Jazz on Vinyl: The Collectors’ Choice- How jazz became a favorite style for record collectors

Earlier this year, it was reported that vinyl album sales had outpaced CD sales for the first time since 1987.  This follows a 17-year trend of increased vinyl album sales, culminating in $1.2 billion earned in 2022 compared to CD sales totaling $483 million.  What is especially surprising is that only half of those music fans buying records actually own a record player!  Despite these impressive numbers, physical album sales still pale in comparison to the whopping 84% of music revenue generated by streaming services.

The top-selling musical artist on vinyl in 2022 was Taylor Swift, with 1.695 million vinyl albums sold across her entire catalog.  Newer artists such as Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator also posted impressive vinyl sales figures alongside such classic pop/rock stalwarts as The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Fleetwood Mac.   

Given these figures, one may wonder just what is the appeal for newer, younger music fans to start buying vinyl LPs?  Vinyl albums are delicate-prone to skips, scratches, warping.  They require regular care and maintenance to ensure that they stay free of dust and moisture.  They take up space; more so than the compact disc or cassette.  By any measure, vinyl is a wholly impractical medium in which to consume recorded music.

In short; when did it become “cool” again to buy vinyl albums?

For some, it never stopped being cool.

Despite the inroads of Taylor Swift and her ilk introducing fans to the wonders of buying music as a tactile commodity, jazz enthusiasts have long known the pleasures associated with record collecting.  They just have a different agenda.

Stylistically, jazz is a perfect match for the serious record collector.

 

The collector’s mindset

To understand how and why jazz as a musical style is well-suited for LP collectors, one must first consider the collector’s mindset.  What drives people to want to collect anything?   For some, the attraction lies in its scarcity.  Just as antique collectors, coin and stamp enthusiasts, and rare book mavens will attest, there is a kind of magnetic desire that is created in the mere knowledge that what you seek is unique-that there are few copies of it exist (or, maybe only one).

Other collectors are simply compelled by the thrill of the hunt.  For vinyl collectors of all stripes there is an expression that encapsulates the experience. This is known as “digging in the crates”-a reference to the painstaking process of combing through dozens or hundreds of LPs stored in wooden crates or milk crates in the hopes of coming up with that elusive “rare find.”  After the height of the big band era (1920s-1930s), jazz records have not been pressed in the same quantities as pop, rock, and R&B albums.  That has created an inherent scarcity relative to other styles of music.

Sometimes, the appeal lies more in the audio fidelity.  Many record collectors find that the pleasures of listening to their favorite artists are sonically enhanced on vinyl, compared to the digitally compressed sounds found on compact discs or via streaming.  Much like their classical counterparts, jazz fans place a high premium on the sound quality of their recordings.  Many of them want the experience of playing a jazz LP at home to be acoustically similar to hearing their favorite jazz artists perform live in a club setting.

Still other collectors are driven by more of a “completist” mentality.  For them, as they develop an affinity for a particular artist’s work (say, a Miles Davis or a Duke Ellington), or a particular record label that puts out consistently high-quality work, then it becomes a kind of mission to fill out their collection with everything by that artist, (or on that label), that they can get their hands on.

 

The Jazz mystique

Part of the appeal of collecting jazz records comes from their association with artists who led sometimes tragic lives.  Artists like Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker have become mythic and legendary figures-their lives immortalized in print, on stage, and on screen.  For some fans, the lives and the music of these legends become inseparable.  As such, a thorough knowledge of their recorded output becomes a kind of musical key to understanding them.  These artists all found ways to communicate through their music, to comment on the human condition and to connect with fans all over the world.

It’s all about the cover

Jazz has enjoyed a rich and illustrious home on a variety of record labels.  Some of these, such as Verve, Blue Note, Prestige, and Impulse!, established a reputation for quality that virtually ensured an enjoyable listening experience for the first-time buyer.  In particular, Blue Note Records put out LPs of such consistency in the 1950’s and 1960’s that one could virtually buy almost any album by almost any Blue Note artist at that time and be happy with the results. 

Consequently, these albums have become highly sought after by collectors.  A similar thing has happened with Impulse! titles of the 1960s and early 1970s.

Some of these albums have been so canonized that they help set the blueprint for jazz that was performed in the decades since.

Just as alluring as the music found with the the grooves of these albums were the beautiful cover photos and artworks, many of which have become iconic images in the history of Jazz.  Blue Note benefited from having an in-house photographer in the person of co-founder Francis Wolff.  His gorgeous black and white images graced the majority of the titles from the Blue Note catalog and helped to draw jazz fans to their albums just as much as the music did.

 

Re-Make/Re-Model/Reissue

The development of jazz as a musical idiom paralleled the development of recording technology.  In 1912, the Gramophone Company set 78 rpm as their recording standard for the 7-inch shellac phonograph recordings.  By 1925, 78 rpm had become the industry standard.  This roughly coincided with some of the earliest jazz recordings- King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band’s recordings of 1923, featuring a young Louis Armstrong. 

The production of shellac records continued until 1948 in industrialized nations.  That same year, Columbia Records introduced the Long-Playing 12-inch record (or, LP as it is more commonly known).  This coincided with the development of the bebop style of jazz by such luminaries as trumpeters Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonists Charlie Parker and Wardell Gray, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, bassists Tommy Potter and Oscar Pettiford, and drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach.

By 1958, stereo recordings became widely available-just in time for the watershed year of 1959 which saw the release of such definitive classic LPs as Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out,” Charles Mingus’ “Mingus Ah Um,” Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers’ “Moanin’,” Ornette Coleman’s “The Shape Of Jazz To Come,” Jimmy Smith’s “The Sermon,” and the most successful jazz LP of all-time: Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue.”

Despite waning album sales and the closing of ballrooms, dance halls, and nightclubs that once featured live entertainment from jazz groups, certain artists found crossover appeal to a wider audience outside of just the jazz cognoscenti. Recordings like Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five,” Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder,” and Cannonball Adderley’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” managed to bridge the gap between traditional jazz fans and those whose tastes leaned more towards other styles like soul and R&B. 

The 1960s and 1970s saw jazz fragment even further into permutations such as Hard Bop, Free Jazz, Soul Jazz, and later, Fusion.  Albums from this era, particularly those released on the Blue Note, Impulse!, and Prestige labels, would exert an influence on subsequent jazz artists for decades to come.

As jazz got supplanted by pop, rock, and R&B in popularity and record sales, smaller jazz labels either dissolved or got absorbed by larger labels such as CBS/Columbia/Sony, Capitol, BMG/RCA, and Polygram.  This process gave rise to the proliferation of so-called “classic” jazz albums getting reissued. 

The reissue process was a way for labels (and, occasionally, artists) to continue to generate revenue from older, established recordings that had previously received commercial and/or critical success.  In theory, the audience for these records already existed.  So, why would people buy these records again?

In some cases, reissue campaigns coincided with developments in recording technology.  The move from vinyl to cassette and 8-track prompted classic albums in multiple genres to get reissued.  This happened again with the advent of the CD era.  Consumers were prompted to purchase classic albums either to experience the enhanced sound quality of a digital compact disc, or to appreciate the convenience of the portability of a cassette or an 8-track that could be played in a car.

As reissue campaigns continued, more incentives were added to lure customers to re-purchase these albums.  Remastering and remixing became the standard by which reissues were judged, offering even sharper, clearer sound with greater depth.  Liner notes were greatly expanded to further elucidate on the circumstances around which the album was recorded and/or on its continuing popularity and influence.  Some reissues would feature different artwork from the original releases.

Occasionally, new masters would be found that would set right certain “historical inaccuracies” of an album’s initial release.  For example, when a new master for Miles Davis’ album “Kind of Blue” was discovered, it was apparent that the speed of previous masters was, in fact, too fast, resulting in the music sounding in a different key that the one which Davis’ ensemble played on the original recordings.

Reissues and the discerning collector

As more and more albums got reissued, jazz LP collectors now were faced with a choice: seek out original pressings of their favorite albums or collect the reissued copies.  Of course, some would seek out both.  Original pressings, much like first-edition books, become scarcer every year-thus adding to the prestige of ownership.  However, reissues often come with better sound and expanded liner notes.

 

While albums in many other genres such as rock and R&B regularly get the “deluxe reissue” treatment, jazz albums have a different kind of allure.  Given its 100-plus-year history, there is a greater wealth of material from which to choose.  Many collectors will focus exclusively on a particular artist or label.  Some only collect pre-World War II shellac 78’s.  Others focus solely on original pressings of Blue Note or Impulse! records from the 1950’s and 1960s.

 

Listening versus collecting

Much like other types of antiques and collectibles, a jazz LP’s worth is largely predicated on its scarcity and its condition.  Generally speaking, original pressings tend to be worth more than reissues, depending on their quality and playability.  Some collectors will buy jazz LPs just to fill out specific categories in their collection, without any intention of ever actually playing them.  Others will purchase jazz albums to actually listen to.  Of course, many jazz collectors fall into both categories. 

 

But, can’t I just stream it instead?

At the time of this writing (July 2023), streaming services like Spotify, SoundCloud, Pandora, and Apple Music offer the most popular method of experiencing music for consumers.  Given the convenience and relative affordability of streaming, why would anyone want to invest in a record player, stereo system, and record collection?  One key reason is: not all music is available to stream. 

Many albums have never been reissued (either on vinyl or CD), and simply exist only in their originally pressed vinyl format.  Similarly, many albums that have been reissued on vinyl are also not available to stream.  Blue Note, for example, has a current reissue campaign called the “Tone Poet” series that offers highly-curated classic jazz LPs on deluxe remastered vinyl (exclusively).  In many cases, these are albums that languished on the shelves for decades and are only just now receiving an official release of any kind. 

 

Where to buy jazz records

Given the demise of many of the larger national record store chains, such as Tower Records, Virgin Music, Sam Goody, and Sam The Record Man, as well as smaller regional chains like Peaches, Coconuts, and Harmony House, jazz record collectors have to dig a little deeper to find LPs.  Thankfully, many fine independent record stores still exist, though not all of them have a jazz section.  Many of them are curated in favor of specific genres such as punk, metal, or electronic music.  Others offer a more extensive, all-encompassing approach that features many genres of music, including jazz. 

 

And, of course, the internet offers another option.  Collector websites such as Discogs, Ebay, and Etsy successfully match sellers with record buyers in a forum where one can discern up front the availability, condition, and worth of the jazz LPs that he or she seeks.

 

Jazz and record collecting go hand-in-hand.  For many, it offers the best audio fidelity and a chance to recreate the experience of hearing their favorite jazz artists in a jazz club right in the comfort of their own home.  Others are drawn to the mystique of the cover art and the iconography of the photos.   Some appreciate the nostalgia of consuming music as a tactile commodity.  As demand for vinyl continues to rise, and as jazz continues to thrive in clubs and festivals worldwide, we can expect the audience for jazz records to continue to grow.