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 (credited as The Kenny Burrell Quartet)

The Tender Gender

1966 · Cadet LP-772 (Mono) · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Cadet
Catalogue number	LP-772 (Mono)
Year	1966
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Soul Jazz/Cool Jazz
Producer	Esmond Edwards
Musicians	Kenny Burrell (guitar), Richard Wyands (piano), Martin Rivera (bass), Oliver Jackson (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  XCTV121427-1A
Side B:  XCTV121428-1A

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: NM-

Variant chronology

1966 - US Cadet LP-772 mono, blue-fade pinwheel label, XCTV121427/28-1A runouts  <- this copy
1966 - US Cadet LPS-772 stereo, RCA Indianapolis pressing
c.1974-83 - later Cadet mono/stereo reissues (CA-772, Japanese Baybridge UPS-2228-BC, Cadet BT-5095)

This Pressing

Original 1966 mono pressing - Cadet LP-772, first-issue blue-fade label, matrix XCTV121427/121428 -1A runouts.

The Album

Recorded April 4-5, 1966 at RCA Victor's New York studios, The Tender Gender arrived immediately after Burrell's ambitious solo-guitar showcase Guitar Forms and just before the holiday-themed Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas, part of his prolific mid-1960s run for Chess's Cadet jazz imprint under producer Esmond Edwards. Burrell leads a compact working quartet - pianist Richard Wyands, bassist Martin Rivera and drummer Oliver Jackson - a stripped-down format that puts his blues-rooted, vocal-toned guitar at the center of a relaxed, after-hours program mixing five originals with standards like "People" and Erroll Garner's "La Petite Mambo." The record is often praised as quite possibly one of Burrell's best albums of the 1960s, with a tight, well-focused rhythm section behind his playing, and his chord-melody work on "People" singled out as tender and lush - the intimate, melodic character that has kept the album a favorite among soul-jazz guitar collectors even though Burrell's Cadet output remains less celebrated than his Blue Note and Prestige work of the same decade.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Mother-In-Law
2. Hot Bossa
3. People
4. Isabella
5. Girl Talk

Side 2

1. Suzy
2. The Tender Gender
3. La Petite Mambo
4. If Someone Had Told Me
5. I'm Confessin'

The Label

This copy's labels are the blue-fading-to-white Cadet design with the pinwheel/shell logo at 3 o'clock, black "CADET" credit lettering, and the printed "MONOPHONIC / Side 1 (2)" text - the first Cadet label design used from 1965-1970 across the jazz series LPS-758 to LPS-848, which this LP-772 falls squarely inside. Cadet had only just been renamed from Argo in 1965 to avoid confusion with the UK Argo label, so this design marks the label's earliest jazz-series pressings rather than any later GRT/All Platinum era redesign (orange/blue horse-head labels from 1971 on). The printed matrix on the label (#14816 / #14817, prefix XCTV) and the etched runout (XCTV121427-1A / XCTV121428-1A) identify this as an original mono pressing rather than the RCA Indianapolis-pressed stereo variant, which carries a different RCA master-number runout format (TR4S-...).

Fidelity

Engineered by Bob Simpson and Ray Hall at RCA Victor's New York studios and mastered for Cadet's standard commercial run rather than any audiophile process; the stereo Indianapolis pressing has been described as a decent mix with a little too much reverb on guitar, a characteristic likely shared with this mono cut from the same session tapes. No audiophile reissue (Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner, etc.) of The Tender Gender exists beyond the Japanese Baybridge and Cadet BT-5095 reissues, which are conventional commercial pressings, not audiophile cuts. As an original-era mono pressing sourced directly from the 1966 master rather than a later reissue, this copy ranks at the top of the title's available fidelity options by default, though the mix itself (rather than mastering craft) is the more commonly noted sonic issue among listeners.

Notes

This copy is the original 1966 US mono pressing on Cadet LP-772, identified by the blue-fading Cadet pinwheel label printed "MONOPHONIC" and the etched XCTV121427-1A/XCTV121428-1A runouts, distinct from the RCA Indianapolis-pressed stereo variant (TR4S- master numbers with an "I" stamp). No club, promo or later reissue markings are present. Recorded April 4-5, 1966 at RCA Victor's New York studios and produced by Esmond Edwards, this pressing sits at the top of the title's mono pressing hierarchy.

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