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

John Coltrane Quartet

Ballads

1995 · Impulse! (GRP) GR-156 · Stereo · US · LP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Impulse! (GRP)
Catalogue number	GR-156
Year	1995
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US
Format	LP, gatefold
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Post-Bop/Ballads
Producer	Bob Thiele (original sessions); Michael Cuscuna (1995 reissue)
Musicians	John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  GR-156-A F-1 MASTERED BY CAPITAL WALLY
Side B:  GR-156-B F-1 MASTERED BY CAPITAL WALLY

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1962 - US Impulse! original mono (A-32) / stereo (AS-32) pressing
1963-1974 - assorted later Impulse! reissues (various countries, mono/stereo) - No documented sale found for this variant.
1995 - GRP/Impulse! Reissue Series GR-156, flat orange "Limited Edition" label, heavy vinyl, Capitol-mastered runouts  <- this copy
2010s-2020s - Verve Essential Series reissue
2020s - Impulse!/Acoustic Sounds Series 180g reissue
2020s - Analogue Productions UHQR 200g 45rpm box set

This Pressing

1995 GRP/Impulse! Reissue Series pressing (GR-156) - heavy vinyl, gatefold, Capitol-mastered runouts; not an original 1963 Impulse! issue.

The Album

Recorded across three sessions at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio in late 1961 and 1962, Ballads found John Coltrane's classic quartet - McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones - stepping back from the harmonic density of his contemporaneous live work to interpret eight standards with unusual tenderness and restraint. The project reportedly grew out of producer Bob Thiele's and Coltrane's own wish to answer critics who had branded his sound harsh or "anti-jazz," and to show the lyrical side of a saxophonist then better known for extended, searching improvisation. Coltrane plays close to the melody throughout, his tone warm and unhurried, while Tyner's comping and Jones's brushwork give the record a chamber-like intimacy rare in the quartet's catalog. Arriving between the more exploratory Coltrane and Duke Ellington and John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman sessions, Ballads sits at a pivotal, transitional point in Coltrane's early-1960s Impulse! period, bridging his hard-bop roots and the modal and spiritual directions to come. It has long been regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the most accessible and emotionally direct entries in his discography, frequently recommended as a starting point for listeners new to Coltrane, and it remains a benchmark recording in the jazz ballad tradition.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Say It (Over and Over Again)
2. You Don't Know What Love Is
3. Too Young to Go Steady
4. All or Nothing at All

Side 2

1. I Wish I Knew
2. What's New
3. It's Easy to Remember
4. Nancy (With the Laughing Face)

The Label

The label on this copy is the flat orange "Limited Edition GR-156" design used on the 1995 GRP-manufactured Impulse! reissue: cream script "BALLADS" over bold black "JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET", "Original Sessions Produced by Bob Thiele / Reissue produced by Michael Cuscuna" credit line, and the black-and-orange "impulse!" wordmark/i-logo repeated at the rim - a design that did not exist until Cuscuna's 1990s Impulse! Reissue Series. This is a flat label, with no deep groove. This pressing carries the shorter rim text of the early reissue run, rather than the longer rim text found on a later repress. The address/typography and the etched "GR-156-A/B F-1 MASTERED BY CAPITOL WALLY" runouts identify it as a 1995 GRP/MCA pressing rather than any original 1963 Impulse! issue.

Fidelity

This reissue was cut at Capitol Mastering (engineer "Wally") from a remastered analog source, part of Michael Cuscuna's mid-1990s Impulse! Reissue Series on 180g-class heavy vinyl. Collectors on the forums generally regard these GRP-era Impulse! reissues as solid, listenable heavy-vinyl pressings but not in the same tier as the Rudy Van Gelder-mastered original Impulse! pressings, which are prized for their immediacy and warmth. In the album's full fidelity hierarchy it ranks above later Impulse! reissues on standard vinyl but below the original 1963 A-32/AS-32 RVG pressings and below the more recent Analogue Productions/Verve Acoustic Sounds Series and UHQR audiophile remasters.

Notes

This copy is the 1995 GRP-manufactured Impulse! Reissue Series LP, catalogue GR-156, with a flat label. The etched runouts ("GR-156-A/B F-1 MASTERED BY CAPITOL WALLY") and flat orange "Limited Edition" label with the Cuscuna reissue-production credit are era markers absent from any original 1962-63 Impulse! pressing. It is a heavy-vinyl reissue, not the original AS-32/A-32, and prices accordingly well below original mono/stereo copies.

Documenting collections

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