More Blue Notes, More Surprises

Having done Jazz Collector for seven years and having seen all kinds of price fluctuations, I should be beyond surprise, right? But I do admit I haven’t expected the price jump in collectible jazz, and particularly Blue Note, that seems to have taken place in just the past few months. I guess it’s a bit like the stock market, up and down, and there is the temptation to jump in and sell when prices are high. Here’s a record I have at home in beautiful condition and I bought it for ten dollars and I could make quite an obscene profit, based on this sale price: The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia Volume 2, Blue Note 1508. This one had the beautiful Lexington Avenue label but was

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Guest Column: Collecting Jazz 45s

A couple of weeks ago friend of Jazz Collector Erich Schultz asked why we never wrote about  collecting jazz 45s here at Jazz Collector. We said that we didn’t collect them ourselves, we didn’t know of any collectors and no one had ever even asked. We also invited him to write a post on the joys of collecting jazz 45s and, voila, here it is. Erich, it’s all yours:

Collecting Jazz 45 RPM Records, by Erich Schultz

Although I have a large library of jazz 10” and 12” 33 RPM records, I also have over 1,000 jazz 45 RPM records as well. I starting collecting these 45’s about five years ago, and I have picked up most of them in the Los Angeles area when I visit my two children (I live in the San Francisco Bay Area.) I also get them sometimes through bulk sales on ebay. My reasons for collecting them include: Read more

More Jazz Vinyl For the $2,000 Bin

Here’s some jazz vinyl for the $2,000 bin:

Hank Mobley Quintet, Blue Note 1550. This was an original pressing and it was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $2,142. A few months ago, I catalogued all of my Blue Notes for insurance purposes. For each record, I put down the condition and assigned a value to it, based on current market conditions and historical trends from the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Well, based on price trends, I’m going to have to go back and reassess the values and make them higher in most cases. For example, I don’t have an original pressing of this record, but I have an original of Hank, Blue Note 1560. My copy is M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. When I did the spreadsheet earlier this year, the value I assigned to this record was just

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Favorite Jazz Ballad Vocal Performances?

I was sitting on the porch at my lakehouse with the lovely Mrs. JC yesterday afternoon and we were listing to a playlist I had made for my iPod of various ballad performances. Yes, I do have an iPod and other various digital devices and I do not only listen to music playing on a turntable, although that is always the preferred method when available. Anyway, as we were listening, one of the tracks was “Jim” from the Sarah Vaughan album with Clifford Brown, Emarcy 36004. I mentioned quite randomly that many jazz fans and jazz collectors consider this track to be one of the greatest jazz vocal ballad performances of all time. I’m not sure where I came up with that information, but it was definitely lodged in my brain somewhere: Perhaps there was a vote somewhere, or perhaps it had just come up in late night discussion over a few beverages. Anyway, I thought it might be an interesting topic for a lazy weekday afternoon in August, so I’m throwing it out there for the Jazz Collector community. Favorite jazz ballad vocal performances. Okay, go!

Tracking 10-Inch Jazz Vinyl On Blue Note

There seems to be a corresponding hike in prices for 10-inch Blue Notes as well as 12-inch Blue Notes. Here are a few we were watching this week, several from the same seller, including: Lou Donaldson, New Faces, New Sounds, Blue Note  5021. This was an original pressing with the vinyl in M- condition and the cover VG+. It sold for $577. One thing about the 10-inchers: Unless they are a Japanese or United Artists press, you know they are originals.

Lou Donaldson Sextet Volume 2, Blue Note 5055. This one looked to be in VG++ condition for the vinyl and M- for the cover. The price was $667. Another one from the same seller:

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More Questions About “Original” Blue Notes

I went back to look at some of those listings from Paperstax that have generated all of this discussion and controversy. I started with Jackie McLean, Swing, Swang, Swingin’, Blue Note 4024. When you look at the listing, it seems to have it all: West 63rd Street address, deep groove, but . . . when you look closely, Van Gelder in the dead wax as opposed to RVG, no mention of the ear. In bidding, I would assume — and did — that this was an original and that the seller inadvertently did not mention the ear and used Van Gelder descriptively as opposed to using the RVG. The reason is because I don’t quite understand how this can be a Liberty pressing and still have the deep grooves. The same thing with:

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Rare Jazz Rediscovered and Donated

CeeDee beat me to it, but there’s an interesting article in today’s New York Times: Great Jazz, Long Unheard, Is Rediscovered. It is the story of an audio engineer named William Savory, who recorded live radio broadcasts in the late 1930s. What is particularly compelling is that he used 12-inch and 16-inch disks and even used the 33-1/3 RPM format so he could record extended performances and solos that were much longer than the standard three minutes or so that were captured at the time on  a 78. The music has been donated to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and presumably will make its way to the public, although there are questions raised in the article about copyright and ownership. Among some of the performances mentioned are a live version of Billie Holiday singing “Strange Fruit” and a six-minute Coleman Hawkins solo on “Body and Soul” It’s worth a read. The article includes audio clips.

Bidding, Losing & Bidding Again

I’ve actually bid on a few records recently, but these days I don’t even get close, unless I want to really gamble on condition, which I don’t. Anyway, I was watching this record on eBay: Walter Davis Jr., Davis Cup, Blue Note 4018. This was an original pressing and it was listed in M- condition for both the record and the cover. A few hours before the bidding closed it wasn’t getting much action. My theory: Even though the listing described the cover as M-, it didn’t look that good in the photo. I know, however, that when you are taking pictures of black covers you often get a glare that distorts the image and makes it look worse than it actually is. I took a shot and set up my Bid Nip to put in a bid of about $350 with five seconds to go. Hah!. The record

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A Plug For Us, A Few For the Price Guide

I must say, I got some pleasure out of reading this listing:

The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing and the seller was not an expert and he took it to a professional cleaner to have cleaned. Even better, when he posted the listing he provided a link and referenced Jazz Collector to help people learn more about the record. Nice touch, if I do say so myself. Anyway, the record looked to be in M- or VG++ condition, and the cover was probably around VG. The price was $385.

Here are a few more going into the Jazz Collector Price Guide this morning:

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Jazz Vinyl Price Update: Jackie, Newk Et Al

I have a couple of hundred items to enter into the Jazz Collector Price Guide and I’m hoping to find some time this weekend. As I’ve been perusing through the entries this morning, I found a few that I never updated on the site, so here they are. No links on these, by the way.

Jackie McLean, Alto Madness, Prestige 7114. This was from about a month ago. It was an original pressing in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $932. A copy of Jackie’s Pal sold for more than $1,500 last week. There’s definitely been something that has stirred some higher prices in the past couple of weeks.

Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This was an original pressing that was in VG+ condition for the vinyl and VG for the cover. The price was $610.. This was an original pressing that was

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