Four Jazz Classics, and Nary a Blue Note
And now for some more jazz vinyl from our eBay watch list, starting with Art Farmer Quintet, Prestige 7017. This is an original yellow label pressing with the New York address. The record and cover are both listed in VG+ condition. The price is only at $88 with less than a day left on the auction. Someone may be in line for a bargain (and a great record). In the same vein, and from the same seller, there is Art Farmer and Gigi Gryce, When Farmer Met Gryce, Prestige 7085. This is also an original New York pressing, listed in Ex condition for the record and the cover. Based on the seller’s descriptions, it looks like Ex is a higher grade than VG+. This one is at a bit more than $200.
While we’re on Prestiges, there is:
Kenny Burrell with John Coltrane, Prestige New Jazz 8276. The seller describes this as an original pressing, which raises an interesting question, interesting to me at least. Normally, I would expect a New Jazz pressing of this vintage to have deep grooves. I don’t see deep grooves on this pressing. Furthermore, I’ve owned three different copies of this record over the years and I’ve never had one with deep grooves. So, the question, dear Jazz Collector readers, does anyone out there have a copy of this record with deep grooves? If so, that would settle the question for good. If not, then perhaps it doesn’t exist.
Here’s a record I’ve always been very fond of: Charles Rouse and Paul Quinichette, The Chase is On, Bethlehem 6021. This looks to be an original pressing with the red labels. The seller grades the vinyl as Ex and the cover as G+, although based on the description, the cover is probably closer to VG+, although there is a former owner’s name writ large on the back, so maybe VG. Anyway, this one has a single bid of $120 and is closing in about three days. Great record if you’re willing to take a chance on the condition.
i’ve seen a few copies of burrel and trane on ebay with deep grooves on at least one side. can’t recall any on both sides off the top of my head, but the deep groove on at least one side is something i’m 100% sure of.
my copy of this later New Jazz issue is without deep grooves. The vinyl is no top quality. A constant hiss accompanies the music. I have never seen other issues though. Maybe a DG pops up.
Anyone?
my copy has deep groove on side two only but a double dg exists.
My copy has a DG, but on Side 2 only.
I have a copy that’s DG on side two only, it looks minty but Prestige used the cheapest vinyl they could so it plays with a fair amount of surface noise. I also have a later blue label pressing that plays much quieter. Both New Jazz and Moodsville were Prestige’s budget labels. In order to offer them at a list price that was a full dollar cheaper they used a cheaper vinyl stock. It kills me that because of this the Moodsville ballad series all have a level of surface noise throughout.
My copy of McIntyres Looking ahead 8247 sounds perfect with no background noise at all
“‘it looks minty but Prestige used the cheapest vinyl they could so it plays with a fair amount of surface noise”
Sounds a lot like my copy!
Off topic … Today I got the request to go to Detroit on business in October, my first visit to USA … Would any of you know a record store worth visiting in the area (it looks like I will have a free Friday)?
@gandi, Street Corner Music and The Record Collector are worth a visit for jazz vinyl. The rarer labels/titles tend to be at The Record Collector, and the prices reflect this. Good luck!
i have found an interesting variation that i’d like to ask about: “introducing kenny burrell”. this copy has all of the attributes of a first press: lex, dg, ear, no r, rvg etched, 9m, flat, 1 1/4 fold inner, lex, no lam, thin spine, frame, lex, no inc. the funny thing is that on side 1 the ear is pressed three times somewhat like this: |-| where the first and last are perpendicular to the center of the record and the middle is parallel to the grooves. does anyone know if they were all pressed like this or if it is a variation? i imagine that they were all pressed like this as i can’t imagine more than a few were ever pressed. were they all like this? are their other variations? are there other blue notes with more than one ear per side? thoughts?
Thank you Jeff! I will try them out 🙂
@david j I have not seen this variation before but I had several records with “ear” on one side only – does it mean anything?
David J – my copy of 1523 has the same marking you describe and has all of the other indicators of a first pressing as well. I often wondered if someone screwed up the Plastylite P and they tried to make it look like a design of some sort! Great LP by the way – the drum and conga work is amazing.
jim r, yes, really amazing. i’m curious if this was true of all pressings. i’m assuming only one stamper was ever made for this lp in the lex era as i can’t imagine they pressed more than maybe 1000-2000 of them.
any other copies out there? does anyone know if this multiple-ear-on-a-side pressing is true of other lps, as well?
gandi, it depends on the disc. some discs only have the ear on one side and are first pressings, but they are in the transition period in the 4000 series. 4059 was the first mono and 84077 the first stereo with an ear on one side only that are first pressings. please keep in mind that the records weren’t necessarily pressed/released in the order of the catalog number. i think the last mono/stereo with an ear (on both) is 4226. between these numbers it is a mixed bag. all lex first pressings have ears or the “p” on both sides.
Just to add a point of discussion to the one “ear” anomaly, I have a copy of 1544 with a flat edge, double deep groove, New York 23 label on both sides, frame cover, hand etched RVG, 9M, but an “ear” only on side A. This completely mystifies me. Any thoughts on what this means?
I’m guessing that it is just a mis-strike of the press. There is no reason for a dg lp to have no ear. Cohen doesn’t mention this, so I’m guessing it isn’t common.
You don’t think it’s a mix-and-match of leftover stampers? That would be my guess.
@Clifford – is that possible considering that the vinyl is flat edge and 1544 would have been towards the end of the flat edge run before the transition to the safety lip? There was a Monterose LP that recently sold on eBay (at a large sum) that also had a flat edge but the ‘”ear” only appeared on one side. As I said, this anomaly completely mystifies me.
I guess it depends on how likely it is that they pressed more than a thousand. Kenny Burrell was a pretty hot player overall but I’m not sure how well his first LP sold at the time. I didn’t think the Monterose was a flat edge, but a 1960s pre-Liberty pressing.
Here is a link to the Monterose that I referenced in my earlier post. Ear only on side B, but you can see from the pictures that it is a deep groove Lexington pressing with a flat edge:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/J-R-Monterose-Blp-1536-Blue-Note-1st-Rvg-Near-Mint-/331597483814?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d34c00f26&nma=true&si=iMVS4pV3MigYY9YKkvjDU%252Bdf%252FUE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
my thad jones BN 1527 has the ear on side 1 only…
Aha, different Monterose auction than the one I was thinking of.
I have 2 Lexington copies of Introducing Kenney Burrell (both VG-at best). One is flat rimmed and the other has the raised lip. The labels and jackets Dg are identical for both, however… The flat rimmed copy has one ear on both sides and the raised lip copy has several partial ears also on both sides. The position of the handwritten RVG and Cat No. is identical on both copies. I assume there is no way you could match position when writing on 2 different stampers so they should be from the exact same plate, right?