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

Dialogue

1965 · Blue Note BLP 4198 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BLP 4198
Year	1965
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Avant-Garde/Post-Bop
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Sam Rivers (tenor sax, soprano sax, bass clarinet, flute), Bobby Hutcherson (vibes, marimba), Andrew Hill (piano), Richard Davis (bass), Joe Chambers (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BNLP-4198A VAN GELDER EAR
Side B:  BNLP-4198B VAN GELDER EAR

Condition

Cover: VG
Vinyl: VG

Variant chronology

1965 - US Blue Note BLP 4198 mono, New York USA label  <- this copy
1965 - US Blue Note BST 84198 stereo, New York USA label
c. 1967-69 - US Blue Note BLP 4198 mono, Liberty-era label
2005 - US Blue Note BLP 4198 stereo reissue
2020s - US Blue Note Tone Poet Series TPLP05974, 180g reissue

This Pressing

Mono original-era pressing - New York USA Blue Note labels, deep groove on Side 1 only, Van Gelder ear stamp on both sides.

The Album

Dialogue was Bobby Hutcherson's debut as a leader for Blue Note, recorded in 1965 after he had already made his mark as a sideman on sessions for Jackie McLean, Grachan Moncur III and Eric Dolphy. The album gathers an unusually forward-looking band - Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, the exploratory reedman Sam Rivers, the pianist-composer Andrew Hill, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Joe Chambers - several of whom were themselves emerging leaders pushing hard bop toward freer, more abstract territory. Rather than a blowing session, the record is built around open-ended group interplay, with Hill and Chambers each contributing knotty, through-composed pieces that leave space for collective improvisation. Hutcherson's vibraphone, often doubled with marimba, gives the group a shimmering, percussive color that distinguishes it from the horn-and-rhythm-section norm of the period. The album stands as a key document of Blue Note's mid-1960s avant-garde wing, bridging the label's hard-bop foundation with the more adventurous language associated with the loft and new-thing scenes. It helped establish Hutcherson as one of the vibraphone's most important modern voices and remains a touchstone for the era's exploratory, composer-driven small-group jazz.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Catta (Andrew Hill)
2. Idle While (Joe Chambers)
3. Les Noirs Marchent (Hill)

Side 2

1. Dialogue (Joe Chambers)
2. Ghetto Lights (Andrew Hill)

The Label

The side labels are the white-ground, blue-print New York USA design - 'BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC • NEW YORK USA' on the rim with the vertical BLUE NOTE wordmark running up the left side and across the bottom - the design Blue Note used from 1961 to 1967. Side 1 of this copy shows a deep groove ring, while Side 2 does not, a transitional detail from the era when the deep-groove die was being phased out at the pressing plant. That New York USA address window, together with the Van Gelder ear mark on both sides' runouts, places this copy squarely in Blue Note's original 1965-era mono pressing run for this catalogue number, ahead of any later Liberty/United Artists-era reissue with a different label design.

Fidelity

This mono pressing was mastered by Rudy Van Gelder from his original session tapes, evidenced by the ear stamp in the runout, and pressed during Blue Note's original New York USA label era. Collectors generally regard these original mono Van Gelder cuts as the most natural-sounding versions of the album, ahead of the contemporaneous stereo edition, which some find more artificially spread across the channels. Among later options, the modern Tone Poet 180g series reissue is well regarded by collectors for its quiet surfaces and faithful mastering, though it is a stereo cut and sits in a separate fidelity lineage from this original mono pressing.

Notes

This is a 1965 Blue Note BLP 4198 mono pressing in the New York USA label era (1961-67), with a Van Gelder ear stamp on both sides' runouts. The deep groove ring appears on Side 1 only, from the era when the deep-groove die was being phased out at the pressing plant, placing this copy within the original mono pressing run rather than a later Liberty/UA-era reissue. Cover and vinyl grades are VG-range, typical of a well-played original rather than a pristine example.

Documenting collections

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