Great Finds

[Big Beat Steve]

14 hours ago, adh1907 said:

A bit of a dim question, but 10” records are of a harder less flexible material to old 12”LPs. So, I have always been slightly wary of cleaning them with the usual solutions on my Moth machine.

 

Is there really such a noticeable difference of the thickness of 10" LPs from the 50s compared to 12" LPs of the first-generation pressings period of the 50s?
Elsewhere (e.g. France) 10" records had a much longer market and shop life (well into the 60s) and I found their thickness evolved in parallel with that of the 12" vinyls. I can't even say they flex less than the average 12" records of roughly the same age. Of course theys are nowhere near as flexible as the proverbially paper-thin pressings of some 70s or early 80s vinyls, but as there were (virtually) no 10" vinyls in those years you cannot compare them age-wise anyway.
 

 

[JSngry]

10" were always flat, as were early 12". The addition of the groove protector outer lip seemed to make the LPs thinner, but that might just be [erce[tion.

[Big Beat Steve]

22 hours ago, JSngry said:

10" were always flat, as were early 12". The addition of the groove protector outer lip seemed to make the LPs thinner, but that might just be [erce[tion.

I'd "usually" agree for the typical 10" LPs from the period up until approx. the time they were superseded by 12" LPs. I've often noticed their squared-off "flat" outer edge, similar to 78s.
But was this "always" the case? Out of the haul of close to 30 10-inchers I scored last Friday I found (without even checking all of them, nor the ones that already fill my racks) that the Eartha Kitt "That Bad Eartha" (UK pressing), Louis Armstorng "Blues in The Night" (German pressing, probably early 60s) the Four Lads Stage Show (US pressing, definitely back from the 50s) - see my posts on the previous page of this thread for pics - do have the groove protector outer lip. As does one or the other of my other early 60s European 10" LPs I checked to see if they all have that lip.

As for more recently released and pressed 10-inchers (from the mid-80s onwards), they are about just as likely having that groove protector outer lip as not.

So I wonder ...

[JSngry]

I would imagine that the 10"s with the groove protector outer lip were of later vintage? It seems like early practice was to model them after 78s?

I can't say with any certainty, thus the "?".

[Big Beat Steve]

I would have thought so too (groove protector lip = later pressings) and would be the first to confirm this in the case of the German Louis Armstrong LP form my haul (this one is definitely post-1960). But the 4 Lads LP from this same haul? Did they (re)press these in 10" format (in the US, anyway) after the 10" LPs had been superseded by 12" LPs as the standard format?

So I wonder when the "cutoff date" was. Or was it a matter of which record company (or pressing plant?) we are talking about?

[ejp626]

I was in Sonic Boom (on Spadina in Toronto) over the weekend.  It was a bit touch and go, but they weathered the pandemic.  I'd say 70% of their floor space is vinyl.  (What a change...)  An awful lot of it is vastly overpriced new vinyl, but they have a reasonable amount of used LPs for $5, 8 and 10.  (I was somewhere else where the cheapest used LPs were $15 or so, and I just walked out.)  

I got three LPs, but I think it was a bit of a mixed bag.  I only recently set up my system to play LPs.  Up until then I was just transferring LPs directly to my computer to digitize them.  I thought I would enjoy John Lewis The Golden Striker on the new set-up, but sadly there was a ton of surface noise, even though I had checked that there were no scratches.  

Then I turned to John Handy's Hard Work, and the sound was great, but I didn't like the music at all.  It seems to me in the spirit of Adderley's r&b-infused jazz of the 70s, but nowhere near as good.  I've heard this was a modest hit at the time, but it is not for me.

Interestingly, the cheapest one sounds great and it is a keeper: Joe Newman & Joe Wilder – Hangin' Out

(My copy has this exact same promo stamp!)

So I guess one out of three isn't so bad?  🙁

[JSngry]

Hard Work was a really big R&B hit, both as an album and as a single. But it never did that muchfor me, except give me another number to play on the band set.

[Big Beat Steve]

Returned from the "spring" special sale at our local #1 used record store yesterday. 1 EUR each item - a price you can take chances at or just grab a spare copy or one for the car CD player.
Went on both days this time, and it did pay, though more CDs than LPs this time (including nice ones such as about 15 Chronological Classics, etc.).
Among the 10" vinyls, I dug up and took home the below items this time. The Dixieland and Lyttelton ones have rather tatty covers, but still manageable, but the vinyl overall was surprisingly clean (overall never worse than about VG+ or "almost" VG+), and the covers of the U.S. pressings too (the EmArcy trumpet and trombone LPs are Keynote masters). Not even seam splits to speak of. To the point that you hesitate taking the records out - lest you proagate any incipient seam splits on those unyielding cardbord covers ...

And then there was a "near miss": Among a bunch of LPs without covers there sat a UK 50s 10" Parlophone pressing of Billy Ward & The Dominoes feat. Clyde McPhatter. Except for a hard-to-remove smudge that causes distinctly audible clicks for several turns on one side, the vinyl overall would almost pass for a VG+. And at 1 EUR you take it along anyway ... Back at home I checked online to see what the cover would have looked like. And to my HUGE surprise - the going rate for this one WITH cover but with not necessarily pristine vinyl (according to Discogs and a current eBay listing) would be from $500 on up! 😵 So not a bad find at that price anyway, even minus its cover ...

Edited April 2, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[Niko]

Funny, the Ferguson, Green and Lyttleton I also found in the past few weeks... And i paid 2+2+5 iirc.... That Ferguson album is great

[Big Beat Steve]

Amazing indeed, these coincidences ...
I was half afraid the Ferguson Hollywoord LP wiht its two long tracks duplicates the "Jam Session" LP (EmArcy 36009, of which I have a reissue) but not so ...

Actually the Urbie Green 10" is a duplicate copy (I already have one with a slightly better cover) and will go into my jazz vinyl crate for the next "retro" fleamarket. It's the kind of original item you just cannot let sit there at THAT asking price, let alone amidst thousands of totally unrelated vinyls (in fact this and the three EmArcys were found batched together in a crate of vinyls that contained mostly 90s maxis ... )

[danasgoodstuff]

8 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Amazing indeed, these coincidences ...
I was half afraid the Ferguson Hollywoord LP wiht its two long tracks duplicates the "Jam Session" LP (EmArcy 36009, of which I have a reissue) but not so ...

Actually the Urbie Green 10" is a duplicate copy (I already have one with a slightly better cover) and will go into my jazz vinyl crate for the next "retro" fleamarket. It's the kind of original item you just cannot let sit there at THAT asking price, let alone amidst thousands of totally unrelated vinyls (in fact this and the three EmArcys were found batched together in a crate of vinyls that contained mostly 90s maxis ... )

If you've got the Urbie 10" on Blue Note for sale, I'd like to buy it.

[Big Beat Steve]

Sorry, I am not that well-equipped in duplicates. Far (very far) from it. I do have the one on Blue Note in my collection, but "only" as a Japanese 12" Toshiba-EMI reissue.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Big Beat Steve

[Mark13]

I found a first stereo-pressing of Red Garland's  'Solar' on Jazzland in a €5-bin in a store in Amsterdam today.

Not Garland's best album to be sure but I'm not complaining. The cover most definitely shows its age, but the record actually plays fine.

[Niko]

Also spent quite a bit of time in Amsterdam record stores this week, favorite finds include Buddy's Best by Buddy Collette, On the Waterfront with Burt Bales and two Red Callender albums (Speaks Low and The Lowest)... 

[Dmitry]

On 4/2/2023 at 7:53 AM, Big Beat Steve said:

 

Interesting album cover art for both the Holiday in ... titles.  The anthropomorphic figures of the Holiday in Trumpet album are signifiers of the trumpet valves? Are the art directors/designers for those two mentioned?

[Big Beat Steve]

Actually at first sight the hairdo of the female figure in the bottom right corner of the 'Holiday in Trumpet" LP makes her look like a rear view of Billie Holiday (there are photos of her wearing a smiliar hairdo). But not nearly all the tracks (from the Keynote label) on the record are tunes that Billie Holiday ever recorded (except standards like "My Man" and "St. Louis Blues").

The artist credits in the small print are "Bedno - Siegel" on the "Holiday in Trumpet" LP and "Ed Bedno" on "Holiday in Trombone".

[Dmitry]

3 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Actually at first sight the hairdo of the female figure in the bottom right corner of the 'Holiday in Trumpet" LP makes her look like a rear view of Billie Holiday (there are photos of her wearing a smiliar hairdo). But not nearly all the tracks (from the Keynote label) on the record are tunes that Billie Holiday ever recorded (except standards like "My Man" and "St. Louis Blues").

The artist credits in the small print are "Bedno - Siegel" on the "Holiday in Trumpet" LP and "Ed Bedno" on "Holiday in Trombone".

Aha. Googled Ed Bedno: A designer from Chicago, born in 1925, Second World War veteran, has a FB profile. Designed a few album covers for Mercury / EmArcy.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/6170989-Ed-Bedno

This one is odd. Are these...spuds?

[Big Beat Steve]

Yes this IS odd. Looks like spuds indeed.

[sidewinder]

Looks like a pair of pimply knees to me !

[jlhoots]

24 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Looks like a pair of pimply knees to me !

I thought knees too. 🦵

[Dmitry]

25 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Looks like a pair of pimply knees to me !

I saw that also, but chased that thought away...it's just weird. 

[Big Beat Steve]

Went on a crate-digging excursion at our local #1 record store today, pulled a fair handful of Swing LPs from the (2.50 EUR) Special Offer bin at the entrance, and upon entering the shop the "resident sales clerk" told me "There is more where these came from" and pointed me to three more huge Special offer crates full of (as he described it) "Swing and Oldtime Jazz". Actually it was mostly Swing and some Bop and Cool, but this was only the tip of the iceberg of a huge collection they had just gotten in stock, so more visits are due later.
Just as I had started on these crates he approached me with another item from the same collection, "Would you be interested in this too? Specially priced to sell ..."
Whew ... the Japanese "Complete Keynote Collection" LP box set in excellent condition, complete with booklet, picture folio and the Tristano 45 😲 - priced at 75 EUR, which works out at something like 3.50 EUR per LP. And ready to haul away - no shipping fees  ... Not the worst deal in the world ...
Would I have been able to say No to that proposition? Well, NO ...

So it looks like my Fresh Sound CD Keynote box set will be relegated to convenience listening when no alternate takes are desired or will (in part) go into the car to feed the car player.

FWIW, I guess they priced it like that because regardless of how desirable the Keynotes are, objectively speaking, they knew this is not the fare that their typical jazz vinyl-buying customers usually weaned on Hard Bop, Jazz Rock, Fusion or Soul Jazz would easily spring for, so it would likely have sat for quite a while ...

 

[HutchFan]

11 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Went on a crate-digging excursion at our local #1 record store today . . .
Just as I had started on these crates he approached me with another item from the same collection, "Would you be interested in this too? Specially priced to sell ..."
Whew ... the Japanese "Complete Keynote Collection" LP box set in excellent condition, complete with booklet, picture folio and the Tristano 45 😲 - priced at 75 EUR

Wow!  Great find for sure!     

I'd love to have that set.  

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by HutchFan

[rostasi]

2 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Went on a crate-digging excursion at our local #1 record store today…

Now this has me wondering. It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance
to enjoy going to places like Zweitausendeins or Ludwig Beck, but now 
I’m wondering what would be considered the best in your area these days.
Maybe a place like M2?

 

[Dmitry]

Original 1963 Mono of Duke Ellington Meets Coleman  Hawkins in a tremendous NM- , both cover and record. Paid $10, couldn't believe it...

What a stupendous album, I remember playing my father's Melodiya-licensed LP when I was 9 or 10.  This is my find of the year so far.