Tag: Jazz Record Center

Blue Notes and Beyond

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The Jazz Record Center has a veritable Blue Note Jazz Festival on eBay now, with several beauties, including a couple that are already sitting in the $3,000 bin, including: Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 1535. This is an original 12-inch pressing with the Lexington Avenue address, flat rim playing surface and frame cover. This looks to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. The auction closes in a bit more than one day and the bidding is already at $3,015. Then there is the Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. This is also an original Lexington Avenue, frame cover pressing, and this one has promo stamps on the labels. The record looks to be in M- condition and the cover is probably M- or, at worse, VG++ for sticklers. The bidding is at $3,000. Read more

Soul Sisters, Smithvilles and Other Vinyl Rarities

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Since I haven’t been posting as frequently as I used to, I find I have a backlog in my watchlist of items I meant to write about, but haven’t had a chance. So let’s go back a few weeks and see what we missed, starting with Horace Silver, Serenade to a Soul Sister, Blue Note 4277. This was an original Liberty Mono pressing and was part of the recent Jazz Record Center auction. I honestly never realized any copy of this record was viewed as highly collectible until I read the JRC’s description of it as “the rare Van Gelder-stamped mono pressing.” Apparently these mono pressings were never sold to the public. I often find I learn something new whenever JRC has an auction. This copy was in M- condition for the record and the cover. The final price was $464. Guess I’ll have to settle for my nice stereo pressing.

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Record Temptation, Then and Now

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I had my eye on this one and someone also mentioned it in a comment on the previous post: Bill Evans, New Jazz Conceptions, Riverside 223. This was an original white label pressing with the original photo cover. The record was listed in M- condition and the cover was VG++, although perhaps VG+ may have been more accurate given the tape/tape residue on the back cover. Nevertheless, you rarely see the front cover this clean, and it’s such a gorgeous cover, you wonder what they were thinking at Riverside when they changed it. Anyway, this particular copy sold for $3,629, with the buyer and other bidders no doubt entranced by the clean picture of the cover. A quick click to Popsike tells us that this is by far the highest price ever paid for this record. Read more

Jazz Vinyling on eBay

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Time once again to clear out the eBay watch list, starting with a few from that Jazz Record Center auction from a couple of weeks ago: Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This was an original pressing with the New York 23 labels. The record looked to be in M- condition and the cover was probably the same. The final price was $2,276. For the record, there have been copies of Sonny’s Crib that have sold for more than $3,000 in the past, according to Popsike. There was also a copy of Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This was also an original pressing, probably in VG++ condition for the record and maybe VG+ or slightly better for the cover. The final price was $2,025.

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Classic Blue Notes from Jazz Record Center

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Our friends at the Jazz Record Center have quite an auction closing this week, including several of the rarest of the rare Blue Notes, starting with Hank Mobley, Blue Note 1568. This is a deep-groove West 63rdStreet pressing, no New York 23 label, but it is still considered an original. This one looks to be in VG++ condition for the record and probably VG+ or VG++ for the cover, depending upon how the buyer might feel about a “professional restoration” and a “lightly audible scratch.” This bidding on this one has already surpassed $2,000 with three days of bidding to go.

Here’s another one already in the $2,000 bin: Read more

Bird, Dial, Blue Note And Fillers for the $1,000 Bin

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I have a lot of records stacked in my eBay watch list, some from a few weeks ago, so I am going to use this post to clear things out, starting with some 10-inch records: Charlie Parker, Dial 207. This was an original 10-inch pressing. The record was only in VG condition and the cover was VG++. It sold for $1,075. Not sure why. We’ve seen this record in much stronger condition sell for a lot less. The seller took a great picture of the cover, so maybe that helped.

This seller had some nice 10-inch LPs a few weeks ago, including Clifford Brown Quartet, Blue Note 5047. This one looked to be in VG+ condition for both the record and the cover, perhaps a little better for the record. The final price was $565. Also, Lou Donaldson Sextet, Volume 2, Blue Note 5055. This one was graded M-, but the seller’s description made it sound more like VG++. The cover was VG++. The final price was $350. Read more

Four From The Jazz Collector Want List

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I had my eye on a couple of lesser-condition Blue Notes from my want list, starting with Cliff Jordan, Blue Note 1565. This was an original New York 23 West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG- and the cover was VG++. I’m always afraid of VG- because it often means I wouldn’t be comfortable putting the record on my turntable. This one sold for $687.54. I still have my 1970s UA copy to listen to. The same seller was offering Cliff Jordan and John Gilmore, Blowing in From Chicago, Blue Note 1549. This was also an original New York 23 pressing. The record was also VG- and the cover was VG+. The final price was $408. Thank goodness for those UA pressings. Read more

The Rise and Rise of Blue Note Reissues

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I sometimes keep an eye out for the United Artists Blue Notes from the early/mid 1970s. I bought most of these releases when they first came out and my friend Red Carraro stocked them in his basement in Malverne, NY. I recall paying $10 each and I loved having them because they were able to fill in major gaps in my collection that I didn’t have the money to fill in with original pressings. I must have bought 20 or 30 of these pressings. I never thought they would be worth much money, being reissues, but I loved the music and they sounded fine, particularly on the inexpensive equipment I had at the time. It opened up a lot of music to me that I had never heard before, including the Thad Jones, Cliff Jordan, Johnny Griffin and Duke Jordan Blue Notes of the 1950s. Read more

Tracking Rare Vinyl From the Jazz Record Center

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Whilst we were away our friends at the Jazz Record Center had an interesting auction loaded with Blue Notes, including this one straight from my wish list: Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This was not only an original West 63rdStreet pressing, but it had a stamp on the label that read: PROPERTY OF DONALD BYRD, which you would assume would make it straight from Donald Byrd’s personal collection, unless you are a conspiracy theorist and believe someone nefarious would go to the trouble of creating a PROPERTY OF DONALD BYRD stamp and press it on an original Blue Note record to try to hike the value. As for me, I would trust the provenance of this record and would probably pay more for an LP with this stamp, because it’s kind of cool knowing that Donald Byrd owned the record. In any case, however, I would not pay the $1,600 price that this one sold for, albeit in M- condition for both the record and the cover. I did own an M- copy of this record once, which I purchased for $5 at the old Titus Oaks record store in a former Wetson’s fast-food hamburger joint in Hicksville. But, alas, I traded it for a few records of far less value more than 30 years ago, and have never been able to replace Out of the Blue  at a price I was comfortable paying. Read more

Of Market Value and Music Value

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Back on eBay and wanted to first catch up on some of the items we were watching last time, starting with George Wallington, New York Scene, New Jazz 8207. This was the one from the Jazz Record Center and the bidding was at close to $800 when we wrote about it. The record wound up selling for $2,000, well surpassing the previous top price paid for this record, according to Popsike. I still find it fascinating that certain records have a strong appeal to collectors, i.e., value, while other records of the same era, perhaps by more prominent artists, have less of an appeal. Off the top of my head, I’ll use Sonny Rollins Plus Four as an example. This is a great record, featuring ground-breaking artists in their prime, on Prestige, yet it has never come close to the $1,000 mark, let alone $2,000. I’m sure I can come up with other examples, but you get the drift. I’m sure it has to do with supply and demand and all of that and perceptions of what is “rare” and what isn’t, which, I guess, is one of the nice things about having sites like eBay and Popsike to monitor the market and see on a daily basis what actual market value looks like. Back in the dark ages before the Internet, most of us were probably operating in the dark, not quite understanding the market value of what we were collecting. I guess we were focusing on the music that we loved.

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