Jazz Vinyl Price Update: No Blue Notes, But Nice LPs
I’m spending some time this weekend updating the Jazz Collector Price Guide after a brief hiatus and, in going through the updates, I’ll be putting in a few records that are a bit more obscure, either by artist or label, than the normal batch of Blue Notes and Prestiges. Here are a few worth pondering:
Don Sleet, All Members, Jazzland 45. This was an original orange label mono pressing. The record looked to be VG++ and the cover was listed as VG. The price was $94.
Mike Cuozzo with the Costa-Burke Trio, Jubilee 1027. This was an original pressing and the value is certainly aided by the presence of Eddie Costa. It was only in VG condition for the record and the cover and still sold for $108.50.
Bill Perkins, Just Friends, Pacific Jazz 401. This was an original pressing sold by the Jazz Record Center. It was in excellent condition — the words “immaculate” and “exceptional” were used in the description. It also benefitted from the presence of strong sidemen, in this case Art Pepper and Richie Kamuca. The price was $330.55.
Johnny Hodges, Perdido, Norgran 1091. This was a black-label pressing, which I think is an original. At some point, we will need to do in Norgran what we are doing in Blue Note and Prestige and come up with some definitive information about yellow and black labels, logos, etc. This was in beautiful M- condition and sold for $90.47.
Rene Thomas and Bobby Jaspar, Thomas Jaspar Quintet, RCA PML 10324. This was an original Italian pressing and, frankly, I’ve never seen or heard of this LP before. It looks like a nice cover and the players are certainly excellent, so I imagine it is quite a find. This one was in M- condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover and sold for $700. If anyone has more insight on this record, please feel welcome to share it.
Al: I loved your last one. An article and review of honest basic stuff, too often obscured by the Blue Note fad.
I was the seller of the Johnny Hodges. As a matter of fact it is a re-issue of MG N-1024 “Dance Bash” with green dancers labels and a gorgeous DSM cover. No reason to keep the two.
The RCA Italiana of Rene Thomas with Bobby Jaspar, the two from Belgium, is very rare. I sold a copy, obtained from the late Walter de Block, the Belgian jazz radio presentator. It came from the estate of Rene, who had made two guitar solo numbers unplayable, by putting crosses in the grooves with a screw or something else. Apparently he was unhappy with these tracks. Despite this, the record went for over 1000 dollars to Japan. In the same period Chet made an LP for RCA Italiana too: Chet is back! PML 10307, with Rene and Bobby. Great stuff for keeps.
I like this off-Blue Note post as well; it’s nice to see some records I actually own being profiled for a change! 😉
That Don Sleet is a nice obscurity with some great sidemen. A few years ago I sold an extra copy to Sleet’s brother (Don is dead) who was trying to stockpile some copies, I guess.
“All members” contains nice music and deserves more attention. Unfortunately I don’t own a copy, so if anyone has one to sell, that’d be nice.
There were a couple of gems released originally for the Jazzland-label. Charlie Rouse, Rene Thomas or Frank Strozier made some fine efforts and the LPs can be found for reasonable prices.
Gentlemen. I would not wish to intrude on a non-Blue Note thread, I understand not everyone is afflicted by the BN-bug, however readers might want to note my last post on the previous thread regarding very unusual goings on at ebay auctions over the holiday. If ever you had doubts, read on…