Selection: TCTB (Parker, Swindell)
. . .
Track List: BLP 4087
A1 Glad Lad 5:17
A2 Blue Leo (Parker, Ike Quebec) 5:06
A3 Let Me Tell You ’bout It (Robert Lewis) 4:18
A4 Vi (Lewis) 4:41
B1 Parker’s Pals 6:21
B2 Low Brown (Yusef Salim) 5:49
B3 TCTB (Parker, Swindell) 6:26
Artists: Leo Parker Sextet
John Burks, trumpet #1-8; Bill Swindell, tenor sax #1-8; Leo Parker, baritone sax; Yusef Salim, piano; Stan Conover, bass; Purnell Rice, drums, recorded Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, September 9, 1961, released late November 1961.
Let Me Tell You ‘Bout It … was Parker’s debut album for Blue Note (1961, age 36), introduced to Alfred Lion by Ike Quebec in his talent scout role. His actual recording debut dated back over a decade, to 1947 age 22 as Leo Parker’s All Stars (many 1st generation boppers, the stars included Dexter Gordon, JJ Johnson, and Charlie Rouse), reformed soon after as Leo Parker Quartet (with Oscar Pettiford) and Leo Parker and his Mad Lads – the Lads in question being players of increasingly lesser fame.
Parker spent much of the ’50s off scene, probably in a narcotic haze, and Blue Note presented a short-lived come-back effort, “apparently clean”, before his final departure the following year, 1962. Ironically, Parker’s early 50’s 10″ records today sell for almost double his usual Blue Note auctions.
Music
Trade reception: Billboard December 25, 1961
You trudge through a New York blizzard to a news-stand for your Christmas day edition of Billboard, Ho Ho Ho!, to find poor Leo’s debut Blue Note rated only “Moderate Sales Potential“, three out of four stars, and, unlike a four star Lou Donaldson album, Leo Parker didn’t warrant a write up.
With many of the tracks have you check you haven’t inadvertently switched the turntable to 45rpm: fast tempo with instruments trading fours and eights, typified by my selection, TCTB, street-talk for Taking Care of The Business. Leo’s baritone trades the numbers with Bill Swindell’s tenor and its a helter-skelter chase, rooted in more old school bop than modern.
It is always useful to check out which tracks from the LP were picked out for release as singles for juke box play – finger on the popular pulse of the day:
A: Let Me Tell You ‘Bout It, and B: Blue Leo, neither of which hit the spot for me.
Revisiting the album reminds how far the musical compass of jazz was to shift from the early ’50s to the early ’60s – Post Bop and further out, Modal jazz, Afro-futurism, New Thing, Total Freedom. With any artist’s untimely departure, people often wonder what might have been. In Leo’s case we’ll never know. He may have surprised us – Alfred Lion saw potential, gave him a comeback, but Parker blew it.
Vinyl: BLP 4087
Mono, RVG, Plastylite, Van Gelder Scully three-ring runout lock groove
Collector’s Corner
A brief glance through the reissue history of 4087 shows the expected Liberty (1967) and EMI (1983) reissues, plus the usual suspects – reissues by Tokyo and CD’s, but unless I missed it, no modern /audiophile presence at all. No Classic Records, no Steve Hoffman or Kevin Gray remasters, no 180gm from original tapes, nothing, Leo’s music seems to have little traction with the audiophile crowd.
What’s it Leo’s debut worth today? One exceptional condition review copy clocked just over $1,000 – around twice the previous high – due to being apparently almost unplayed, probably the The Billboard reviewer’s copy, and a cover with corners so sharp … Pythagoras himself would raise an eyebrow.
Interesting bidding tactics, $1008: a safety margin $8 against a naïve $1,000 round number bid, avoiding a bid collision and ensuring a win. But also locking themselves into that high price if there is another bidder also placing a moon-shot $1,000 bid, banking on a substantially lower final price against a realistic second placed bidder. I think I have played all of those tactics at one time, usually to my detriment.
A further rummage online turned up this French Pathe-Marconi Blue Note Test Pressing from 1983,a feuille de production – Zut Alors!, something I’d never seen before. They say there’s a first time for everything – probably not the first time you’ve heard that.
Garcon, otra cerveza, por favor!
Future Posts
Updating my blog database, I count 247 Blue Note records with LJC reviews out of a catalogue of over 350, maybe 400 and something, depending on when you stop counting, plus all the Cuscuna discovery. If you have a favourite I’ve missed, and you would like to see given the forensics, give me a shout, I ‘m happy to consider suggestions. Of course, no guarantees especially the 28-odd Jimmy Smith I don’t have…
LJC
LondonJazzCollector 
Dear L J C
Re my message to you of yesterday, I should have typed 200gms not 220gms re the weight of my copy of The Congregation….
Regards, Allan
Sent from my iPhone
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Dear L J C
This is to thank you for your wonderful site, full of authoritative and fascinating information about this superb music. Reading it has helped to change my behaviour, after decades of neglecting vinyl.
A brief background: I was born in 1943 and became interested in jazz in 1956. That year, I saw Sidney Bechet in Liverpool and, four years later, Bud Powell in Paris. Moving to London in the 60’s, I started hearing American visitors like Griffin (a favourite), Evans, Hubbard, Stitt, Webster, Getz, Kirk and memorably Rollins at his Ronnie’s residency in 1965. I spent that summer mainly in New York. They were good years to be a young jazz fan, I now think as an old jazz fan.
Although I succumbed to the lure of the “evil silver disc”, I generally didn’t duplicate my vinyl titles, so when my deck stopped working, I stopped hearing that music.
For most of the last 20 years those 400 or so vinyls have lain under the bed in our spare room in Shropshire, preventing visitors from storing their suitcases. Under pressure to move them and having reheard some of the music on Spotify, I chanced upon your site, bought a deck and started playing the records, which in some cases was revelatory. I now plan to keep those vinyls I really enjoy and sell or give away the the rest. Most of the discs, though they sometimes contain music viewed as great, are not worth much. But some are.
Although a jazz enthusiast with a lot of recorded music, I don’t call myself a collector, as collectors tend to treat their “objets d’art” fastidiously. I often treated them casually and exposed the covers of several Blue Note classics to damp. I put the Warhol cover of The Congregation on my wall in 1967 and left it there when I moved flat. The disc (220 gms) plays really well and I replaced the cover with the nearest match I could find, a Pathe-Marconi 1984, but it’s not fully a “collector’s item”.
If you will consider them, I have a specific question and a couple of general ones:
Specifically, I have BLP 4001 (Newk’s Time) with deep groove both sides, ear and 47 West 63 rd NYC on the disc label. However, the back cover (in this instance in good condition) says 43 West 61 st St. I bought the disc from new, probably from Dobells. Having re-read some of your commentary on Blue Note pressings, printing and shipping, I get the impression that there could have been a number of covers and a number of discs of different batches which came together somewhat randomly for shipping, despite this disparity. Does this seem likely?
More generally, I well understand that your site is not part of the market, but you know it much better than I do and I have seen you suggest reputable dealers. As I was briefly a retailer carrying a lot of stock, I know the need for a decent mark up and have readily accepted from dealers a payment of 40%, for records which they sell at ￡25-￡100. However, for the rarer Blue Notes and other discs by eg Wilen and Harriott, where one could expect a quick response from customers known to a dealer, it would be nice to keep more than 40%. So, do you know anyone established in the UK who might sell those items on commission (as I recently sold one of my saxes)?
Also, can you suggest any UK dealers in rarer vinyls whose clientele is more likely to favour music enthusiasts rather than “super collectors” seeking near mint copies and covers (accepting that prices will be lower and in no way disparaging such collectors)?
Of course, one could get a high margin by selling on Discogs or eBay, but I feel the opportunities for misunderstanding and back and forth are too great.
Many thanks again for your excellent site and for helping to revive my interest in vinyl.
Best wishes
Allan
PS I am not familiar with commenting on blogs, but you are very welcome to publish this note if you wish. I see some people use pseudonyms, not sure why, but if that makes sense, call me Sonnygriff…
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Welcome, Sonnygriff!
4001 Rollins/Newk’s Time illustrates the complexity of the period 1959/60, a year of transition of labels and covers which resulted from the incorporation of Blue Note in late 1959. The label and cover variations present on copies of 4001 result from the manufacturing of additional copies a year or two after the original release in January 1959. These were caught up in label and cover address changes when more stocks of labels and covers were printed.
These changes will appear on copies of the album imported by Dobells around that time.
If you need advice about collector/sellers in UK, please write to me separately at the email address in “Contact LJC” in the blog banner
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Hi
Haven’t used them myself ,but Omega Auctions specialise in vinyl record and rock memorabilia sales and appear to have a good reputation and know what they are talking about. They recently sold a load of vinyl records from The BBC library and have sold some very high end items and their descriptions appear thorough to me.
They charge a commission of 30 per cent I think and the actual value of the record is the hammer price , so it is what it is.Contrast this with EBay we’re the Buy It Now or reserve is often absurd , with a free re listing to infinity and beyond.This isn’t how markets work!
When the inevitable happens, I’ve left instructions for my kids to dispose of the jazz records through a reputable auction house. Omega caught my eye but as I say , so far haven’t used them
Hope this helps
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Thanks very much for your suggestion. I’ll give it a serious look.
A
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regarding BN forensics , what about Cliff Jordan by Cliff Jordan (1565)
did owned it once, but lost it. Like the cover, but realy liked ‘not guilty’, gave me such a positive vibes. think there is a reissue comming up at BN, i am waiting for that one
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1565 is trophy territory as an original, but the suggestion is welcome
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bn cover bonanza!
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