One For the Price Guide (We Hope)
One of our readers sent me an email and asked me to include this in the Jazz Collector Price Guide: Art Pepper, Modern Art, Intro 606. This was an original pressing in VG+ condition for the record and VG- condition for the cover. It sold for $730. In the headline the seller mentions that this is a 1951 pressing, but that cannot be possible. They weren’t even pressing 12-inch records in 1951, were they? It was during that time that the 10-inch LP was the “standard.”
Anyway, I will add this to the Price Guide, although I have to admit I’ve been quite remiss in doing regular updates. I know I used to use the Price Guide all the time when I was selling records on eBay. I found it very helpful. And I know that people are using it now and referring to it fairly often, because I see the analytics from Google. It seems to be particularly popular in Japan. Really. So I will slog along, put aside a day or a half day somewhere in the next couple of weeks, and make sure I plug in all of the records I’ve been promising to plug in since I last did a major update about four months ago. It would certainly help the motivation if there were a few kind words about the Price Guide as well. 🙂
…Let me start the ball rolling on this one Al. Despite all the seemingly thankless labor involved in updating JC Price Guide for us, I use it as a reference just as often as Popsike, and it has served me well over the years. We certainly appreciate your efforts in maintaining it for the rest of us, thanks again !
(As for the Art Pepper LP… I will let you know what year it actually is once it arrives, I took a gamble on this one condition aside !)
Ah, Don-Lucky, so that was you. Hope you are lucky indeed.
…What can I say Al, I have a weakness for the classic’s. Especially if they are in less than perfect condition and the price is right ! (1951 was probably just misinformation by the seller. It should have read 1957. The photo’s seemed legit I think)
two sessions, recorded Dec. 1956 and Jan. 1957, so 1951 is wrong.
I just bought ‘The Return of Art Pepper’ this weekend and am currently enjoying it. How about Modern Art? Is it a good album?
About that wrong date, does anyone know what year the first 12″ LPs came out?
Lander: Check out this link below to hear samples of Art peppers Modern Art at Amazon (itunes has it as well) It’s a pretty solid album I think. Enjoy !
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Art-Pepper/dp/B000005H5O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337973177&sr=8-1
…So the verdict is in on that copy of the Art Pepper Quartet’s Modern Art on Intro ILP-606. It just arrived yesterday, and the LP itself was in pristine condition, and very conservatively graded I might add. It has all the usual distinctions of an original first pressing including the flat edge and deep groove on heavy vinyl, and the burgundy / silver label. It is also a great LP to listen too on a Saturday morning with a latte, while perusing recent posts on the Jazz Collective !
The issue with the date most likely arose from Intro’s notation of their general use copyright on the bottom left hand corner on the back side of the cover which states “COPYRIGHT 1951 by INTRO RECORDS, INC.” This is actually printed on the back covers of all four known original Intro releases despite the fact that the recording dates were much later. In this case, December 28th, 1956 and January 14, 1957 along with the detailed recording information, all of which is provided in the liner notes directly above the copyright. Which explains the confusion here, and even in many past auctions described on Popsike.
There is a great discography on the birth of Intro from Aladdin Records for anyone interested at the following URL: http://www.bsnpubs.com/aladdin/aladdinstory.html
Here are a few key bits of trivia taken from the Intro / Aladdin Records Discography:
The Intro label was the pop/jazz subsidiary of Aladdin Records. Intro issued a couple of 10-inch LPs in 1952, then did not issue albums until 1957 or so, when they started a 12-inch series.
Although the output of Aladdin was not great in quantity, it was outstanding in quality. The jazz recordings of Kenny Drew and Art Pepper are very much in demand today. Aladdin, Score and Jazz: West albums are some of the rarest in the record-collecting field. Eight Aladdin albums appear on the Goldmine list of “The 100 Most Valuable U.S. Albums”. George Moonoogian, in an article written for Goldmine in 1979, called Aladdin “The King of LP Rarities.”
Prior to 1955, Aladdin had 3 subsidiary labels issuing albums. The jazz label Jazz:West issued two 10- inch albums. In 1955 Jazz: West switched over to 12-inch albums, but issued them in the same series as their 10-inch albums. There were eight 12-inch albums issued by Jazz:West in 1955 and 1956. In 1952, the popular music subsidiary Intro issued two 10-inch albums and the classical music subsidiary Orfeo issued one 10-inch album and two 12-inch albums. Orfeo did not issue any albums after 1952. In 1957, the Mesners revived the Intro label and issued at least four albums. Intro 602 and 603 were reissues of Lester Young’s Aladdin 801 and Aladdin 802. There were two new jazz albums issued, one by Art Pepper titled Modern Art [Intro 606] and an Art Pepper, Red Norvo, and Joe Morello album titled Recollections [Intro 608].
Following the lead of Modern Records, who had introduced a successful line of budget albums on the Crown label, the Mesner brothers, owners of Aladdin Records, started a budget line of LPs in 1957 using their old subsidiary name, Score. All of the Score albums were $1.98 and most of the Aladdin, Jazz:West, Orfeo and Intro albums were reissued on Score. The establishment of the Score label may account for the scarcity of the Aladdin and Intro 12-inch albums, as they were only in print for a short time before being deleted and reissued on Score. In fact, several intended Aladdin releases may not have been issued at all before being transferred to Score. While the Crown label flourished, the Score line of LPs seemed to die a slow death.
Modern Art was also reissued shortly after on the Score Label:
SLP-4030 – Modern Art – Art Pepper [1958] Label is maroon with silver printing. Reissue of Intro LP-606. Intro number “LP-606” is not in the trailoff wax area.
The best quote by Don Clark who wrote the liner notes on Intro ILP-606 really speaks volumes on this one:
“Some people never find their niche in life, some at least do what they like to do, but only a very few do what they were chosen to do. Art Pepper applies to the latter.”
A friend of ours gave a 12-inch vinyl recording of the Robert Shaw Chorale Christmas Carols to my sister and me in either 1949 or 1950, which I still have. so 12-inch vinyl goes back at least that far – probably farther back in time.
Millie, that’s a real Christmas classic you’ve got there ! (I’m a self proclaimed Christmas album junkie myself.)
Is your 12″ copy of Robert Shaw’s Chorale Christmas Carols a 78rpm by any chance ? The early Blue Notes produced the same format back then as well, but unfortunately they didn’t have decent covers like the later 12” 33rpm format, and despite their excessive girth were extremely “frahhhgilehhh”. (Play on words from the ‘Christmas Story’movie …Sorry, slow day at the office)