[78-L] Fletcher Henderson 78

[zimrec@juno.com]

David Burnham & J. E. Knox wrote:>> Bluebird 78s seem to abound in any record collection I doubt if any of them is rare enough to become a collectors' item and I'm not really interested in the monetary value of records generally anyway, but I came across one record which I like simply because of the physical artifact itself.  It is a U.S. pressed Bluebird with the "Victor" label style used between fall 1938 and fall 1943 of Fletcher Henderson's Band, Number B 10246.  It is in such pristine condition, (it came from the CBC library and the surface shines like a new record), that I'm sure it hasn't been played more than half a dozen times if at all, (well it's been played once because I just played it).  What is particularly attractive about it is that even though it's a reissue, from April 27, 1927, unusual for Bluebird, they obviously used the original 1927 stampers.  There is no distortion and the surface is so clean that switching CEDAR on and off resulted in no audible change in surface noise whatsoever.
<snip>>As for rarity...two hard-to-come-by Bluebirds that spring to mind (and only recently acquired by me after decades-long searching) are Bluebird B-5014-B "Hold Me" by Little Jack Little and B-5131-B "Heartaches" by Ted Weems and his Orchestra. Both were reissued in the 1940s on RCA Victor, to be sure, but the reissues were dubbed. The original Bluebirds are scarce. Fletcher Henderson's only other original-issue Bluebird (B-5682 "Hocus Pocus"/"Tidal Wave") might also qualify, but I don't think it's as rare. Blues, country and gospel on Bluebird from the 1930s has got to be quite collectible. What you might be thinking about as not rare enough to be a collectors' item would be the plethora of big-band stuff 1937-45, which would largely be true. A master-pressed copy of Bluebird B-10352-A "Sold American" by Glenn Miller may qualify as collectible, though; most copies were dubbed (-1R master).

As most people on this list are aware, scarcity of a particular record does not necessarily have a direct relationship to market price.
Perhaps the rarest of the issued Bluebirds are many of the 4500 and 4900 calypso series.  They were made for export only and many were confiscated by the British.
Does anyone other on this list, other than Steve Shapiro, have any.
Art
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