Discogs article on most valuable Blue Note Vinyl

[felser]

Interesting to browse, the 25 highest sales.  $7333 for a copy of True Blue!

https://www.discogs.com/digs/collecting/most-valuable-blue-note/?utm_campaign=Newsletter_080625&utm_content=General_Email1&utm_medium=email_action&utm_source=mktg

 

[Big Beat Steve]

Which IMO goes to show again that some collecting fetichism is clearly beyond comprehension or sanity. Particularly considering how often all of these top sellers (and most others) have been reissued (usually as well-done facsimile reissues which even preserve and convey the visual experience of the period cover artwork).
So what remains? An ear, an address - and is (and the underlying feeling that someone had held this very record in his sweaty fingers at a late-hours get-together in, say, 1958? ) this really worth that much extra money all of the time, except to those who have money to burn? (Or treat the music strictly as monetary investment) Of course it is very nice if you happen upon an early or original pressing and can get it "for a song" (or almost) from someone who does not know his wares, but beyond that?? Regrettable that in the wake of all this even much later (facsimile) reissues have soared (relatively speaking) in price too. 

FWIW, and talking about "browsing" written matter, here's a review of #4 - Cool Struttin' - from the October, 1958, issue of ESTRAD (Sweden) that I happened to (re-)read again a couple of weeks ago (with some mild amazement):

"As usual, when Art Farmer is present on a record, he fully and totally steals the show from all others in the band, in this case Jackie McLean (as), Sonny Clark (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Phililly Joe Jones (dr). He consistently keeps advancing, that Farmer guy, and it is pure joy to engage in the deep musicality of his - which in a highly pleasant way contrasts with that of McLean. As usually is the case, the latter plays disgustingly badly. Talk as much as you want about "deperateness", "hate", "feeling" or whatever else the current situation is in his special case, but don't tell me he is playing music if he cannot even hear himself if he blows wrong or not. 
What's wrong with this record in general is that the tracks just are too long. It goes without saying that the ensemble sections on this record are played sloppily. This seems to be the rule with this type of records. Yet the LP is worth listening to, first of all for Farmer's sake, secondly for Clark's and the rhythm section's contributions. If there was a way of filtering out McLean, there would not have been much negative to say about this record."   😁

Rating: The ESTRAD grading would correspond to "not quite 3 stars" by the Down Beat rating. 

Heresy?  Maybe, but probably more a case of "different strokes" and of unabashed outspokenness, particularly colored by the "reception" of the music at the time it was all new. And BTW, in fairness it ought to be said that the author of this review, Carl-Eric Lindgren, was one of the rare cases of a writer and critic (with a fair number of books, articles, radio productions, etc. to his credit) who for a time during his professional life also had been an active jazz musician (his tenor saxophone is on several Swedish small-group records of 1950 to 1952). 

Just sayin' ... 

Edited 7 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[mjazzg]

 

Interesting read and not really surprising, although there was a NM ' True Blue' for sale in London recently for only (!!) £3k, obviously a bargain...

Collectors the world over treasure originals, be that stamps, art, cars, furniture, comics and beyond and I see absolutely no reason why LPs should be any different.

And yes, with LPs this moves beyond the music per se and becomes about the artefact.

There is a caché in owning something as close to its original state and I can't see that being a bad thing. Maybe not what we as individuals would choose to do, or could afford but that doesn't negate other's desire to do so.

Where there's a collector market then prices will almost inevitably inflate. No one is forcing anyone to pay these prices and if collectors get their hands on something precious to them, then all power to them, I say.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The crazy money for "Cool Struttin'" has been the result of some sort of fetish for that album in Japan. Is it the music or the cover? Who knows.

As for Jackie's playing back then... it was an acquired taste. I can understand the allure as well as the disdain. I'm kinda in the middle myself.

[clifford_thornton]

What's interesting to me is the heavy uptick in prices for later Blue Notes... the 4100 and 4200 series titles have gotten really expensive. Out To Lunch was once a $300 LP (not cheap, but manageable), and now, $2500! Iconic music and cover art, sure, but... yikes.

[Big Beat Steve]

@clifford thornton: That's what baffled me too. Personally, I would lean much more towards 5000s and fairly early 1500s if I had the money and willingness to shell out for BN originals. So in this case the "market" prices MUST be about the music ...

@Kevin Bresnahan: FWIW, about "Cool Struttin'". Just saw that the review by Down Beat (by Don Gold) was just as indifferent (not for exactly the same reasons but still ...) as the one by ESTRAD: 2 1/2 stars ... 
So is it (also) about the cover after all? (Just like Verves - not so rarely for no sensible reason at all - tend to go up significantly in price if they have a DSM cover) Or maybe one of those cases of "must have if you want to be In with the In Crowd"? 

@mjazzg: I agree with your assessment of how the "collectible" scene and market work. regardless of whether we like it or not, that's the way things go. But like I said - it's regrettable that much later pressings then tend to go up and up too just "because it's on Blue Note". Not all that long ago Liberty pressings used to be relatively affordable even over here, but now it seems that to many sellers they must be the (almost) next best thing to an original. 

[clifford_thornton]

yes, later pressings have ticked up too.

I've never fallen in love with Cool Struttin', as much as I love Sonny Clark, and I can't fathom why. The trusty stereo 70s pressing serves me just fine in this case.

[Dan Gould]

Thanks for sharing this @felser

Personally I liked the Sonny Clark the first time I heard it - Japanese CD I think I found at Tower or HMV in NYC - but I plan going on a BN kick for my MP3 player/daily walks and think I will revisit next week.