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

Johnny Hodges

Memories Of Ellington

1954 · Norgran Records MG N-1004 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Norgran Records
Catalogue number	MG N-1004
Year	1954
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Swing/Mainstream Jazz
Producer	Norman Granz
Musicians	Johnny Hodges (alto sax), Ben Webster (tenor sax - on "In A Mellow Tone", "I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "Come Sunday"), Lawrence Brown (trombone), Emmett Berry (trumpet), Leroy Lovett (piano), Lloyd Trotman (bass), Flip Phillips (tenor sax - on "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good"), Al Sears (tenor sax - added on "Sophisticated Lady"), Sonny Green [Greer] (drums - added on "Sophisticated Lady"); drummer on the remaining tracks not credited on the jacket

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  MGN-1004A H
Side B:  MGN-1004B H

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1954 - US Norgran yellow trumpeter label, black print, deep groove (MGN-1004)  <- this copy
1955 - UK Columbia 33CX 10013
1955-56 - US Norgran reissue MG N-1092 - No documented sale found for this variant.
1957 - US Verve MGV-8180 (retitled "In A Mellow Tone") - No documented sale found for this variant.
1961 - US Verve V-8180 stereo-era reissue - No documented sale found for this variant.
1976 - South Africa Verve 2317 125 - No documented sale found for this variant.

This Pressing

Original first pressing (mono, 1954) - Norgran yellow trumpeter deep-groove label, MGN-1004-A/B matrix.

The Album

Recorded for Norman Granz's Norgran label in the early 1950s, this album finds Johnny Hodges - the alto saxophonist Duke Ellington called "Rabbit" and whose lush, vibrato-laden tone was one of the defining voices of the Ellington orchestra for over two decades - stepping out from the big band to revisit Ellington and Ellington-associated repertoire in small-group settings. Hodges had left Ellington's employ in 1951 to lead his own combo, and this session gathers several fellow Ellingtonians (Lawrence Brown, Emmett Berry) alongside guest tenor stars Ben Webster, Flip Phillips and Al Sears to reinterpret staples like "Sophisticated Lady," "Solitude," "Come Sunday" and "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good." The program blends Ellington-Strayhorn ballads with the loping swing Hodges made his trademark, and "Come Sunday" in particular carries over some of the prayerful character of its origin in Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige" suite. As one of Hodges's most celebrated Norgran dates, the album is prized by collectors and historians as a showcase both for his own singular alto voice and for the guest tenor men, with Flip Phillips's ballad turn on "I Got It Bad" often singled out as a departure from his usual up-tempo image. It stands among the definitive small-group Ellington-repertoire albums of the 1950s and a key document of Hodges's post-Ellington freelance period, cementing his reputation as jazz's foremost interpreter of the alto sax ballad style.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. In A Mellow Tone
2. I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart
3. Don't Get Around Much Any More
4. Come Sunday

Side 2

1. I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
2. Sophisticated Lady
3. Day Dream
4. Solitude
5. Good Queen Bess

The Label

The label on both sides is the yellow Norgran "trumpeter" design with black print - a stylised trumpet player logo left of the spindle, the album title and artist name to the right, catalogue number MGN-1004-A/B, and "Jazz At The Philharmonic, Inc. - Made In U.S.A." around the rim - with a visible deep groove ring. Norgran was Norman Granz's label from 1953-57 before its catalogue was folded into Verve; this yellow-label deep-groove pressing with the trumpeter graphic is the label design used for Norgran's original 1954 issues, before the same title was reissued under a new Norgran number (MG N-1092) and later moved to Verve as "In A Mellow Tone" (MGV-8180). The deep groove and this label design place the copy squarely in the first Norgran pressing run rather than any of the later Norgran or Verve reissues.

Fidelity

This is an early-1950s Norman Granz small-group jazz production, mastered for the original Norgran lacquers rather than any later remaster; specific mastering engineer credits are not documented for this release. Original deep-groove Norgran pressings are generally rated favorably for warmth and presence relative to the later Verve reissue, though surface noise and equipment of the era limit ultimate fidelity compared to modern remasters. No audiophile reissue (Analogue Productions, Classic Records, etc.) of this title is known to exist, so this original 1954 Norgran pressing represents the top of this title's practical fidelity hierarchy, ahead of the 1957 Verve MGV-8180 reissue and any later stereo-era or South African pressings.

Notes

1954 Norgran MG N-1004 mono - original first pressing. Yellow trumpeter-logo Norgran label with deep groove and matrix MGN-1004A H / MGN-1004B H match the label's first-issue run before the title was renumbered MG N-1092 and later moved to Verve as MGV-8180/"In A Mellow Tone." No later-reissue markers (Verve logo, restyled Norgran label) are present on either side.

Documenting collections

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