Let’s start with the tease on the Blue Note documentary. It is called Blue Note Records: Beyond the Blue Notes. I saw it at a special screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. Watching the movie and knowing that I would have to write about it here reminded me why, early in my journalism career, I decided that I didn’t want to be a critic. To be fair, there were some great things about the movie. Nice clips of Monk, the Lion and Wolff story, the artwork (of course) and some great commentary and stories from 91-year-old Lou Donaldson, who lights up the screen every time he appears. Would I recommend the documentary to you, loyal Jazz Collector readers? I don’t need to, do I? You’ll see it no matter what I say, as you should. Within the movie is the story of the music we love as it was recorded and packaged on one of the labels we treasure and collect.

As a fan of the label and the music I was disappointed that the movie didn’t do a better job of capturing the ethos of the Blue Note label and the era in which the classic records were recorded, primarily the hard bop period from the early 1950s to the time the label was sold to Liberty in 1966. The movie is filled with platitudes from a bunch of current artists, plus lots of references to the influence of Blue Note on hip-hip, as opposed to putting many of the classic recordings in the context of their time. There was also a lot of emphasis on artists who did the bulk of their best work on other labels – such as Miles, Monk and Coltrane – as opposed to some of the artists who were more closely affiliated with Blue Note, such as Hank Mobley, Dexter Gordon, Jackie McLean and others. There were times where the movie felt like a public relations vehicle to help with the promotion of current Blue Note artists, which I hope was not the intent. In looking on the site for a picture to accompany this post, the only one that was available from the Jazz Collector era was the one I used from Bud Powell. Didn’t seem right, for our purposes here, not to use a Francis Wolff photo.

I am not a critic and never set out to be one, so I will be interested to hear other opinions here at Jazz Collector once the movie gets a broader release and more of you have an opportunity to see it.

In the meantime, there are records to watch on eBay. Lots of talk about that Tommy Flanagan Overseas record, which sold for $6,250. I tend to agree with Woody and others that the 50-year rule will not apply to the collectible records of the 1950s, because they are considered “art” as opposed to coming from the world of popular artists. I’ve been collecting since the early 1970s, seriously since the early 1980s, and there has rarely been a period where the value of the most collectible records has not gone up. As an American, I’ve always been cognizant of the fact that people around the world seem to have a much greater awareness and appreciation for the music and its creators than we have had here, and I hope and assume that will never go away, not just in terms of the value of the records, but more so in keeping the music alive.

Among others, our friend CeeDee has gotten impatient with our lack of posts and has sent links to some jazz vinyl auctions we missed on eBay, including:

Miles Davis, Cookin’, Prestige 7094. This was an original New York pressing listed in M- condition for the record and the cover. It sold for $798. This illustrates my earlier point about records only going up in value. Back in the early 1980s, I could buy a copy of this for $100 or less.

The Consummate Artistry of Ben Webster, Norgran 1001. This was an original yellow label pressing. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG+. The final price was $363.99.

I thought we might have some fun with this. As I mentioned in a previous post, Blue Note is issuing new vinyl releases to commemorate its 75th anniversary. I was perusing my online version of The New York Times last evening and came upon this article, asking “Which Greats Were Left Off the Blue Note 100?” I hadn’t realized the first time around that Blue Note was issuing this records in any particular order and I assumed all along (and still do) that it was mostly a commercial venture and they would be issuing those records that they believe will sell the most copies. However, you can see in The Times article that they are considering these albums to be “essential,” which, of course, is a marketing ploy — but also a chance for us to talk about some of the Blue Note records we consider to be “essential” that are not on this list. Somehow, I don’t see a lot of readers of Jazz Collector putting records from Brian Blade Fellowship, Robert Glasper, Stefon Harris or Madlib on our lists of essential Blue Notes, and that’s if we’ve even heard their music, which, I have to admit, I have not. Anyway, here is the complete list, following by a comment or two from me:

Cannonball Adderley, Somethin’ Else

Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland Volume 1

Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland Volume 2

Art Blakey, Free For All

Art Blakey, Moanin’

Art Blakey, Mosaic

Terence Blanchard, Flow

Brian Blade Fellowship, Perceptual

Tina Brooks, True Blue

Clifford Brown Memorial Album

Kenny Burrell, Midnight Blue

Donald Byrd, A New Perspective

Donald Byrd At the Half Note Cafe, Volume 1

Donald Byrd, Black Byrd

Don Cherry, Complete Communion

Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’

Sonny Clark, Leapin’ and Lopin’

Ornette Coleman, At the Golden Circle Stockholm, Volume 1

Ornette Coleman, New York is Now

John Coltrane, Blue Train

Miles Davis, Volume 1

Miles Davis, Volume 2

Eric Dolphy, Out to Lunch

Lou Donaldson, Lush Life

Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban

Kenny Drew, Undercurrent

Kurt Elling, Flirting with Twilight

Curtis Fuller, The Opener

Robert Glasper, Double Booked

Dexter Gordon, Go

Dexter Gordon, One Flight Up

Dexter Gordon, Our Man in Paris

Grant Green, Idle Moments

Grant Green, I Want to Hold Your Hand

Grant Greet, Street of Dreams

Herbie Hancock, Empyrean Isles

Herbie Hancock, Maiden Voyage

Herbie Hancock, Speak Like a Child

Herbie Hancock, The Prisoner

Stefon Harris, Black Action Figure

Joe Henderson, Mode For Joe

Joe Henderson, Page One

Joe Henderson, The State of the Tenor, Live At the Village Vanguard, Volume 1

Andrew Hill, Black Fire

Andrew Hill, Point of Departure

Freddie Hubbard, Blue Spirits

Freddie Hubbard, Breaking Point

Freddie Hubbard, Ready for Freddie

Bobby Hutcherson, Components

Bobby Hutcherson Happenings

Bobby Hutcherson, Total Eclipse

Elbin Jones, The Ultimate

Joe Lovano, Rush Hour

Joe Lovano, Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard

Madlib, Shades of Blue

Bobby McFerrin, Spontaneous Inventions

Jackie McLean, Capuchin Swing

Jackie McLean, Let Freedom Ring

Medeksi Martin & Wood, Combustication

Medeksi Martin & Wood, End of the World Party

Hank Mobley, No Room for Squares

Hank Mobley, Soul Station

Hank Mobley,  The Turnaround

Hank Mobley, Workout

Granchan Moncur III, Evolution

Thelonious Monk, Genius of Modern Music Volume 1

Thelonious Monk, Genius of Modern Music Volume 2

Jason Moran, Soundtrack to Human Motion

Lee Morgan, Cornbread

Lee Morgan, Search for the New Land

Lee Morgan, The Sidewinder

Bud Powell, The Amazing Volume 1

But Powell, The Scene Changes

Dianne Reeves, I Remember

Sonny Rollins, A Night at the Village Vanguard

Sonny Rollins, Newk’s Time

Sonny Rollins, Volume 1

Sonny Rollins, Volume 2

John Scofield, Time on My Hands

Wayne Shorter, Adam’s Apple

Wayne Shorter, Juju

Wayne Shorter, Night Dreamer

Wayne Shorter, Speak no Evil

Horace Silver, Blowin’ the Blues Away

Horace Silver, Cape Verdean Blues

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers

Horace Silver, Song for My Father

Jimmy Smith, Back at the Chicken Shack

Jimmy Smith, Midnight Special

Cecil Taylor, Conquistador

Cecil Taylor, Unit Structures

The Three Sounds, Out of This World

Stanley Turrentine, That’s Where It’s At

McCoy Tyner, Expansions

McCoy Tyner, The Real McCoy

McCoy Tyner, Time for Tyner

Anthony Williams, Spring

Cassandra Wilson, New Moon Daughter

Cassandra Wilson, Traveling Miles

Larry Young Unity

That’s the list. Typed it in myself because I couldn’t copy it from the PDF.

I’ll start with the question from The Times: Which Jazz Greats Were Left Off The Blue Note 100? Well, the first one I can think of is Fats Navarro. It would seem odd that there’s a place on this list for The Three Sounds, but not Fats Navarro. Not to mention, J.J. Johnson, Thad Jones, Cliff Jordan, Johnny Griffin, Paul Chambers and a few others. You would think, just to get more Coltrane on the list, they would have included the Griffin and Chambers records with Coltrane. And, out of 100 Blue Note records, I would think Freddie Redd, Shades of Red, or Art Taylor, AT’s Delight, would have made most lists. And, from a collectible standpoint, notice that many of the big hitters are not there — no Jutta Hipp with Zoot Sims, no Mobley 1550, 1550 or 1568, no Lee Morgan Candy. I have more to say, but I’ll hold off for now. Comments?

“Put simply, there were special dies attached to the pressing machine, that held down the stampers for Side A and Side B during manufacturing.  These dies traditionally cut the deep groove into the label during a pressing.  In 1961 new dies were created that were more streamlined, holding down the stampers in place but putting the mere slight indentation into the label – what we see on modern pressings and call NO DG.

“These parts were interchangeable and compatible with the machines, so for the period

1961 to 1965 the one side-DG pressings occurred when an old, obsolete die was used on one side of the record and one of the new dies was used on the other side.  Similarly, we find late pressings that are DG, such as Night of the Cookers, caused by using leftover old dies. By 1966 when pressings were shifted entirely to the three Liberty national plants there were only NO DG disks because Liberty did not use any of the old, obsolete dies.

“The important thing here is to realize that it is merely a function of a small, accessory part and has nothing to do with the stampers or the pressing machines themselves. I often run into self-appointed experts who have built up a whole mythology about the relationship of the DG to the grooves, sound, etc., but it is merely an identifier caused by the use of these specific dies, mere attachments in the process that literally leave their mark on the finished disk.

“I had Bob Porter, the DJ/producer who has always lived in New Jersey, do some research for me on the Plastylite subject about ten years ago, and  he found a Russian-speaking contact who knew nothing about the history of the company he apparently inherited, but as far as I know they are long gone.  Blue Notes recently (say a Bird & the Bee or Al Green vinyl LP) are pressed by Caroline Distribution, a local company and of course RTI handles the mastering and pressings on the West Coast for the various competing reissue companies licensing Blue Note.

“The very cheap, low-quality issues you see in the marketplace, identifiable by the 304 Park Ave. South address on labels and jacket slicks, are produced by a New Jersey company named Scorpio Music. In my Blue Note research I accumulate as many Plastylite pressings as possible, often grabbing the defective or Poor quality copies other people eschew, and am still busy working on my own book – which documents all the identifiers of individual stampers by locating and describing the P in the runoff (its shape, and orientation relative to the constant Catalog Matrix No. from the Master) for each disk – a unique signature left by each individual A & B stamper in existence.  In the last two or three years I only rarely come across new (to me), unknown stampers, so I’m over the hump on that project.”

One of our Jazz Collector readers found a blog post somewhere on the Internet with some advice about collecting Blue Notes. It was written by Allan Songer. We don’t know Allan personally, but we’ve dealt with him many times on eBay as both a buyer and a seller. We’ve found him to be quite reputable and a very nice guy. In any case, this is interesting information and we are taking the liberty (slight pun intended) of cleaning it up and reproducing it here for our Jazz Collector community, but we happily give Allan full credit. Allan, if you’re out there and see this, please feel free to comment:

Twelve Tips To Collecting Blue Note

1. First: You can’t tell the vintage of the pressing by the label alone or even if it has deep grooves.

1a. First: ALL “original” (not FIRST, but original pre-Liberty) pressings have the little “ear” mark in the dead wax. It looks like a cursive “P” because that is what it is! It’s “P” for Plastylite, the pressing plant that pressed ALL original Blue Notes.

2. The deep groove is present on first pressings of every Blue Note LP from the beginning through Blue Note 4058.

3. Starting with Blue Note 4059, Plastylite BOUGHT NEW EQUIPMENT that did NOT press in the deep grooves! 4059 (Kenny Drew, “Undercurrent”) is an anomaly because EVERY KNOWN COPY has the deep groove on one side only–that means Plastylite used the newer equipment for one side only! This is also a VERY rare title that most likely went through only ONE pressing!

4. Starting with 4060 ALL “first” pressings have NO deep groove! If you find a copy of any number AFTER 4059 that has a deep groove in one or both sides, it’s a SECOND pressing–the new equipment was ALWAYS used for the first run! This has NO EFFECT on value however!

5. If you find a title EARLIER than 4059 with only one or NO deep groove, but still has the “ear,” this is a later pressing!

6. The “Lexington” labels were used up through BN 1543, Kenny Burrell vol. 2–even LATE pressings of many of these titles still used the left over Lexington labels–you have to look for the deep-grooves AND the edge of the record itself! ALL OF THE LEXINGTON TITLES HAVE FLAT EDGES IF THEY ARE TRULY FIRST PRESSINGS!

7. Starting with Blue Note 1544 Blue Note introduced the “47 W. 63rd New York 23” label which was used on MOST titles from 1544 through 1577–some titles have this on ONE side only (like 1568 and 1577). Because Blue Note DID NOT release their titles in the order they were cataloged, MANY titles prior to 1577 have the LATER “47 W. 63rd NYC” labels (BN 1560 for example).

8. The “47 W. 63rd NYC” was used up through Blue Note 4017 (Horace Silver “Finger Poppin'”). Starting with 4018, an “INC” was added and a “R” registered trademark at the bottom. That means, if you find any record with a number from 4017 on back that HAS the “Inc” and the “R” it is a SECOND PRESSING even if it is Deep-Groove on both sides!

9. The last title with the “47 W. 63rd” labels was BN4080, Hank Mobley’s “Workout” and this one has these labels only on ONE SIDE! Again, there are titles with numbers EARLIER than 4080 that have the later “New York, USA” labels because they were released out of order.

10. Starting with 4081, every single original Blue Note has the “New York, USA labels” right up to the FINAL original release, Don Cherry’s “Complete Communion” (BN 4226). The label was sold to Liberty and EVERY SINGLE RECORD WITH A CATALOG NUMBER HIGHER THAN 4226 is a “Liberty” pressing! Again, there are EARLIER titles that were released AFTER the sale to Liberty as well (Andrew Hill’s “Andrew!” being a good example– BN 4203).

11. Liberty continued to use the left-over “New York, USA” labels for a few months–that’s why you see the “New York” labels on titles as high as “The Jody Grind” from Horace Silver!

12. If you find ANY record with an early catalog number WITHOUT the little “ear” it is a LIBERTY pressing no matter WHAT the label or jacket says! I have seen LIBERTY pressings that had “New York 23” and even “Lexington” labels! Liberty USED UP OLD STOCK including jacket slicks and labels!!!

There is a HUGE difference in both value and sonics between an ORIGNAL pressing of a record like Jackie McLean’s “Swing Swang Swingin'” and a Liberty with the original labels! An original will fetch about $700 in NM condition while the “Liberty” version might only bring $150 in the same condition!