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A Question About Blue Note Labels in Transition

August 15, 2009 Al 7 comments

Someone asked us off-line if the LP Dexter Calling by Dexter Gordon, Blue Note 4083, is known to have pressings with the West 63rd Street label. There is often confusion about some of these titles right on the cusp of when the company moved and changed addresses. I’ve seen sellers on eBay list Sonny Rollins Volume 1, Blue Note 1542, as a West 63rd Street original when I have a Lexington Avenue copy on my shelf. Anyway, on the Dexter Record, the original pressing is New York USA. This question had come up a few years ago and the Blue Note expert Larry Cohn set us straight. The real question is on the Dexter Gordon LP Doin’ Allright, Blue Note 4077. There actually are pressings of this with the West 63rd Street label, but there is no evidence to suggest that these are any earlier than the New York USA pressings. This album was issued at a time when Blue Note was in transition and they simply used both labels while they

Collecting Riverside: Some Helpful Hints

June 20, 2009 Al 11 comments

This was posted by Michel as a comment on the earlier post “The Rise of the Second Pressing?” I’m repeating it here so it will be easier to find for anyone doing a search on Riverside. It is quite helpful, I think, for all of us to share this information, on Riverside as well as the other collectible labels.

Riverside label is complex, and tricky. Here are some points of interests:

From beginning to around 240-241-242 : “white label era” : labels are white with

The Blue Note Story

January 27, 2009 Al 18 comments

So the other day I was reorganizing my records, which I do every couple of months, and I took out an old Sidney Bechet record on Blue Note and inside the sleeve found this great little pamphlet, called The Blue Note Story. It’s a four-pager on a coated paper and it clearly dates from 1955 — it talks about Blue Note starting in 1939 — 16 years ago. It is written by Leonard Feather and measures 8-1/2 inches high by 5-1/2 inches wide, which is basically a standard 8-1/2-by-11 sheet folded in half. I will post the entire contents of this pamphlet momentarily. How this rates as I collectible, I have no idea. I do know that, in my view, it’s a helluva a lot more interesting than the Bechet record. I must have three or four dozen Lexington Avenue Blue Notes in my collection — including 10-inch and 12-inch LPs — and I’ve never found this pamphlet in any of the others.

So here’s what it says:

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