This week’s theme: Jazz Vinyl recorded or released in 1965. Artists include Freddie Hubbard, Miles Davis, George Coleman, Anthony Williams, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Ray Bryant, Pete LaRoca, Dave Brubeck, Herbie Mann, Paul Desmond, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans, and many more.
I was poring through my records the other day and stopped for a moment on this one: Max Roach Four Plays Charlie Parker, Mercury SR 80019. I’ve had this record for a while and haven’t listened to it in years, but it struck me as such: It features two of the great stalwarts of the Blue Note catalogue — Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham — both in their primes; it has a great cover and a great concept. Yet, it is not really high on any list of collectible records and, in fact, we have never once even tagged it in the Jazz Collector Price Guide, which means we haven’t really seen it sell for a collectible price in the past seven years. And it struck me: What if this record, with this personnel, in this era — 1958 or so — had been issued on Blue Note? What would it be worth? Why is there such a profound difference between the value of a record like this, on the Mercury label, and a record with similar personnel in the same era from the Blue Note era? I think these are rhetorical questions, but I’m happy
