HERBIE HANCOCK "Takin' Off" RARE 1st 1962 version BLUE NOTE BLP4109, AUTOGRAPHED
$
125
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Description
RARE 1st edition (actually special edition with a diagonal sticker reading "Contains the Hit Single 'Watermelon Man") of "Takin' Off", HERBIE HANCOCK'S debut LP album of Jazz in 1962 on the Blue Note label. Of the 46 versions of this iconic recording on LP, 45RPM, CD, albums, etc. this is the absolute 1st. I have never seen another sleeve with the sticker. This album sleeve is marked 4109 in the oval under "Higgins". All others are marked BST8419. The record label is also marked BLP4109. The record label of the 45RPM single reads "From Blue Note LP 4109", proving the LP came before the hit 45RPM and that pressings after the 45 received the sticker to improve sales. I, the seller, went to Grinnell College in 1956-68 and became friends with Herbie (see photos). I was 19 and he was about 18. Herbie (then called Herb) got together a Jazz band and we practiced tunes he wrote or arranged for six months for a special concert on May 2, 1958. Herbie told me he taped it on 8-track tape. The auditorium was packed and the concert was a great success. Herbie wrote and taught me a tenor sax solo for one of his tunes. I was playing a sax I got in high school from an older mentor- friend of mine who used it to play in the Tommy Dorsey Band. One of the tunes we played was by Stan Kenton whom I met later in Kansas City. I also got to talk for about 45 minutes one-on-one to Louis Armstrong who Herbie got to come to the college for a concert. I purchased this album when it first came out but I got him to sign it when we got together after a concert in the 1990's. While I, the seller, was in Grad school I played in dance bands around Kansas City, Topeka, Lawrence and Leavenworth, Kansas with musicians who were then in their 40's and 50's. I got to hear and meet, among others, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dave Brubeck.
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