Popsike: In 2007 a mint copy of Get Happy With Freddie Redd Trio With Guests sold for $1,260. That seems to be the highest price ever for the record, so welcome to the $1,000 bin. There have been five other copies that sold for $500 or more. I didn’t go beyond that, but it is clear that this is a rare record and in demand among collectors.

Wikipedia: Nixa records was founded in 1950 and was the second label in Britain, behind Decca, to release LP records. The label was sold to Pye Records in 1953 and, what do you know, I’m also not familiar with Pye Records. Another search, and Pye was originally a manufacturer of televisions and radios and got into the record business in 1953m when it acquired Nixa.

General search/Discogs: Looks like I should have been aware of Nixa Records, and perhaps I was at one time, memories being what they are after you’ve been collecting jazz records for more than 50 years. They did have quite a number of jazz and blues releases, more than 150, with artists such as Joe Harriott, Chris Barber, Don Rendell, Cleo Laine, Annie Ross and Lars Gullin, plus skiffle, including Lonnie Donegan, and British issues of American blues and folk, such as Big Bill Broonzy and Josh White. I bet the Beatles were listening to some Nixa Records as youths in Liverpool, yes?

It looks like the record was released in the UK in 1958 based on a session recorded in Stockholm in September 1956.

So that’s my lesson to myself for today.

Oh, yes, the copy that is for sale now is listed in EX+ condition for the record and the cover, which we translate into M-, and the bidding is in the $460 range with more than four days left on the auction.

By Daryl Parks

Discogs currently features an original Blue Note, first press, mono, deep groove copy of the Art Blakey A Night at Birdland Vol2  (VG+/VG+) for $500. Discogs also offers a (NM) 1985 Direct Metal Master, (DMM) French, “Cadre Rouge Audiophile” version, on scrawny vinyl, of the LP for $20 + postage. I own the original Blue Note (VG++) and the DMM re-issue (NM).  Prepare for heresy: I prefer the sound of the inexpensive, DMM, anorexic-vinyl re-issue. I’m not sure how to make sense of that.

Multiple variables are at work in this discussion, of course:

1) We collect objects;

2) We collect the sounds of our objects.

It is likely useful to distinguish those two things when we discuss collecting, at least as I try to come to sense with the six crates of records that I allow myself to keep, holy grails and reissues among them.

I love to sort the records as objects. It may be like those Zen sand gardens in which the repetition of rearranging and studying the objects brings joy; I don’t know. I also find pleasure in the idea of owning first press holy grails, showing them to my pals or envisioning my children selling them for prices above what I paid, as I’m lowered into the soil with Dizzy’s Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac playing in the background.

I find the DMM re-issue sound to be superior—more crisp, more separated, and more emotional for me as a listener. The Blue Note original is stellar, yet doesn’t quite match the DMM sound on that LP, to me.

Perhaps my educator-budget components are to blame: Rotel RA 812 amp, Dual 5000 turntable (w/Shure VST-V), and “large” original (rebuilt) Advent speakers, which are altogether uber-sweet, yet may hide the “real” playback sounds evoked by your tubed system that cost more than my house (he said, enviously). I’m also fearful that our 50-80 year-old ears are lying to us about all of our component purchases and playback!

I value your feedback on the major variables at work in this post:

1) If we tease out objects from the sound of objects is it possible that re-issues sound better than originals?

2) Can you listen to your DMM LP’s and give us feedback on whether that re-mastering approach may actually provide a better sound overall?

3) Might these scrawny reissues I praise diminish in quality so quickly that I will bemoan this post for the remainder of my days? Is this really a post of long-term vs. short-term audio quality?

I appreciate your replies as I try to make sense of my love of Blue Note records and DMM reissues.

One more from CeeDee: Bud Powell, The Scene Changes, Blue Note 4009. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was in M- condition and the cover was VG++. The final price was $809.99. Again, given the market condition these days, not a big surprise to me.

I found this article on Discogs pretty interesting. It’s been about five years since I’ve sold records online and I rarely buy online either. My exposure to Discogs has been limited thus far. Looks like I’ll have to spend more time exploring the site. I am curious about the experiences of some of the Jazz Collector readers. Have any of you used Discogs and do you prefer it to eBay?