve been watching at Jazz Collector. Big Bear apparently put a magnifying glass to this record and found that it was not necessarily an original pressing: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. In addition to the question about the “original-ness” of the record there was also some concern expressed here about the lack of information about the listing. The record wound up selling for $1,913.88 in M- condition, which is probably significantly less than it would have received if it had been offered by a reputable seller with a strong reputation, such as Jazz Record Center or Euclid. Nonetheless, it is still quite a hefty price, particularly if it is not a first pressing. This one came from the same seller and failed to sell: Paul Chambers, Bass on Top, Blue Note  1569. I tried the magnifying glass trick myself but to no avail: Either my magnifier was faulty or my eyes were faulty or, more likely, a combination of the two. I couldn’t figure out if this was original or not. Perhaps other potential bidders had the same problem. Nobody was willing to hit the start price of $500.

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No Holiday For Watching Jazz Vinyl

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It may be the holiday season around much of the world, but eBay never takes a vacation. Neither, apparently, does Jazz Collector. Here is some interesting jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay. We’ll start with the $1,000 been. This one is still for sale: Hank Mobley, Hank, Blue Note 1560. This is an original pressing that’s listed in near mint condition for both the record and the cover. The price is already more than $1,100 and there are still two days to go.  This is also a regular to the $1,000 bin: Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original pressing, deep grooves, purple label, and it was listed in VG++ condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $1,415. Merry Christmas for someone. John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell, Blue Note 1573. This was an original pressing that was either M- or very close to M-, based on the seller’s description. It sold for $1,156.99.

Here are a few interesting items closing in the next day or so:

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A Jazz Vinyl Auction To (Carefully) Watch

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Are there any gamblers out there? Here are some interesting items from a seller in Italy, including : Art Taylor, AT’s Delight, Blue Note 4047. The seller describes this record, as well as a bunch of other jazz collectibles, as being from his grandfather’s collection. There is no mention on any of these listings about some of the characteristics you’d want to see on a Blue Note to determine it’s provenance. No mention of deep grooves, addresses on the label, RVGs, ears, etc. Yet . . . if you look at the picture, you get the sense that perhaps they are originals. Or could they be someone else’s pictures? The seller does not accept returns. Perhaps we’re back to being skeptical again, since this is around the two-year anniversary of the great eBay Nautiluso fraud, from Italy. Clearly, others are skeptical as well, based on the price of this record and other listings from this seller. This one, listed in M- condition for the record and the cover, is now at $260. Here’s another from the same batch: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This is described as being in M- condition and a U.S. pressing, but all of the other important data is not included in the listing. The bidding on this has gone to $585 and the auction is closing in a few hours. Under normal circumstances, what would an M- copy of this sell for — $3,000, $4,000?

Blue Note Jazz Vinyl For the $1,700 Bin

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OK, so when did this become a $1,700 record: Donald Byrd, Byrd in Flight, Blue Note 4048? This was an original pressing and it was in M- condition. It was also a review copy. Who would have suspected it would get a top bid of $1,712? I certainly didn’t. Our previous high price for this record in the Jazz Collector Price Guide was more in the range of $300.

From the same seller came a batch of other nice collectibles, also at top prices, including: Rocky Boyd, Ease It, Jazz Time 001. This was an original pressing. The record looked to be M- and the cover was probably VG++. It sold for $668. I owned this record at one time but don’t recall that I ever listened to it. I wound up trading it for something not nearly as collectible. I know this record benefits from the presence of Kenny Dorham, for both musicality and collectibility. How is the record and what can we learn about Rocky Boyd?

Also:

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Down By The Riversides (With A Blue Note)

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Here’s some more jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay.

It’s been a while since we’ve tracked a nice copy of Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This one was an original pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover. It sold for $1,913.

Here’s a nice Riverside: Ernie Henry, Last Chorus, Riverside 266. This looked to be an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $270.

While we’re on Riversides, here’s one two numbers apart: Johnny Griffin Sextet, Riverside 264. This one was in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It sold for $349.95. My dad used to search high and low for the Riversides in the bargain bins of a couple of record stores along 8th Street in Greenwich Village in the ’60s. I wish he would have bought some of these, but he wound up with a lot of Cannonball, a lot of Wes Montgomery and some Bill Evans. No complaints, really. I still have many of those great records from my dad.

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A Tale of Two Sonnys

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I’m proud of myself. I’m up in the country and I have some time and it’s relaxing and I put a couple of records on. First I put on Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’, which is a great record that I hadn’t listed to for years. Then for some reason I put on Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter on Imperial (both reissues, unfortunately). And I was listening and it was right after Cool Struttin’ and I was thinking, hmm, the pianist on the Sonny Criss record sounds like Sonny Clark. So I looked on the liner notes and, zip, nothing. Oh I hate it when liner notes don’t list the musicians. Thank goodness for the Internet. I googled the record and within seconds I found out, indeed, it is Sonny Clark on piano. For those of you keeping score, the other sidemen are Larry Bunker on vibes, Buddy Woodson on bass and Lawrence Marable on drums. Nice record and I can’t tell if it’s my pressing, but the recording is very tinny. Any of you out there with the original?

Monday Morning Blue Notes

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Let’s catch up on some jazz vinyl we’ve been watching on eBay. I was up in Providence this past weekend and I held this record in my hands: Jutta Hipp At The Hickory House Volume 1, Blue Note 1515.  This was on auction from Round Again Records and it just closed. The record was in VG condition and the cover was VG+ to VG++. Although I have a copy of this record at home, and although I have many Lexington Avenue Blue Notes, there is definitely something magical for me holding one of these original pressings in my hands. It’s like a piece of rare art. This copy sold for $460. I’m going to keep an eye out for more records from Round Again. The store owner, Steve, says he’s trying to work on a deal with some guy who’s been buying records at garage sales for years.

Here are a couple of Blue Notes in better condition and thus in the $1,000 bin: Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing and it was listed in M- condition for the record and M- or VG++ for the cover. It sold for $1,007. From the same seller came Curtis Fuller, Bone and Bari, Blue Note 1572. This was also an original pressing, also in M- condition for the record and VG++ or M- for the cover. This one has Sonny Clark on piano, so it sold for a bit more: $1,136.

 

Someone’s Getting Lucky This Week

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I had said earlier that it was a big week for jazz vinyl on eBay and there are still many nice items to watch from afar (or from up close, depending upon your point of view and/or eyesight). Among the items of interest to us:

Lucky Thompson, Accent on Tenor, Urania 1206. You don’t hear much about Lucky Thompson anymore, nor do you often seen Urania LPs among the collectibles we watch on Jazz Collector. Thompson was a nice tenor player, an early bopper who played on some of the earliest bop dates. If I recall correctly, Dizzy hired him so that there’d be a sax player on the stage when Bird would either be late or not show up at all. How much longer to you think there will be a collectibles market for Lucky Thompson? This one is in M- condition and is in the $350 range with more than a day to go.

The pianist Kenny Drew generally has more cachet as a collectible artist than Lucky Thompson, but this one suffers from condition issues: The Modernity of Kenny Drew, Norgran 1002. This one is listed in VG+ condition for the record and VG- for the cover, but the picture looks pretty decent. You’ll usually see these covers with some ringwear. It’s a great cover, isn’t it, straight out of the Norgran style of the ’50s. This one is around $80 and is closing today.

While we’re on the subject of  Kenny Drew:

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