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

Helen Merrill

Music Makers

1986 · OWL Records OWL 044 · Stereo · France · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	OWL Records
Catalogue number	OWL 044
Year	1986
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	France
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Vocal
Producer	Jean-Jacques Pussiau, François Lemaire
Musicians	Helen Merrill (vocals), Gordon Beck (piano, electric piano), Steve Lacy (soprano saxophone, side 1), Stéphane Grappelli (violin, side 2)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  OWL 044A1 MPO
Side B:  MPO TL OWL 044 B

Condition

Cover: EX/EX ORIGINAL INNER SLEEVE
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1986 - French original, cat-face label, MPO pressing, Liancourt address  <- this copy

This Pressing

Original 1986 French pressing (stereo) - OWL Records, cat-face labels, matrix MPO TL OWL 044 A1/B etched runouts.

The Album

Recorded in Paris in March 1986 for the French OWL label, Music Makers finds veteran American jazz singer Helen Merrill deep into her European period, pairing her with longtime pianist Gordon Beck in two contrasting stripped-down trios - one with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, the other with violinist Stéphane Grappelli. The unusual, largely piano-and-single-horn instrumentation forces an intimate, conversational reading of standards such as "Round About Midnight," "Laura," "As Time Goes By" and "Solitude," alongside Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" and the Beck/Merrill original title track. Merrill, who first made her reputation with her 1954-55 Clifford Brown collaboration, had by the mid-1980s become something of an expatriate favorite in France, and this Owl session is emblematic of the low-key, chamber-jazz vocal dates she pursued abroad when major-label American work had dried up. Lacy's spare, probing soprano and Grappelli's lyrical violin each give the two sides a distinct color, and Leonard Feather's liner notes situate the record within Merrill's four-decade career as one of jazz singing's most harmonically sophisticated and understated stylists. Critical response, including a later four-star AllMusic review, praised the album's freshness, attributing it to both the unconventional instrumentation and the inventiveness of the players. The record stands as a late-career highlight showing Merrill's interpretive artistry undimmed, working in a minimalist setting that showcases the voice against sparse, harmonically alert accompaniment rather than a full rhythm section.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Round About Midnight
2. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
3. A Tout Choisir
4. When Lights Are Low
5. And Still She Is With Me
6. Music Makers

Side 2

1. Laura
2. As Time Goes By
3. A Girl In Calico
4. Solitude
5. Lady Be Good
6. Nuages

The Label

The side labels show the OWL Records "cat face" design (black/white cat photo with turquoise text) used throughout the label's mid-1980s French catalogue, with rim text listing catalogue number OWL 044, side number, the SACEM/SDRM rights-society box, and the P 1986 date printed on-label. The jacket confirms OWL Records, 50 Rue Liancourt, 75014 Paris - the label's standard mid-1980s Paris address, consistent with an original first (and to date only known) pressing rather than a later reissue. No deep groove or earlier-era markers are present, and no alternate OWL 044 label design or reissue on a different label has been documented, so this copy sits at the top (and only known rung) of the pressing hierarchy for this title.

Fidelity

This is a straightforward mid-1980s French studio recording (Ramses Studio, Paris) cut at Translab Studio and pressed by MPO, a well-regarded French plant known for generally clean, quiet vinyl in this era. There is no audiophile remaster or specialist reissue of this title documented (no Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, or similar treatment), and Steve Hoffman forum discussion of this specific title is minimal, reflecting its status as a lower-profile European vocal date rather than a canonical audiophile reference. As the only pressing of this LP, this MPO-pressed French stereo original represents the top and only rung of the fidelity hierarchy for the title; sound quality is generally described as clean and well-balanced, favoring the intimate piano/voice/single-instrument arrangements. A CD reissue exists but falls outside vinyl mastering comparisons.

Notes

This is the original 1986 OWL Records French LP release, stereo, catalogue OWL 044. The cat-face label design with SACEM/SDRM box and P 1986 date, plus the OWL Records 50 Rue Liancourt, Paris address on the jacket, match the label's mid-1980s design window with no evidence of a later reissue. The collector's corrected Side B runout, "MPO TL OWL 044 B," matches the Discogs variant's listed Side B matrix exactly, and Side A's "OWL 044A1 MPO" is consistent with that same variant's "MPO TL OWL 044 A1" string (order of elements transcribed slightly differently but content matching: MPO pressing plant, TL master/lacquer reference, catalogue number, side/take suffix A1). This confirms the copy is the standard, and only documented, OWL 044 French pressing rather than an alternate stamper or reissue.

Documenting collections

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