More Blue Notes, More Big Price Tags

Catching up on some recent eBay sales.

Here’s one that was quite a surprise: Jimmy Smith at the Organ, Blue Note 1525. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record was M- and the cover was VG++.  Normally the Jimmy Smith Blue Notes have not fetched huge dollars, but something is changing in the Blue Note market: All of the originals are going up in value and even later pressings are starting to sell at collectible prices. This one sold for an eye-popping $511.

May as well stick with some more Blue Notes: Kenny Burrell, Blue Lights Volume 1. This one, of course, has the cover illustration by Andy Warhol. The record was

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A Visit to A Record Store, Part 3

So many comments to follow up on, but first let me finish my little trilogy about my visit to Infinity Records. Given the market conditions for music the days, it’s easy to assume that the days of the brick and mortar record store are numbered. In the mainstream music market, CDs are collapsing as the medium shifts to an online digital model. In the collectibles market, eBay has become the dominant sales medium. But, for now at least, it seems there is still room for a few places where people can physically walk into a store and purchase music. I happened to be in lower Manhattan a few weeks ago with time to kill and I popped in to J&R Music. It was jam-packed with people. And I was amazed to see the rows and rows and rows of CDs. They even had four bins of new vinyl — lots of recent Blue Note pressings — as well as a wall full of collectible vinyl that featured autographed covers, including Billie Holiday, Dexter Gordon and others.  The key was that they were comprehensive: You got the sense that if there was a jazz CD you wanted, you’d be able to find it there — as opposed to walking into a Border’s or Barnes and Noble, where the music is clearly secondary. There is also room, I think, for good record stores that understand the collectibles market. I spoke to Joe Ostermeier at Infinity — that’s Joe in the picture, standing in front of his wall of records — and he said business is still solid, no major let up as the music world has

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Win a Free Collectible: Dexter Gordon On Blue Note

There’s been a lot of Blue Note chatter on Jazz Collector lately, and some Dexter Gordon chatter as well, so, as I was looking on my shelves for a suitable item for the next giveaway, I was pleased to come across this: Dexter Gordon, Blue Note  LA393-H2. This is a double LP from 1975, issued by United Artists as part of Blue Note Reissue series. It consists of a variety of Dexter’s work, stretching from his first album as a leader on Blue Note, Doing All Right, up to the 1965 date the produced Gettin’ Around. I wouldn’t have purchased this LP when it came out, since my sole interest was collecting original pressings, but somewhere along the way I picked up this copy and, in fact, it is

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More Blue Note Favorites, Courtesy of Downbeat

I did that post earlier today and mentioned that Downbeat had done a whole feature asking various artists about their favorite Blue Note records. I was able to dig up my copy of the magazine — I don’t have a subscription anymore, but I had purchased this one on the newsstand because of the cover. It was from March of 2009. The cover, as you can see, has Joe Lovano with his favorite Blue Note: Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, Free For All, Blue Note 4170. It’s quite gratifying to see his picture with a vinyl pressing, and a mono vinyl pressing at that and perhaps even an original mono pressing. Inside, the magazine asked a variety of other jazz artists to name their favorite Blue Notes as well. Here are their replies:

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Great Jazz Vinyl Countdown: Doin’ Allright

Sometimes you forget to listen to great records, right? You have a limited amount of time to listen, and there are all the other great records, and then there are the other records that have never made it to your turntable and you figure they deserve a chance as well. And, what happens, at least to me, is that some of the great records get buried on the shelf and sometimes go years without being heard. So this week I’ve been going through my Blue Notes and I had about an hour yesterday to just sit and listen and I decided it was time to take one of those records off the shelf and put it on. The record I chose: Dexter Gordon, Doin’ All Right, Blue Note 4077. And I put it on, the first track, I Was Doing All Right, and I smiled instantly and said quietly to myself, “Oh, yeah.” Oh yeah, as in

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Opening Up The $3,000 and $2,000 Bins

It looks as if the fallout from the Jazz Vinyl Fraud of 2009 hasn’t had much of an impact on the prices of high-end vinyl in the past few weeks. Here are a few records that will be entering the $1,000-plus bin in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. If things continue like this, we’ll have to create a $3,000 bin as well as a $2,000 bin. Take a look at these:

Dexter Gordon, Dexter Blows Hot and Cool, Dootone 207. This was an original pressing with the red vinyl. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The price was $3,371. This sets a new high price for this record, as far as what we have recorded in the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Our previous high was $3,059.

This was one of the items on eBay this week from the seller Blue Nipper, who received a lot of unsolicited praise from members of the Jazz Collector community who commented on the site: Tina Brooks, True Blue, Blue Note 4041. This was

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On Ebay: Hope, Dex, Jackie & True Blue

Let’s take a break from all this Nautiluso stuff and get back to our real business of watching real records on eBay. Here’s a few that will whet your appetite:

Elmo Hope, Informal Jazz, Prestige 7043. This is quite a nice rare record featuring John Coltrane and Hank Mobley, later issued as Two Tenors. This is an original New York pressing. The record is in M- condition and the cover is listed as VG++. The current price is nearly $400, but it hasn’t reached the seller’s reserve yet. The seller has a few other nice items as well, including: Jackie McLean, A Long Drink of the Blues, New Jazz 8250. This one is listed as M- for both the record and the cover and is currently at about $115 — also still short of the seller’s reserve price. The same seller also has a copy of:

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On eBay: Mobley, Some 10-Inchers, Hawk & Dex

Some nice items on eBay this week. Here’s one that’s about to enter the $1,000 bin: Hank Mobley, Peckin’ Time, Blue Note 1574. This is an original pressing with the West 63rd Street address. The vinyl is listed in M- condition and the cover is a combination of VG++ and M-, which means its pretty nice either way. it is closing soon, there are already 15 bids and the price is already more than $1,000.

Also ending today is some nice 10-inch jazz vinyl from our friends at Euclid Records. Here’s one: Dexter Gordon Quintet, Dial 204. This one is listed as M- for the vinyl and VG+ for the cover. The price is only $67. Perhaps we may throw in a bid on this one, since this is a record we don’t have and would certainly like to have, even in the face of our Jazz Vinyl Countdown.

Another major seller with some major items this week is the seller jazzrecordrevival. Here are a couple they have up:

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Keeping an Eye On Some “Other” Blue Notes

Not every Blue Note is selling for more than $1,000 these days. Here are some Blue Notes at reasonable prices, with the recognition that “reasonable” is, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder.

Dexter Gordon, A Swingin’ Affair, Blue Note 4133. This was an original mono pressing with the New York USA labels. This was listed in M- condition for the vinyl and VG++ for the cover. The price was $192.51.

Horace Silver, Cape Verdean Blues, Blue Note 84220. This was an original pressing with the New York USA label. It was listed in pristine M- condition for both the vinyl and the cover. It sold for $45.

Bud Powell, Bud!, Blue Note 1571. This was an original pressing. The vinyl was listed as VG+ and the cover was listed as VG. The price was $127.50.

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Catching Up: Dex & A Few For the $1,000 Bin

Time to catch up on a few more jazz vinyl collectibles, including a few more for the $1,000 bin:

Dexter Gordon Quintet, Dial 204. This was an original 10-inch pressing. The record and the cover were both listed in VG+ condition. The price was about $240. I love these original 10-inch Dials, and the price on this one seemed pretty fair. But, alas, I was not a bidder.  Also from Dexter was this: Dexter Gordon, Dexter Rides Again, Savoy 12130. This was an original pressing with the deep groove and the red labels. The seller listed it in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The price was $69.

For the $1,000 bin there were these:

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