Category: Prestige

One Record

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I was driving in the car the other day and listening to a playlist on my phone. A usual car playlist will have a variety of music, from the Beatles to Ella, James Taylor, 60s rock and, of course, some jazz. I was listening for about a half hour, singing along a little, but nothing that necessarily put a smile on my face. But then came this: Paul’s Pal, by Sonny Rollins. As soon as it came on, my face lit up. For me, it’s one of those songs that always puts a smile on my face. Maybe it reminds me of the first time I heard it, or perhaps because it always seemed to me like Sonny was smiling while he played it. Anyway, I started thinking about the record, Tenor Madness, and the thought popped into my head: If I could keep only one record, Tenor Madness would be one of the contenders. Now, I realize this is silly because there is so much music available everywhere in digital formats, so I could listen to pretty much anything I would want at any time. But it’s my game, and here’s how I played it out. Read more

Back in Action and, Finally, Back on eBay (Looking, Not Selling)

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I promised to get back to watching rare jazz vinyl on eBay, so here I am again, but at some point I also expect to weigh in on some of the comments on the previous post. Meanwhile, we have Paul Gonsalves, Boom-Jackie-Boom Chick, Vocalion LAE 587. This looks to be an original British pressing. The record and cover are both listed in VG++ condition. The bidding is in the $280 range with more than two days left on the auction. What’s the story on the record’s title again? I’m sure it’s been mentioned somewhere on Jazz Collector, but I can’t find it. From the same seller is Duke Pearson, “Wahoo!”, Blue Note 4191. This looks to be an original New York USA pressing. The record and cover are either VG+ or VG++, depending on your interpretation of the seller’s description. I would tend to be on the conservative side and go with VG+, but, then again, I am not a potential bidder for this record. For those who are potential bidders, the auction is currently in the $200 range. Read more

Catching Up, Up, Up

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Catching up on a few jazz vinyl sales from the recent auction by Carolinasoul, starting with Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing listed in VG+ condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $3,000. Kenny Dorham, Quiet Kenny, New Jazz 8225. This was an original purple label mono with deep grooves. The record was VG and the cover as VG+. The final price was $1,598. Doug Watkins, Watkins at Large, Transition 20. This was an original pressing with the booklet. The record and cover were VG. The final price was $1,415. Read more

Prestiges and Transitions and Booklets and Speculation

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Perusing eBay and came upon this record: Wardell Gray Memorial Album, Volume One, Prestige 7008. This is an early New York yellow label pressing with the second cover. The cover has a cutout hole in the center. The record is listed in M- condition and the cover is VG+. Start price is $350 with no bidders and plenty of time left on the auction. What strikes me about this is why Prestige changed covers so early and often in the early years. Off the top of my head, I can think of a bunch of similar situations: Sonny Rollins Plus Four,  John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio, All Day Long, all come to mind. I know the cynical answer is they did it to make money, but how? Were they also experimenting to see what would sell better? Perhaps covers with innocuous photos such as this Wardell record, versus a picture of a black artist? Perhaps a careless buyer would buy both copies? Perhaps they envisioned a time in the far off future when they could drive collectors crazy with questions like this? I have raised this question before and Rudolf has been helpful in sharing his insight. Any other thoughts? Read more

A Supreme Love Supreme, Prestiges and Blue Notes

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Still here. Still watching jazz vinyl on eBay. Here’s one: John Coltrane, A Love Supreme, Impulse A-77.  Gotta give the seller credit for being loquacious and highly descriptive about this record. We know why he is selling it, what equipment he played it on, how loud. It is one of the more unique listings I’ve seen. Anyway, after reading all that, I would guess, as the seller does, that the record is in VG+ condition, that it is an original pressing and the cover is probably in VG+ or VG++ condition. The start price is $400 and so far there are no bidders with a bit more than a day left on the auction. The seller says he is ambivalent about selling the record because he is afraid to play it, so maybe the market will make it an easy decision for him to keep it. Read more

Hot and Heavy

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Here are some jazz vinyl auctions we are watching this week, starting with a couple of heavy hitters: Tommy Flanagan Overseas, Prestige 7134. This is an original pressing listed in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover. The bidding is in the $800 range with more than six days left on the auction. Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This looks to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record looks to be in VG++ condition and the cover is probably VG+. The current price is $2,995. There is one bidder and five-plus days left on the auction as of this writing. Last week we saw a copy sell for more than $8,000 (WOW). Read more

Wow

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The comments on the previous post were intriguing, to say the least, so I jumped over to eBay to see this auction in particular: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address from the seller vinyl-house-uk. The record was listed in Ex+ condition, which I translate into M-, and the cover was Ex/Ex+, which I translate to VG++. The final price was approximately 6,200 British pounds, which I translate to $8,132.92. By my calculation that’s the top price I’ve seen for True Blue, which seems to be confirmed by Popsike. For those who keep an eye on these sorts of things, is this the highest legitimate price we’ve seen for any 12-inch jazz LP? If not, what is? Looking at some of the other items from this auction, my eyes are popping out of my head. Read more

A Modern Jazz Quintet

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Let’s go back to the eBay watch list and catch up on some jazz vinyl auctions that may be of interest to the Jazz Collector masses, starting with Chet Baker, Chet, Riverside 299. This looked to be an original blue label deep groove pressing featuring, among others, Bill Evans on piano, which usually seems to generate added interest from collectors. This looked to be graded in EX condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $1,187.  Per Popsike, this is the second highest price ever recorded for this record. In 2018 a mintier copy sold for $1,225.

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Another Pretty Nice Batch of Sides

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As I’ve been perusing eBay since my return from vacation, I’ve been randomly filling my watch list with items to write about for Jazz Collector. And as I’ve been doing that, I am finding that most of the records I’m saving this week have a common seller, which would be Carolina Soul.  I’m a little bit in awe, and a little bit in envy, of the huge collection of Blue Notes, Prestiges and others they have up for auction this week. Not sure if the awe/envy is about the money that will be coming their way in just one week’s worth of auctions, or if it’s the fact that they seem to have a virtually endless supply of interesting/collectible jazz records. Anyway, here are some of the items in my queue, starting with Thad Jones, After Hours With the Prestige All-Stars, Prestige 7118. This one caught my eye because of the cover: I have a copy of this record with the New York yellow label and a different cover. My cover has a generic picture of a city nightscape. This cover, as you see, has a picture of Thad and (I think) Frank Wess. With Prestige it’s challenging to figure out which cover came out first and why they would change it so quickly after the initial release of the record. If I were to guess, I would say the cover I have would be the first cover, but that is just a guess. The reason is that the orange cover has The Prestige All-Starts underlined and that strikes me as an idea that a marketing person would come up with as a way to boost sales by making a slight adjustment to an existing product. In my real job, I spend way too much time talking to marketing people, so I could be completely wrong. Rudolf will know for sure which was first, as will others out there in Jazz Collector World. Anyway, this copy is probably in VG condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. Bidding is in the $125 range, with four days left on the auction. Read more

“A Pretty Nice Batch of Sides”

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Let’s turn this one over to our friend Japhy, who sent me the following note under the subject “New Trombone, New High!”

“Heya, Al, just randomly nosing around eBay and noticed a few records, all from the same seller. Not one of the more-known sellers we talk about, but the guy recently sold a pretty nice batch of sides for some hefty sums. Included in those were Curtis Fuller New Trombone, Prestige 7107, which at $1,259 set a new record, and also a Riverside white label Monk Plays Ellington, which, at $1,077, was the third highest ever, according to Popsike. Read more

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