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
Kenny Burrell
Both Feet On The Ground
1973 · Fantasy F 9427 · Stereo · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Fantasy |
|---|
| Catalogue number | F 9427 |
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| Year | 1973 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Stereo |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz - Soul Jazz/Jazz-Funk |
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| Producer | Kenny Burrell |
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| Conductor | Benny Golson |
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| Musicians | Kenny Burrell (guitar), Al Aarons (trumpet, flugelhorn; Chaché/Oscar Brashear substitutes on 'Listen to the Dawn'), Maurice Spears (trombone, bass trombone; Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone, substitutes on 'Spin'), Jerome Richardson (piccolo, flute, bass flute, clarinet, alto sax, tenor sax; Ernie Watts substitutes on 'Listen to the Dawn'), Jack Nimitz (flute, bass flute, clarinet, baritone sax), Mike Wofford (piano, electric piano), Reggie Johnson (bass), Lenny McBrowne (drums), Moacir Santos (conga, percussion, courtesy of Blue Note Records); arrangements by Benny Golson except 'Spin' (Mike Wofford) and 'Good Morning, Heartache' (Kenny Burrell, played by Burrell and rhythm section only) |
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Matrix / Runout
Side A: F9427-A-1 A1 1
Side B: F9427-B-RE1 A1 1
Condition
- Cover
- NM
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1973 - US stock stereo issue, tan Fantasy label, cursive 'F' logo, F 9427/9427
1973 - US DJ/Promo pressing, same tan Fantasy label with "F 9427-DJ / DJ Copy - Not For Sale" printed rim text <- this copy
1973 - Japan Fantasy LFP-88128 with OBI
1973 - Japan Fantasy LFP-88128 Promo with OBI
1976 - US Fantasy F 9427 reissue stereo
1973 - France Fantasy 6006
This Pressing
1973 US promo (mono/stereo n/a - stereo only) - Fantasy 'DJ Copy, Not For Sale' overprint on the standard tan Fantasy label, runouts F9427-A-1/F9427-B-RE1.
The Album
Both Feet On The Ground was cut in February 1973 at Village Recorders in Los Angeles during Kenny Burrell's Fantasy Records period, after he had left the Verve/CTI orbit and settled on the West Coast label for a run of early-1970s sessions that leaned into contemporary soul-jazz textures. Benny Golson supplied most of the arrangements, dressing Burrell's cool, blues-rooted guitar in flute, piccolo and electric-piano colors that reflect the era's crossover instincts without abandoning a jazz core. The program mixes originals like the title track and 'Listen to the Dawn' with covers of Billie Holiday's 'Good Morning, Heartache' and the bossa-tinged 'Nana' and 'All Mine (Minha)', and brings in Brazilian percussionist Moacir Santos as a guest colorist. By this point Burrell was a two-decades-plus veteran whose guitar sound had already defined a generation of hard-bop and soul-jazz sessions for Blue Note and Prestige, and this album shows him adapting that voice to the fusion-leaning jazz marketplace of the early '70s rather than chasing rock guitar trends outright. It was received as a solid, if not landmark, entry in his catalog - valued more by collectors of his Fantasy-era work and by soul-jazz/rare-groove diggers than by mainstream jazz critics - and it remains a minor but distinctive chapter bridging his hard-bop legacy and the smoother fusion direction jazz guitar took later in the decade.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Nana - 6:18
2. All Mine (Minha) - 6:24
3. Tomorrow - 6:33
Side 2
1. Spin - 4:48
2. Good Morning, Heartache - 4:57
3. Listen to the Dawn - 4:25
4. Both Feet on the Ground - 6:29
The Label
The label is the tan/gold Fantasy 'FJ' swirl-logo design with a salmon-pink cross-band, used on Fantasy's Berkeley-era jazz catalogue through the mid-1970s; this is the same base design used on the standard stock stereo pressing of F 9427, but here it is over-stamped 'F 9427-DJ' with 'DJ Copy - Not For Sale' printed beneath the catalogue number, marking it as a radio/promotional service copy rather than the commercial stock pressing. Fantasy issued this design continuously from the label's 1971-72 Berkeley move (after the earlier 'stereo' rainbow-swirl design) through the mid-1970s, so the artwork alone does not separate promo from stock pressings made in the same 1973 window - only the printed DJ text and the runout suffixes do. This copy's DJ overprint places it in the small promotional-pressing run issued alongside the regular 1973 stereo release, made from the same 1973 lacquers rather than a later re-pressing.
Fidelity
Recorded by Baker Bigsby at Village Recorders and remixed by Jim Stern at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, this is a well-produced but not audiophile-grade early-70s jazz-funk date; Fantasy's Berkeley/RCA-adjacent pressing plants of the period are generally solid but unremarkable sonically. There is no dedicated audiophile reissue (no Mobile Fidelity, Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner, or Blue Note-style Tone Poet edition) of this title, and it receives little discussion among collectors on the forums beyond passing mentions in Burrell discography threads. As an original-era US pressing (DJ promo, same 1973 lacquers/mastering as the stock release aside from an earlier side-A stamper), this copy sits at the top of the title's practical fidelity hierarchy alongside the standard 1973 US stereo pressing, well above the mid-70s reissue and the Japanese LFP-88128 pressing.
Notes
This is a 1973 Fantasy F 9427 DJ/promotional pressing, not the ordinary stock copy: the label is over-stamped 'F 9427-DJ' with 'DJ Copy - Not For Sale' beneath the catalogue number. The standard stock stereo pressing carries a side-A runout of F-9427-ARE1, while this copy's side-A runout reads F9427-A-1 - an earlier-suffix lacquer that points to Fantasy's separate US promo variant. Side B (F9427-B-RE1) matches the RE1 remix stamper on both the promo and standard release, so the same 1973 remix lacquer was used for side B across variants while side A on this copy carries an earlier cut.
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