Sonnys Crib, No Deep Groove, At What Price?

Lots of focus on Blue Note this week. Sometimes, that’s just the way things break. Here’s one of interest, closing soon: Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This, of course, is one of the hot ones, featuring John Coltrane. This one has the West 63rd Street address, is mono and seems to be in pristine condition. Yet . . . it is not a deep-groove pressing. So, what’s it worth? The seller has a buy-it-now price of $1,000 — or you can make an offer — and there are two hours to go, so it seems unlikely that he will get his asking price. If this was a deep-groove copy in this condition, at $1,000 it would have been gobbled up long ago. Without the deep groove, all bets are off. Isn’t it interesting how specific the market has become. One of our loyal readers commented on another post about a John Jenkins Blue Note he purchased from us, probably for around $15 o $20. It was a United Artists mono pressing and he is quite pleased and getting a lot of joy out of it. And he didn’t need to get a second mortgage on his home.

Some Nice Blue Notes For The Price Guide

We’ve seen several nice Blue Note records break the $1,000 price barrier in the past couple of weeks, including the copy of Cool Struttin’ by Sonny Clark that sold for $3,416. Here are some of the Blue Notes that we will be entering into the Jazz Collector Price Guide this weekend. 

Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was M-. The price was $1,575.

Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538. This was an original Lexington Avenue pressing in VG+ condition, both record and cover. The price was $900.

Thad Jones, The Magnificent Volume 3, Blue Note 1546. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was M-. The price was $500.

Then there are these records from Sonny Clark:

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One For the $3,000 Bin

Here’s one that sold for more than $3,000 the other day: Sonny Clark, Cool Struttin’, Blue Note 1588. This was an original pressing in M- condition, both record and cover. It had the advantage of being sold by Euclid Records, which is one of the larger sellers on eBay and has an excellent reputation. This copy sold for $3,416, which puts it among the Top Five we’ve recorded on the Jazz Collector Price Guide.  If you click the previous Price Guide link, it should take you to a page where all of the records are sorted by highest prices first, which is always a fun way to view the Price Guide. 

Speaking of prices, we’ve got some nice items closing tomorrow at pretty reasonable prices, and we just put up some interesting new items that are closing next week. Among the more interesting items we have up now are a Lexington Avenue pressing of Paul Chambers, Whims of Chambers, Blue Note 1534. This is closing tomorrow and is currently about about $180. For next week

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One for the $2,000 (almost $3,000) Bin

Many of you probably saw that the item we were watching yesterday from the Jazz Record Center, Lee Morgan, Indeed, Blue Note 1538, wound up selling for the whopping price if $2,927. That’s great. It’s nice to see the demand high and the price high and a happy customer and (I’m sure) a happy seller. Dave asks in one of the other posts if we have a list of the highest prices on eBay. We don’t have a formal list, but you can go to our Jazz Collector Price Guide and do a search of our 4,000-record database and sort them by highest prices first. The top item we have is a copy of Cool Struttin’ by Sonny Clark that sold for $3,750.

Price Updates: Kenny Drew, Hawk, Hank, Pres

We’ve been adding records to the Jazz Collector Price Guide and came upon another beautiful 10-inch LP that sold recently: The Ideation of Kenny Drew, Norgran 29. Look at this beautiful cover illustration by David Stone Martin. This record was in M- condition, both record and cover. It sold for $393.

Also for the Price Guide are:

Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Prestige 7038. This was a New York pressing with the second cover. The record and cover were in VG+ condition. The price was $165.20.

Sonny Clark, Leapin’ and Lopin’, Blue Note 84091. This was a stereo pressing with the New York USA label. The record and cover were M-. The price was $179.02.

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For the Price Guide: Sonny Clark, Dizzy Reece, Monk

Since we work during the week, we often use the weekend to update the Jazz Collector Price Guide. Here are a few of the items will be adding after we complete this post:

Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This as an original West 63rd Street pressing. The record was VG++ and so was the cover. The price was $747.

Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Contemporary 3532. This was an original yellow label mono pressing. The record was VG++ and the cover was VG+. Price: $240.50

Hank Mobley, Workout, Blue Note 4080. This was a mono pressing with the New York USA label. The record and cover were M- and the price was $335.

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Today on eBay: Does Sonny + 4 = 100?

I’m playing with the idea of doing a post or a series of posts on the topic: “100 Records I Would Keep If I Could Only Keep 100 Records.” It’s sort of a growing fantasy to shed possessions and keep only what is necessary. I bring this up because one of the records that would certainly make the Top Ten of my list is currently available on eBay: Sonny Rollins Plus Four, Prestige 7038. This is an original New York pressing on the vinyl. But is it the original cover, or is the original cover the one with the red and purple design? Let’s see who knows the answer out there. In any case, this one looks to be in nice condition, VG++, and is currently a bit more than $100. 

Other items we’re watching:

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Today on Ebay, February 10, 2009

Pretty quiet on eBay today, although there are a few nice items, as always. We at Jazz Collector have a few auctions closing today, including: Art Farmer with Sonny Rollins, Prestige 177. This is a 10-inch LP. It’s in VG/VG+ condition and is currently in the $30 price range. We’re also selling this nice jazz guitar LP: Johnny Pisano and Billy Bean, Take Your Pick, Decca 9212. This is an original pressing that’s in VG+/VG++ condition and it’s also in the $30 range as of now. We’re also selling LPs with autographs by Woody Herman, plus George Barnes and Bucky Pizzarelli, so please, take a look. 

Among other items, there’s an original pressing of Sonny Clark, Sonny’s Crib, Blue Note 1576. This one looks to be in VG++ condition. the current price is $282, but it has yet to meet the seller’s reserve. As a buyer, I’m not a big fan of reserve-price auctions. I’d rather the seller set a high base price if he

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Ellington and Trane on Broadway; Plus Serge Chaloff With and Without Sonny Clark

Some more for the Jazz Collector Price Guide:

Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Impulse 30. This was an original white label promo copy. It was in M- condition, both record and cover. The price was $326. We’ve actually seen this go for slightly higher before. Interesting — I went to a play with Mrs. JC the other day (Mrs. Jazz Collector, not Mrs. John Coltrane), and they were using 1960s mood music between scenes. One of the tracks was from this album, In a Sentimental Mood. After the fourth note, I was able to identify it. Not difficult really — it’s a very recognizable version. Excellent play, by the way: The American Plan. Worth seeing if you’re in New York.

We were watching these two LPs from Serge Chaloff and questioning how big a difference the presence of Sonny Clark was have on impacting the price. Quite a bit, it turns out:

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Today on Ebay, January 19, 2009

Things are kind of slow on eBay today, but there are definitely a few items of interest for those of us in the Jazz Collector world. Of particular note are several Blue Note test pressings from the seller Bluenotesound, which, we believe, is affiliated with Mosaic Records. This one is of the Jackie Mclean Quintet, listed as Blue Note BST 84116. It was recorded in 1962 — the record has the date 9-2-62 — but wasn’t released until the 1970s. It features Kenny Dorham and Sonny Clark and, according to the seller, Blue Note only issued 25 test pressings of each LP, so it would be extremely rare. In addition to this Jackie test pressing, there are two other test pressings available: Leo Parker, Rolling With Leo,  and a copy of the Sam Rivers LP Dimensions and Extensions. All of these are in near mint condition. It’ll be very interesting to see the final prices. 

Among the more conventional jazz collectibles are:

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