Get Happy with Freddie Redd and Jazz Collector
You would think that someone collecting jazz records for more than 50 years, as I have, and who had been obsessed with finding a clean copy of Shades of Redd, as I have, would have known about the following record, as I have not (until now): Get Happy With Freddie Redd Trio With Guests, Nixa Jazz Today Series, NJL.19. Not only have I been unfamiliar with this title, I am also unfamiliar with the label. So, excuse me for a moment, while I look at the record and do a search. A quick perusal tells me this is a Metronome Recording, Made in England and, as described on the label, is an “unauthorized public performance.” The trio is Freddie Redd, Tommy Potter and Joe Harris and the guests are Rolf Ericson and Benny Bailey. Based on the liner notes I would place the record in the late 1950s, maybe 1958 or 1959? Now to Popsike, Google and beyond.
Popsike: In 2007 a mint copy of Get Happy With Freddie Redd Trio With Guests sold for $1,260. That seems to be the highest price ever for the record, so welcome to the $1,000 bin. There have been five other copies that sold for $500 or more. I didn’t go beyond that, but it is clear that this is a rare record and in demand among collectors.
Wikipedia: Nixa records was founded in 1950 and was the second label in Britain, behind Decca, to release LP records. The label was sold to Pye Records in 1953 and, what do you know, I’m also not familiar with Pye Records. Another search, and Pye was originally a manufacturer of televisions and radios and got into the record business in 1953m when it acquired Nixa.
General search/Discogs: Looks like I should have been aware of Nixa Records, and perhaps I was at one time, memories being what they are after you’ve been collecting jazz records for more than 50 years. They did have quite a number of jazz and blues releases, more than 150, with artists such as Joe Harriott, Chris Barber, Don Rendell, Cleo Laine, Annie Ross and Lars Gullin, plus skiffle, including Lonnie Donegan, and British issues of American blues and folk, such as Big Bill Broonzy and Josh White. I bet the Beatles were listening to some Nixa Records as youths in Liverpool, yes?
It looks like the record was released in the UK in 1958 based on a session recorded in Stockholm in September 1956.
So that’s my lesson to myself for today.
Oh, yes, the copy that is for sale now is listed in EX+ condition for the record and the cover, which we translate into M-, and the bidding is in the $460 range with more than four days left on the auction.
Great music — those tunes were issued on Metronome in Sweden on EPs, then collected as well on a Japanese 12″ in the 1970s.
Got all three Freddie Redd 7” Metronomes. Great music, very rare. There are many great Metronome EPs from the 50’s overall, with artists like Lars Gullin, Rolf Ericsson, Benny Bailey, Tommy Potter, Cecil Payne, Duke Jordan and so on. Worth checking out.
and some guy named Tommy Flanagan.
… correct. 🙂
The record is not a public performance, it is a studio recording. I think they mean to say that public performance is not authorised.
All the early, brilliant Kinks records were on Pye (Reprise in the U.S.)…
The Period album ’Mad Thad’ was issued under the same title by Nixa. Green picture, yellow lettering.
One of the first records I bought was on the Pye Nixa label (NJL33) Bo Diddley ……is a gunslinger!
Great record which still gets played often.
Here in the UK in the early 1960s Pye International issued a whole raft of Chess and Checker blues and rhythm and blues in their R&B series.
Back then I could only afford singles and EPs but I amassed quite a collection of these which I still enjoy today.
Timeless music responsible for introducing me to jazz for which I’m eternally grateful!
What about the Top Rank International label from Japan ? Some mighty nice Jazz titles from Prestige show up with new artwork and a deep groove.
And now the Freddie Redd trio on Nixa auction is almost 2000 euros with two days to go. Following Popsike, last auction (2017) was 444….Who would bid 2000 + for a record that previously topped 444 ?
Strange, I sold my copy on Ebay last year. It is not mentioned in Popsike however. I don’t think it went for over the 500 mark.
Michel- someone who has been searching for that record in nice condition, and it’s from a well known seller, i predict it will got for $2500 or more
@Michel — I think all bets are off when it comes to jazz records, or records in general, post-2020.
@Clifford : agreed to both ?
Nixa had a number of great releases during the heyday of late 1950s British jazz. In my collection I have two Don Rendell records, an LP and a 7” EP (the latter with the Jazz Six) and a 7” EP by Joe Harriott that is just marvelous.
GIL MELLÉ BLUE NOTE
Vinyl House has a copy of Gil’s last Blue Note album # 1517. No bids yet.
I have had several copies of this magnificent album. All had grey dots on the art sleeve. The copy for sale now has greenish dots. Has anyone seen this before? Or is the picture misleading?
Now that the auction is over, I’m waiting with bated breath for Clifford’s critical analysis/cynicism at the seller and buyer. Along with the omnipresent “sour grapes” response.
Please don’t leave me disappointed…..
https://open.spotify.com/track/5IjRKZlpKVBBRn0COL7pik?si=l7OYeLGxRg2s38nWjXvNlg&dl_branch=1
no need for personal affronts; it’s a great record but $4400 is about ten times the recent going rate and I don’t understand why someone would pay that much.
Rudolf – Do you mean the Gil Melle Jazz at Records Center? It’s just the color balance is off, see how less green the white background is on the second picture vs the first?
“at Jazz Record Center”
@Clifford Allen the “?” on my last post was supposed to ba a smiley 🙂
https://www.ebay.com/itm/274886212980?hash=item40007ebd74:g:RAQAAOSwxlFhBPDl
And what about a Wyn Kelly quartet, third edition on Riverside at 400 $ ?
Trying being positive. Our like your mother told us, if you have nothing nice to say, try dating nothing at all. You are a very antagonistic and negative energy force on this website. It got old, the first time i read one of your hypercritical posts.
…and all of your posts are hypercritical….
relax.
this is the first time I’ve ever read you commenting here. You might need to take off your internet forum glasses and realize that we are all people entitled to our own opinions. Most of mine expressed here are about fiscal outlay for albums that — keep in mind — few artists got properly compensated for at the time.
I love records but they are also ridiculous.
being salty on a forum about records is also hardly the world’s greatest crime, dude.
Aaron, I meant Fred’s Jazz Record Centre.
It’s not your place to be salty about other people’s cash flow decisions. Be salty about your own. I take it personally because I am the individual who purchased the above disc from VHUK, I also won the $2600 BLP 4198 and $1400 BLP 4168. I may win the now > $2000 BLP 4270. I also won BLP 1599 & BLP 4027 Al mentioned a few weeks back about the insane prices and ridiculousness of paying.
So yeah, maybe tearing into people you don’t know, who use their own cash/resources to buy things that aren’t illegal or immoral is one of the greater crimes in the world. Love thy neighbor, don’t eviscerate thy neighbor.
There is an easy solution. Be salty about your own life decisions. Be supportive of others. If you can’t run with the big dawgs, there is no shame in moving aside and making way for others.
If there is one record you should spin tonight that may be helpful, I would bring it back to Shawn Carter and Blueprint, 2001. A world class album, revolutionary, genius, by any measure, for any genre.
Bump “Heart Of The City”, listen to J-Hova’s genius word play & WORLD play, unbelievable flow over the bars, triple, quadruple, quintuple meanings to his phraseology, elevating & referencing the past and taking aim at the future. Listen to him uses rests, sharp pauses in his rhymes, so selectively around his otherwise smoothest flow to create space and new meaning to a bar or four. Liken that to T. Monk, and to a much lesser degree M. Davis. Who said what about how much happens or what music is or when it occurs? It might have been the young Mr. Carter (Shawn or Dwayne). I dunno, it might have been two cats from decades before I dropped earlier….
“Heart Of The City”, Blueprint, 2001, Shawn Carter
Look, I’m on my grind, cousin, ain’t got time for frontin’
Sensitive thugs, y’all all need hugs
Damn, little mans, I’m just tryin’ do me
If the record’s two mil I’m just tryin’ move three
Well, the latest JRC auction ended, and I really shouldn’t enter any comments, enter the fray so to speak, as I am aware of running the risk of potential evisceration. However, $2300 for Jack Wilson’s ‘Easterly Winds’ kinda amazed me.
But what do I know. It’s all a hustle in the long run.
Wow, I have always considered Clifford to be one of the more supportive and also educational in this community. But maybe I just like some whipping when I buy overpriced records:) Anyway, regarding the Redd album I don’t have an analysis as much as an observation; Record Mania in Stockholm recently had a nice copy for sale on their site. It was first priced at about 550 USD but after a few months they had to reduce the price and sold it for about 470 (but I guess the big dawgs were sleepin).
Welcome, the new guard of record collecting.
Crazy high prices- it’s a problem for the traditional collectors. Not too long ago, one could go with the time-honored method- buy quality, hold and enjoy the music, and then sell for a reasonable profit. This assured long term stability in collectible markets, and everybody could be happy. With the entrance of the newly-minted Instagram-addicted oil magnates, we have seen prices quickly ascend into unreasonable territory, which is sure chase away the ‘regular’ collectors who prop up markets through thick and thin. Will the record market then crash? We will see..
lennib, well put mi amigo. There is tact, and then there is lack-of-any-of-it. The velvet glove, in my experience, is typically better at achieving one’s aims, one’s point, and also having one’s point be taken seriously for consideration by their audience (I am pronoun neutral until I know preferences / references). Let’s not lose sight, that even when one vents, one’s aim, is nearly always, in part, to also persuade. Persuade their audience that one had a bad day, is having a hard time, that their POV is valid/correct, or sometimes just as benign as persuade their audience to be their buddy, friend or acquaintance.
That being said, I spoke on the phone with a friend, and realize the fervor that is surrounding this recent auction from our good friend Fred.
First, it was inappropriate, very, to make a supercilious post. I persuaded no one, rather I convinced several readers who would otherwise be potential chums on this road of life or in this small hobby/world that I am likely just a bellicose snob. For this tone, and for my attitude, and for my language and lack-of-tact, I sincerely apologize to this forum, its readers, our host Al (for not banning me), and especially to Clifford. I have read many of Clifford’s posts and find a great majority agreeable.
Second, the effect, known and unknown, intended and unintended, of my decisions, wagers, and gambles is not lost of me; however, I behave as clear as day to any reasonable individual that these are lost upon me. While I was not in a bidding war with simply _myself_, I do need to acknowledge a measure of responsibility this has on the market, availability, this forum, its readers, our host, yes, that includes Clifford. The choices I make in such a small communicate promptly ring a deafening, and very understand, alarm to a great many individuals. I lay bare that these posts, my wagers, and how I choose to bid affects the community, mostly, in an unbalanced fashion. less favorable for consumers, more favorable to vendors. I understand future transactions, may be based, or will be based, at least in part, on some occasions, on the events that have transpired today. Whether or not Rudolph (whom I do not know), bobdjukic, Fred, euclid, VUKH, carolinasoul or any number of other vendors are able to command “top dollar” for their wares, these transactions are inked into the ledgers of popsike and vinylrootsguide and may serve as one piece of negotiation for future transactions. Whether or not I have a “responsibility” to keep prices of discs “reasonable” or whether, like the COVID and influence vaccination, I am part of a social contract to behave and conduct myself predictably, and follow the old rules, and old prices of yesterday [I understand I do not have to agree to be, nor do I have to directly benefit from, a social contract to be rightfully subject to one, and the encompassing normative conventions and social mores of this hobby (or more than a hobby?)].
I understand in Vegas there are house rules and social norms that are expected to be followed, largely unwritten (but I can still find lists of the on the internet!), and help maintain boundaries, social expectations and order that flows from it, and impacts, directly or in-, those around oneself. [tip at least $2-$3 for each service received, no matter how small or seeming inconsequential (waiving down a yellow cab for you, for example); when playing blackjack, pleasantly in a casual game, irrespective of any table limit, don’t hit at or above 16, as this affects other’s calculations, odds, chances, based on expectations and behavior that was established and developed well before. Norms that are not unreasonable to rely upon, at least in part).
I understand removal of discs due to wins, testosterone-measuring bets and wagers, competitive interactions with potential friends or colleagues (who are interested in the same item or disc) deplete the supply, force the price up directly (by establishing a new, higher price floor), and indirectly (buy moving the market in general on collectible vintage vinyl, or the engagement of supply and demand), and invariably, at least in part, contribute to pricing others out of the market and making things that are just as important to another individual, as they are to me, become less attainable. Due to acting from a position of privilege. I also understand that now more than ever there are fantastic reissues that are much more affordable (BN80, TP, MMJ, AP, AS, PP, ORG, ORGM, SC, ERC, VMP, Impex, DG, SDS, and the list goes on). And while, yes, a significant portion of my collection consists of exactly these reissues which I cherish and play more than originals, I still expect to be able to trade, love, cherish and enjoy pieces of history, and therein lies the same right which can be invoked by any other collector who finds themselves with what seems to be vanishing resources and options as these unpredictable changes march inexorably forward to an ending that seems to be no less than a path on the ridge of a cliff until it reaches the unavoidable face.
Most importantly, I understand that for me, this is borrowed music and borrowed joy. I have no ties to the music, other than a lifelong history of musicianship in classical-training, not jazz. I have no ties to the Delta, NO, to the blues, to the injustices and tragedies suffered relentlessly by those who spoke, sang, rhymed, rapped or played their truth, their experience, who imbued this great, this beautiful treasure with pain and with truth and against, and hope. Who pushed it relentlessly forward. Who enabled the the developed of a prophet named Pac, who only decades before, would not have been possible without a now-ordained saint born in Hamlet-my only ties to that lineage-my home state of North Carolina-is wrested of meaning because privileges I have enjoyed that others have not, could not, were denied, bonded, oppressed and depersonified, dehumanized, decontextualized, robbed of meaning, appraised, enumerated, bartered for coin and turned into chattel. We say jazz, and the blues are roots music. We say they are “American”. We look to Edward Kennedy Ellington, the greatest composer of the 20th century, and grin, proud of ourselves, because he rejected “jazz”, he made “American music” without understanding a lick of what he meant, where he lived, and what he tolerated. We smile and call him the best “ambassador” for orchestral jazz, as if the music was ours, simply because we have (by we I mean I and my predecessors) appropriated it without thought, callously, for generations …. by Glenn Miller, Charlie Barnette, and others. Even the great clarinetist, Benny Goodman, had to appropriate the experiences, pain and gospel of truth to “introduce” it to “those who came before” all while suffering the constant harassment and indignities of one of the most persecuted and pointlessly reviled groups throughout all time.
For me, if there is a great crime in what I do, it is being a silent party to the generations of power that have come before, the usurpers, the appropriators, the oppressors, who steal, package, sell and profit on what is not mine (not ours) only to leave it to spoilt adult children who are unable or unwilling to listen to its truth and authenticity because its a tough listen off the iOS with your ear pods as your repping out squats at the gymnasium at the country club and you have to later face the indignity of the occasional valeted Tesla leaving the parking lot for the rural highway, far from your sight, but nonetheless still obstructing and decimating your cherished view of the fairway as you rush the back 9 to get home to to your villa 5 miles east to the South Fork in Suffolk County on strong island, whether you will no longer have to endure The Deplorables or The Successors, with the only true and valid links, makings and history the to the music you plan to spin with no ties to its history or production, but we proudly wear and pronounce our own because we have been told by Duke himself that it is uniquely “American” without understanding one syllable or paying one passing thought to the actual meaning of the oft-quoted phrase or acknowledging the truth and power behind its when, when he spoke it, the context he spoke it in, and the audience he spoke it to. I (we) are just content with the invalid ignorance that it’s ours despite all truth to the contrary.
We get it, goos: you own a thesaurus.
But why so much for Easterly Winds? Honest question.
Fun diatribe, but I’m not sure I clearly grasped the point you were trying to make.
On the other hand, a quick look at the bidding history for 5 of the records you mentioned: Freddie Redd on Nixa from VHUK; BLP 4198, BLP 4168 & BLP 4270 from today’s JRC auction and the copy of BLP 4027 Al mentioned a few weeks ago… shows they were all won by different bidders. Good story though!
Goose 81 – what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LP-Hank-Mobley-1568-New-York-23-First-Pressing-Blue-Note-Jazz-Mono-Ultra-Rare-/165003415575?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
This is awesome right. Top of the list. He has others also rare. Nice.
The art of debating is much like jazz … often it’s not about what you say, but about what remains unsaid. Clearly some people have trouble grasping said concept.
Wow what a ridiculous rant by this Gohoos thing. Jeez man. I come to this site to read about what peoples opinions are on jazz vinyl. Please stop ranting here, go somewhere else and let the adults discuss jazz. Thank You
Whoa. Gohoos81 my man, I want to blaze up with you.
Gohoos81, I read your post, and I don’t get it. If you were bidding against yourself to raise the floor for other, that is sociopathic behavior. If you were simply outbidding others, then good for you for winning what you can afford against others (including me, of course). This hobby is full of characters. Speaking of sociopaths, I have come up against them in this hobby (not saying you are one Gohoos81). I knew this guy who would hoard ultra rare records (not jazz) in top conditions. When trading, he would intentionally bring damaged copied so no one would have as a good a copy as him. The way he would do it was, beforehand, was to take a pin and carefully create a skip that would not be noticed while doing transactions in person. If he only had one spare copy, he would create a visible scratch on the best track of an otherwise top or mint rare record and then offer it for trade. In the collector circles, those records were known as having been touched by the “devil’s claw”
I may be wrong but i’d link those high prices to the current Blue Note tsunami on Instagram. Blue Note albums as trophies (even for the trashed ones) Blue Note album as social position indicator, let the world know my opinion about this album, and let me thank my friendly dealer for this important addition my shelves… i’ve no opinion about this. It happens in many other collecting fields. Collecting is no longer a private affair, its a way to be a part of the fiesta. We’ll see if the trend goes on. On the positive side, IG is a great source for sharing obscure jazz artists from the past.
I agree with Michel, and that’s why when people spend exorbitantly on a single LP on a very public internet, it begs for comment in the peanut gallery. That’s just my opinion and others don’t have to weigh in, but it’s part of the reality of contemporary collecting.
the thing is, only one single person i know or interact with on the IG record collecting community has the kind of scratch to just buy this stuff whenever he sees it. none of those rest of us do. so who is silently seeing this and funneling vast funds into it that they otherwise wouldn’t?
also, hardbopster, i hope that guy had a horrible day every day. jesus.
Lots of unspent vacation/holiday funds that are being redirected to vinyl purchases?
Prices have been climbing for decades now, and, while this might feel like a blowoff top, it is more likely the start of a new ramp higher. Too many new collectors are appearing, and some clearly are well-heeled. Compared to other collectibles jazz records are cheap. Prices only seem exorbitant if you started buying in the 90s…or 2019.
I started seriously collecting around 2014/2015, and while prices have certainly skyrocketed, it doesn’t seem that bizarre to me. this is how economics works, yes? rare commodities?
I started in the mid-90s so yeah, these prices do shock me.