Here we have a beautiful copy of Jimmy Smith, The Sermon: Blue Note 4011.
As hopefully the pictures will show, this is a really nice copy, all the way around. The cover is clean and sharp – the laminate still has a nice shine (not rubbed off on the shelf), no splits on the edges or spine. The back cover is where all of the age shows – look at the top inch and a half, as there are age spots up there…also on the mouth, about midway there are some dirt/fingerprints. Otherwise you can see, it has aged, but it is not getting any worse there – the discoloring has happened, and it has been in a sleeve for decades I am sure. (I got it from a deep box of a collection, so it was stored for decades.) Note also, no INC on the adress to verify pressing.
As for the labels, use the pix here to continue to verfiy the pressing: note, no copyright, DG both sides, and the 47th st. address. These labels are a little “soft” – and from experience, I can tell you it’s because they likely got washed somewhere along the way…Blue Note ink can come off original labels in plain water (I learned it the hard way once)…so I personally, won’t put them in the Discwasher anymore – too much risk. But these weren’t hit badly if that is the case (they didn’t run), they are a little soft/faded as you can see…but still clean.
There isn’t anything specific to point you to in the wax – you can see there are no major scuffs or marks on it, but I would expect small pops from normal age/storage. Looks like it’ll play at least at VG+, close to NM – but again, I would expect a few pops randomly. I did not spin it, but I can if you want me to hear it for you/show you more. It’s a great copy, particularly for an original Blue Note.
Click on any pic below to zoom in, use the browser to get back to this page.
