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

Bobby Hutcherson

Components

1994 · Blue Note B1-29027 · Stereo · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	B1-29027
Year	1994
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz – Post-Bop/Avant-Garde
Producer	Alfred Lion; reissue produced by Michael Cuscuna
Musicians	Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone, marimba), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), James Spaulding (alto sax, flute), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Joe Chambers (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  35293(3) MASTERED BY CAPITOL WALLY F-3 B1-29027-A
Side B:  35294(3) MASTERED BY CAPITOL WALLY F-3 B1-29027-B

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1966 - US Blue Note BLP 4213, mono first issue
1966 - US Blue Note BST 84213, stereo first issue
1967 - US Blue Note BST 84213, stereo repress
1967 - Japan Blue Note BST 84213, reissue
1972 - US Blue Note BST-84213, reissue
1973 - US Blue Note BST-84213, reissue
1975 - US Blue Note BST-84213, reissue
1994 - US Blue Note B1-29027, 180 gram Connoisseur Series reissue  <- this copy
2015 - US Blue Note ST-84213/B0022584-01, reissue, remastered
2015 - Europe Blue Note ST-84213, reissue, remastered
2026 - Worldwide Blue Note 602458892871, reissue, stereo

This Pressing

1994 Blue Note Connoisseur Series reissue (barcode-era pressing, not before 1977) - RTI-pressed, Wally Traugott/Capitol Mastering stamp in the runouts.

The Album

Components was recorded on June 14, 1965 at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio, midway through Bobby Hutcherson's remarkable run of mid-1960s Blue Note dates that helped define the label's turn toward freer, more exploratory post-bop. The album splits its two sides by composer: Hutcherson's own writing fills side one, including the title track and the much-loved ballad “Little B's Poem,” while drummer Joe Chambers supplies the more abstract, through-composed second side, built around shifting meters and loosely structured group improvisation. The front line of Freddie Hubbard and James Spaulding brings the fire and harmonic daring both men were known for on Blue Note's boundary-pushing sessions of the era, while Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter supply a rhythmic flexibility that lets the music move between swing, free time and near-chamber textures within a single piece. For Hutcherson, coming off acclaimed sideman work with Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean and Andrew Hill, Components stands as one of the clearest statements of his dual identity as both a lyrical melodist and a serious structural composer in his own right. Critics and listeners have long singled out the contrast between the two sides as the record's defining achievement, and “Little B's Poem” in particular has become a standard revisited by other musicians. The album is regarded as a high-water mark of Blue Note's mid-1960s avant-leaning hard bop and a cornerstone of Hutcherson's catalogue as a leader.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Components
2. Tranquillity
3. Little B's Poem
4. West 22nd Street Theme

Side 2

1. Movement
2. Juba Dance
3. Air
4. Pastoral

The Label

The labels are the Capitol-era Blue Note design: a white ground with a blue perimeter band carrying the white BLUE NOTE wordmark running up the left side and across the bottom, the rim text “THE FINEST IN JAZZ SINCE 1939,” and small print crediting Capitol Records, Inc. of Hollywood and Vine Streets, Hollywood, California as trademark holder. This button-less, text-only blue-band design was used on Blue Note's Capitol-distributed catalogue reissues from the mid-1980s into the 1990s, including the 1994 180-gram Connoisseur Series pressings, and carries no deep groove. The jacket's barcode places manufacture at 1977 or later regardless of the catalogue number's continuity with the 1960s original, and the label design and matrix together place this copy as the 1994 reissue rather than any of the 1960s–70s United Artists/Liberty pressings.

Fidelity

This pressing was cut at Capitol Mastering by Wally Traugott from the Blue Note/Capitol tape chain and pressed by Record Technology Incorporated for the 1994 180-gram Connoisseur Series reissue, rather than from a Van Gelder lacquer specific to this release. Collectors generally rate the Connoisseur Series reissues as solid, well-pressed transfers that improve on the thinner vinyl and more variable quality of the 1970s United Artists-era Blue Note pressings, though they are placed below the still-earlier mono/stereo originals and below later audiophile cuts such as the Music Matters or Tone Poet treatments of other Blue Note titles in overall tonal depth and quiet surfaces. Within the Components lineage specifically, this RTI-pressed 1994 edition sits as a respected mid-tier listening copy rather than a top-tier audiophile object.

Notes

This is the 1994 180-gram Blue Note reissue of Components, not an original 1960s pressing: the jacket's UPC barcode is a mark that did not exist before 1977, so the copy cannot predate that year regardless of its faithful reproduction of the catalogue number and label text. The side labels show the Capitol-era blue-band Blue Note design with no deep groove, the design used on the label's 1980s-1990s reissue program rather than the 1966 United Artists-era originals. The runouts carry Wally Traugott's Capitol Mastering signature and an RTI plating code, the identifiers of the 1994 Connoisseur Series edition.

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