Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Albert Collins And The Icebreakers

Live In Japan

1984 · Alligator Records AL 4733 · Stereo · US (jacket printed in Canada) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Alligator Records
Catalogue number	AL 4733
Year	1984
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US (jacket printed in Canada)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Blues - Electric/Texas Blues
Producer	Bruce Iglauer, The Blues Show '82 Staff (Executive Producer: Masahiko Yoshida)
Musicians	Albert Collins (guitar, vocals), A.C. Reed (tenor sax, vocal), Larry Burton (guitar), Johnny B. Gayden (bass), Casey Jones (drums, background vocal)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  AL4733.A MASTERING BY FRANKFORD/WAYNE NEW YORK C
Side B:  AL4733.B HUB

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: EX

Variant chronology

1983 - Japan, original release on Yupiteru Records (YR25-5001)
1984 - US Alligator Records AL 4733, Hub-Servall pressing  <- this copy
1984 - US Alligator Records AL 4733, alternate US/Canada pressing (undisclosed plant)
1984 - Canada, Alligator Records ALC 4733
1984 - UK, Sonet SNTF 911
1984 - Germany, Sonet SNTF 911 / INT 147.143
1984 - Spain, Bluesmen BS-32248
1984 - France, Vogue 520393
1984 - Italy, Sonet SNTL 2911
1984 - Portugal, Sonet 621309
1984 - Australia, Avan-Guard/Alligator SVL 407 / SVL 507
1987 - US, Alligator ALCD 4733 (CD reissue)
2012 - Japan, P-Vine PCD-93507 (CD reissue)

This Pressing

1984 US Alligator Records reissue (stereo) - Hub-Servall pressing, Frankford/Wayne mastering stamp in the runout.

The Album

Albert Collins, the 'Master of the Telecaster,' had spent the 1960s and early '70s largely as a regional Texas and West Coast attraction before Alligator Records signed him in 1978 and put his stinging, ice-pick tone in front of a national blues audience with a run of acclaimed studio albums. By the early 1980s he was touring internationally at the head of the Icebreakers, a tight road band built around saxophonist A.C. Reed, second guitarist Larry Burton, bassist Johnny B. Gayden and drummer Casey Jones. This set captures that band on a December 1982 date in Tokyo during a package blues tour, presenting Collins's signature blend of stabbing, capoed-guitar riffs, spoken asides and cool-toned solos in front of an enthusiastic Japanese audience. The program mixes Collins originals such as 'Tired Man' and 'If Trouble Was Money' with a long, exploratory reading of the standard 'Stormy Monday' and a cover of Jimmy McGriff's instrumental 'All About My Girl,' giving the band room to stretch out well beyond studio-length arrangements. A.C. Reed's tenor and vocal on 'Jealous Man' add a second voice to the show, underlining the album's identity as a full-band live document rather than a guitarist-plus-sidemen date. The record stands as a snapshot of Collins at a commercial and artistic peak, showing why he became one of the most influential guitarists of the modern blues era, and it remains valued by fans for its energy and for preserving a period of the Icebreakers lineup captured nowhere else on record.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Listen Here! (4:46)
2. Tired Man (4:57)
3. If Trouble Was Money (7:53)
4. Jealous Man (3:30)

Side 2

1. Stormy Monday (9:10)
2. Skatin' (3:32)
3. All About My Girl (6:25)

The Label

The side labels carry Alligator's standard green design: a single outlined alligator logo walking across the field beneath the block-letter 'ALLIGATOR' logo arched above it, the catalogue number 'AL 4733-A' / 'AL 4733-B' at lower left, 'Stereo' at lower right, and the Alligator Records Box 60234, Chicago IL 60660 address printed beneath the track listing. No deep groove is present in either label. This Chicago Box-60234 address format was Alligator's standard label style through the label's mid-1980s vinyl era, consistent with a domestic US pressing of a title that had first appeared the previous year on a small Japanese label. The pressing plant is not identified on the label itself; it is placed instead by the runout, which carries a Frankford/Wayne New York mastering credit together with a 'HuB' stamp, identifying it as the Hub-Servall-pressed US edition of this catalogue number.

Fidelity

The album was mastered by Frankford/Wayne Mastering Labs in New York from tapes recorded on location in Tokyo and mixed at a Tokyo studio, and pressed domestically by Hub-Servall, a mid-tier commercial pressing plant rather than an audiophile facility. As a location live recording the source tape itself, not the mastering, sets the sonic ceiling, and collectors generally regard this era of Alligator vinyl as solid if unspectacular in fidelity. No audiophile reissue series (Analogue Productions, Music Matters, Mobile Fidelity or similar) exists for this title, so this Hub-Servall-pressed US edition sits alongside the contemporaneous European Sonet and Vogue pressings as one of the standard commercial issues, with the compact-disc reissues offering a cleaner but not sonically superior alternative.

Notes

This is the domestic US Alligator Records pressing of the album, issued in 1984 after the title's original 1983 appearance on a small Japanese label. The runout carries a Frankford/Wayne New York mastering credit together with a 'HuB' stamp, identifying the Hub-Servall Record Mfg. Corp. pressing of this catalogue number rather than any of the other US/Canada or European pressings sharing the same number. The green Alligator labels show the standard Chicago Box 60234 address format used by the label at the time, with no deep groove present. The jacket is printed in Canada, a detail noted on the back cover, while the recording itself was made at Kudan Kaikan in Tokyo.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/albert-collins-and-the-icebreakers-live-in-japan/