Out of the Blue and Landslide were replacements for records that I had let slip through my fingertips over the years. I had an original mint pressing of Out of the Blue that I bought for $5 maybe 40 years ago – and immediately traded for a record that was not equal in value. It has been a hole in my collection ever since. With Landslide, I had one of those Liberty pressings with the white cover, and I just never took to those pressings and wound up selling most of them when I pared down my collection a few years ago.

I figured I could replace those records and check out the Tone Poet Series and also share my observations here, killing a few birds with two purchases of about $39 for Landslide and $28 for Out of the Blue. The records arrived in the mail with promotional material on the outside promising wonderful things once opened: “Cut Directly from The Original Analog Tapes; Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder; Reissue Supervised by Joe Harley; Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio; Manufactured at Record Technology Inc. (RTI) on 180 Gram Vinyl.”

I quite like the packaging on the Tone Poet Series. These two records have slick gatefold covers. On the inside are Francis Wolff photos from the original sessions. The covers are the “originals,” although there was no real original pressing of Landslide since it was not released at the time it was recorded. Both records have the original liner notes on the back, Landslide being from the 1980 issue. I’m not an audiophile by any notion, although I have a great system, and to my ears these pressings sound great. If I was starting out as a collector today and couldn’t afford original pressings of Blue Notes – who can? – I’d certainly be pleased with these pressings.

Same goes for the two records I bought that were part of the Classic Vinyl Series, Roll Call and Serenade to a Soul Sister. I never had an original pressing of Roll Call – although I think I’ve just fixed that with a new purchase (more to come later). I had a copy of Serenade to a Soul Sister, but it wasn’t in great shape and I sold it a few years back hoping to replace it. As with the Tone Poet Series, this reissue is a suitable replacement. It has the original packaging, cover, liner notes, and it sounds good to these ears. The promo on the cover speaks to it: “Audiophile Vinyl Reissues from the Finest in Jazz Since 1939. Mastered from The original Analog Tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio; 180 Gram Vinyl.”

Finally, the promo on the shrink wrap of the Horace Silver discovery tells a it all:

“Previously unissued fiery live sets with powerhouse Horace Silver Band in 1965. Deluxe 180-gram LP transferred from the original tapes and mastered by Matthew Luthans. Stunning broadcast quality recording captured 60 years ago! Liner notes by jazz scholar Bob Blumenthal, and statements by Roger Humphries, Randy Brecker, Alvin Queen and Sullivan Fortner.”

Fiery and powerhouse. Quite a combination. Quite a package as well. In addition to the record, there is a 16-page booklet with all of those liner notes described above. It is a great set and it is well recorded, so if you’re a Horace Silver fan, I would definitely recommend it. It’s the quintet that featured Silver on piano, Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor, Teddy Smith on bass and Roger Humphries on drums.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has dipped a few toes into these new waters, so if any of the regular readers and commenters are out there, I would definitely be interested in hearing your opinions.

The post Old and New Vinyl, Blue Note Style first appeared on jazzcollector.com.]]> https://jazzcollector.com/blue-note/old-and-new-vinyl-blue-note-style/feed/ 2 9945 https://jazzcollector.com/podcast/podcast-old-vinyl-new-bottles/ https://jazzcollector.com/podcast/podcast-old-vinyl-new-bottles/#comments Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:35:53 +0000 https://jazzcollector.com/?p=9819 This week’s theme: Exploring recent vinyl reissues from Blue Note, Prestige, and Riverside. Featured artists include Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, [...]

Here we go. A record with a bid. Three bids, in fact: Duke Jordan, Flight to Jordan, Blue Note 4046. This is an original West 63^rd Street pressing offered for auction by the Jazz Record Center. The record and cover both look to be in M- condition. The auction closes in a little more than four days and the bidding is at $1,600. If there’s one high-priced item from the Jazz Record Center, I would expect more to come. Let’s keep searching.

And here’s another: The Magnificent Thad Jones, Blue Note 1527. This is an original Lexington Avenue pressing. The record and cover are described as being in “excellent condition,” which I would take to be VG++ in the language that we normally use here at Jazz Collector. There are five bids and the price is $880. This one seems destined for the $1,000 bin, at least.

As I’m searching I’m passing some of the ones I saw last week and didn’t get bids, including Gil Melle, Gil’s Guests; and Sonny Red, Out of the Blue.   Don’t think they’ll do any better this week.

Finally, here’s a Blue Note you don’t see very often: Sabu, Palo Congo, Blue Note 1561.This is an original New York 23 pressing listed in VG condition for both the record and the cover. Bidding is in the $575 range with about three days left on the auction. I’ve never owned this record, never seen a copy other than in pictures, and never listed to the music. But, then again, I’ve only been collecting jazz for about 53 years.

I’m kind of enjoying this process of doing live eBay searches and  posting in real time. I may make a habit of posting this way.

Let’s do this in real time. So far, I’m finding a lot of records with really high start prices and zero bids, starting with: Miles Davis Volume 2, Blue Note 1502, original Lexington Avenue pressing. Great looking cover, as you can see. Record and cover are graded in Excellent condition, which the seller describes as “VERY” nice, although not quite mint minus. Start price is close to $1,900 and the buy it now price is close to $2,900.

How about Gil Melle, Gil’s Guests, Prestige 7063? This is an original New York yellow label listed in VG+ condition for the record and what I would call an “iffy” VG cover. How about $900 to start? And here’s a record I once owned but traded away in a very bad deal for me: Sonny Red, Out of the Blue Note 4032. The record and cover are graded VG+, with some surface noise on the vinyl. The start price is about $800.

Doing this in real time, I have completed the first page of 60 listings of jazz records sorted by highest prices on eBay. I kid you not – there is not a single record that has even one bid. Astrud Gilberto, The Shadow of Your Smile, $2,000. No? Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely, $400. No?

To be fair, there are some records that will likely be sold and perhaps well into the $1,000 bin. I’m looking at Freddie Hubbard Hub Cap, Blue Note 4073, and . . . . not much more. Let’s move on to page 2. I’m determined to find a record that has at least one bid.

Nothing yet. Passing Chet Baker, It Could Happen to You, Sonny Rollins, Rollins Plays For Bird, both in the $300 range, passing Freddie Redd, The Connection at $250, Miles Davis, Relaxin’ at $250. OK. Now I’m starting to worry that something is wrong with my internet connection or eBay. Nothing? Let’s keep going.

Ding, ding, ding. Nearly 100 records down, our first record that has any bids, and, I must admit, it’s a good one: Cliff Jordan, Blue Note 1565. This looks to be an original pressing with the New York 23 labels. The record is graded M- and the cover is graded EX. There are actually 10 bids and the price is currently at about $230 with less than two days left on the auction.

Well, that was fun. Clearly, my absence from posting, has had a dramatic impact on the market.

Kenny Dorham, Afro-Cuban, Blue Note 5065. This is the original 10-inch pressing listed in G condition for both the record. Despite the condition, the bidding is in the $120 range with the auction closing by the time many of you will read this. My experience as a buyer of this record is quite different than the Sonny Red. I was in a shop in Los Angeles. Can’t remember either the name or location. I used to travel there for business, but I never had any luck, until I walked into this store, probably in the mid-1990s, and they had about 20 or 25 10-inch records all in about VG condition. This was one of them. I think the price was about $30, but I bargained the seller down because of the condition and because I wound up taking all 25 records. I still have this copy of Afro-Cuban and I still have the other records in that pile.

Curtis Fuller, The Opener, Blue Note 1567. This looks to be an original pressing with the West 63^rd Street address and deep grooves. I don’t remember if this one should have the New York 23 labels because I once left my Blue Note Guide by Fred Cohen on a plane. Anyway, someone in the audience will set me straight. This one is in VG+ or VG++ condition for the record and VG++ for the cover. There are already 24 bids and the price is $500, with the auction closing later today.

This seller, vinyl-house-uk, has a large batch of Blue Notes and other collectibles on eBay right now, including Art Blakey, A Night at Birdland Volume 1, Blue Note 1521. This is a second pressing with the second cover and the West 63^rdStreet logo. This was the cover I would see in stores when I started collecting in the early 1970s. The record is listed in EX or EX+ condition and the cover is EX+. Bidding is around $270 with four days left. Even with these second pressings or later, we are seeing that prices continue to rise for Blue Notes. And why not? The music is great, the packaging is great and the records are evocative of a period that can never be recaptured – except, with the records, it can, if however fleetingly.

Why I set out to do that, I can’t say, but I had a nice, pristine copy of Out of the Blue that I had purchased for $5 (!) at the Titus Oaks Record shop in Hicksville, New York, among a huge collection of original Blue Notes that had just landed on the shelves, upon which I was excited out of my skin to be the first one to access. I think I walked out that day with about 30 records, each one priced at $5. I know, it’s like a dream, right? Every record was pristine and, in my mind, they had come from some Long Islander who had worked at Blue Note, never played the records, and just dropped them off at Titus Oaks when he was clearing clutter from his house.

Among the other records in my pile that day was another that I also traded away and remains to this day yet one more record that I have never been able to replace in its original, first-pressing format, and that is Pete La Roca, Basra, Blue Note 4205. This looks to be a New York USA pressing that looks to be in VG++ condition for the record and M- for the cover. The bidding is now in the range of about $325, with more than four days left on the auction. This one has sold for as much as $820 in the past.

My recollection is that I traded these two records, among others, to a sax player named Ned Otter. Ned was, and apparently still is, a very sweet guy and I was happy to trade him the records because he was so excited to get them and fill in the blanks in his own personal quest to acquire the entire Blue Note catalogue. I will say that he definitely got the better of the deal back then because he was a lot more knowledgeable than I was at the time and I was feeling quite generous because I had only paid $5 for each of the albums anyway. I know that Ned is still around because my friend Danny saw him last week at a memorial for another sax player we knew, Jeff Gordon, so, Ned, if you ever do come across this post, I remain pleased to this day that you were able to get those records from me—in exchange for maybe a couple of Miles, Gene Ammons and Gil Melle records?—and I hope you are still enjoying them. Of course, if you ever decide to get rid of them, you now know where to find me.

Okay, these next two Blue Notes are legitimate want list items for me.  I have never owned an original copy of either record, but I have owned United Artists pressings of each for at least 30 years or so. They are: Cliff Jordan, Cliff Craft, Blue Note 1682. This looks to be an original deep-groove West 63^rd Street pressing, probably in VG++ condition for the record and probably similar for the cover. The bidding on this one is in the $170 range, also with four days left in the auction, and I would be shocked if this one doesn’t make it into the $1,000 bin. Finally, there is Kenny Drew, Undercurrent, Blue Note 4059. This looks to be an original pressing with the West 63^rd Street label and the deep groove on Side 2. The record is listed in M- condition and the cover M- as well. Current bidding is in the $275 range but this one will undoubtedly cross the $1,000 barrier and may even go well beyond. The top price for this record, again per Popsike, has been $3,038.

There were several surprises from the auction, including this one: Chet Baker, Chet, Riverside 299. This was an original deep groove pressing with the small labels, looking to be in M- condition for both the record and the cover. It features Bill Evans, which always increases the value, but I was still surprised to see it sell for $1,225. I noticed on one of my other posts that a reader had a nit to pick with me, regarding my ongoing sense of surprise at record prices going up when, in fact, they’ve been going up for as long as I’ve been doing the Jazz Collector site and, to be completely honest, well before that. The commenter definitely makes a good point. My astonishment at prices probably should have been tempered long ago, but, remember, I did start collecting in an era well before eBay, when you could go into a Titus Oaks record store and walk out with 20 original Blue Notes in M- condition, each priced at $5 — and with a 15% discount to boot because you purchased so many records. That did happen to me and the expression of glee on my face and joy to my core that I experienced walking out of that store still comes back just thinking about that particular day. In any case, based on Popsike, this version of Chet does represent the highest price paid for a copy of this record.

Here are a few more from the same auction:

Dizzy Reece, Blues in Trinity, Blue Note 4006. This was an original West 63^rdStreet pressing listed in Mint condition, not even with a “minus.” The final price was $1,784.

Charlies Mingus, Blues & Roots, Atlantic 1305. This was the original mono pressing with what JRC calls the “spiral labels,” which I have often seen referred to as the “bullseye labels.” Whichever label you choose to use, this one was also in Mint condition and sold for $510.

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, A Night in Tunisia, Blue Note 4049. This was an original West 63^rdStreet pressing, also in beautiful condition, described by JRC as “extraordinary.” The final price was $431, which might have been a surprise to me when I first started writing this post, but which no longer qualifies due to my newfound sense of enlightenment.

I missed out on this one: Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This looked to be an original West 63rd Street pressing. I couldn’t get a good read on the condition. On the one hand, the seller described it as “Beautiful!” “Excellent!” and “VG++”; on the other hand, where there was an actual place to list the condition, it was VG+ for both the record and the cover. The pictures certainly looked nice and the final price was just $338. Hey, if all the descriptions were over the top and the record and cover were still just VG+, that would be a fine price for a fine record and one that I would have been happy to have paid, given my sad history with this record, having owned a mint copy years ago and trading it for a record of lesser value, lesser music and lesser everything. I blame it on my youth.

Here’s a nice 10-incher: Thelonious Monk Trio, Thelonious, Prestige 142. This was an original pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG for the cover. The seller insists he grades without flaw and thus does not accept returns, so there is some risk involved. This one sold for $300, with a single bidder. It so happens that today is the 100th birthday of Thelonious, so I think we should all put a Monk record on the turntable and wallow in admiration of his his unique genius. I think I’m going to go for Criss Cross on Columbia, or maybe The Unique on Riverside, or maybe the one with Sonny Rollins on Prestige, or maybe, just maybe, all of the above. How about you?

We were also watching a bunch of auctions from the seller vinyl.unlimited and most of them got fairly decent bids but did not reach the seller’s reserve price. Here are some of the ones that did not sell:

Barney Wilen Quintet, Guilde du Jazz 1239. This was listed in VG++ condition for the record and the cover. The top bid was $810.

Lou Donaldson, Lou Takes Off, Blue Note 1591. This was an original West 63rd Street pressing listed in VG++ condition for the record and VG+ for the cover. This one had a top bid of $404.

Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This was in VG++ condition for the record and probably VG+ for the cover. The top bid was $755.

Kenny Drew, Undercurrent, Blue Note 4059. The top bid for this was $1,325 and it still didn’t meet the reserve price.

Johnny Griffin, The Congregation, Blue Note 1680. This one also received a top bid of more than $1,000 — $1,025 to be precise — and did not meet the reserve price.

What was I thinking when I traded away a copy of the following record more than 30 years ago?

Sonny Red, Out of the Blue, Blue Note 4032. This looks to be an original mono pressing. The record and cover are graded at VG++, but one look at the picture of the back cover will tell you that it is not VG++ and is no better than VG+. I think sellers lose credibility when they do this, but this seller has been doing very well lately. It’s the same seller as the first Barney Wilen record mentioned earlier.

Anyway, my history with this record: Many years ago, I would guess 1984 or so, I was visiting my aunt and cousins in Hicksville on Long Island. There was a store called Titus Oaks just around the corner. It was housed in an old Wetson’s, which was one of the first fast food hamburger restaurants anywhere. On the East Coast I think Wetson’s preceded McDonald’s. Anyway, I told the family I had to run out for a bit and, of course, went to Titus Oaks. Boom, I hit the jackpot. Someone had just come in with a huge batch of original Blue Notes, all in perfect, unplayed condition. I don’t know if the person worked for Blue Note or just collected. All I knew was that these were beautiful, every single one of them, and the clerk at the store was literally putting them into the bins as I walked in.

One of the things I loved most about Titus Oaks at this time was that they had NO IDEA what they were doing. Nobody at the store understood the jazz market at all. So they priced each of the Blue Notes the same: Five dollars apiece. I walked out with about 30 titles, Blakeys, Silvers, McLeans, Dexters and, among others, Sonny Red Out of the Blue. It was one of my best scores ever.

At the time, I was trying to build out my collection of original Prestiges. I wound up trading the Sonny Red and a couple of other nice Blue Notes for a few original Prestiges, but not the really hard to get titles. Titles, in fact, that one would scoff at today and would certainly not consider in a trade for original Blue Notes. I’m embarrassed to say these titles and I’ve tried to blot them from my memory, but I think there were maybe a couple of Miles records, but also a couple of Gene Ammons and maybe even an Arnett Cobb.I didn’t know what I was doing and wound up making a couple of bad trades that I have regretted ever since. And, of course, all these years later I still haven’t replaced the Sonny Red record.