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

Lee Morgan

Cornbread

1967 · Blue Note BLP 4222 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BLP 4222
Year	1967
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	Lee Morgan (trumpet), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Larry Ridley (bass), Billy Higgins (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BNLP-4222 A VAN GELDER
Side B:  BNLP-4222 B VAN GELDER

Condition

Cover: NM/NM AUDITION COPY STAMP
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1967 - "New York, USA" white/blue label, no Liberty credit, deep VG mono, Van Gelder stamp (true first pressing)  <- this copy
1967 - "A Division of Liberty Records" text added to New York USA label (early Liberty-era pressing)
c. 1970s - Liberty/UA "black and blue" or "United Artists" labels
1985 - Toshiba-EMI Japan reissue (King/Toshiba pressing)
2010s - Music Matters / Analogue Productions audiophile reissue

This Pressing

1st pressing (mono, 1967) - Blue Note "New York, USA" label, no Liberty credit; Van Gelder stamp in deadwax; promo "Audition Copy" stamp on jacket.

The Album

Cornbread was recorded by trumpeter Lee Morgan on September 8, 1965, for Blue Note, reuniting him with fellow Jazz Messengers-connected players Jackie McLean and Hank Mobley alongside a young Herbie Hancock, bassist Larry Ridley, and drummer Billy Higgins. Arriving in the wake of Morgan's crossover hit "The Sidewinder," the album found him balancing the same soulful, boogaloo-tinged accessibility with the harder-edged, more harmonically adventurous hard bop he had built his reputation on since his teenage years with Dizzy Gillespie and later Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. The title track and "Our Man Higgins" showcase the blues-drenched, two-tenor-plus-alto frontline interplay, while "Ceora" became one of Morgan's most enduring compositions, a lyrical Latin-tinged ballad that has since become a jazz standard covered widely by other artists. "Ill Wind," the sole standard, gives space to McLean's astringent alto voice against the rhythm section, and "Most Like Lee" closes the set with a churning minor blues. Morgan, one of the defining post-bop trumpet voices of his era, was at a creative peak in the mid-1960s, and Cornbread is frequently ranked among his strongest and most fully realized Blue Note dates from that period. Despite its quality, the album was held back from release until 1967, arriving after several other Morgan Blue Note titles had already reached the public. Critics and collectors have long regarded Cornbread as an underappreciated gem in Morgan's catalog, prized for its cohesive band chemistry and the compositional strength of "Ceora" in particular.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Cornbread
2. Our Man Higgins

Side 2

1. Ceora
2. Ill Wind
3. Most Like Lee

The Label

The side labels are the plain white-top/blue-bottom Blue Note design reading only "BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC \u2022 NEW YORK USA" with no "47 West 63rd St" street address and, critically, no "A DIVISION OF LIBERTY RECORDS" text. Blue Note dropped its West 63rd Street address in the early-to-mid 1960s in favor of the plain "New York, USA" credit, and this design continued to be used for a period even after Liberty Records acquired the label in 1965, before Liberty's corporate credit was added to the perimeter text later in the pressing run. Cornbread was recorded in September 1965 but not released until 1967, so this "New York, USA"-only label without the Liberty line places this copy at the very front of the BLP 4222 pressing run - the true first-pressing label for this title. The back cover's "AUDITION COPY" rubber stamp further indicates this particular copy was distributed as a promotional pressing rather than a standard retail unit.

Fidelity

This is an original Rudy Van Gelder mono cut, mastered directly from the analog session tapes at his Englewood Cliffs studio, and pressed in the mid-to-late-1960s Blue Note/Liberty era plant with the characteristic dense, punchy Van Gelder sound collectors prize. Steve Hoffman forum consensus generally rates these mid-60s Van Gelder-stamped Blue Note mono originals as sonically superior to the later United Artists and Liberty reissue pressings, and to the 1985 Toshiba-EMI Japanese reissue, which is competent but noticeably softer. Modern audiophile reissues (Music Matters 45rpm, Analogue Productions, Blue Note Classic Vinyl/Tone Poet series) offer quieter surfaces and often wider dynamic range from remastered tapes, but many Van Gelder-era purists still prefer the tonal immediacy of this original cut. Within Cornbread's own fidelity hierarchy, this Van Gelder-stamped "New York, USA" mono original sits at or near the top, surpassed sonically only by top-tier modern audiophile remasters where available.

Notes

BLP 4222 mono, "New York, USA" labels without any Liberty Records credit, matched with the "VAN GELDER" machine stamp in the deadwax on both sides, identify this as the true first-pressing configuration for Cornbread's belated 1967 release. The back-cover "AUDITION COPY" rubber stamp confirms this specific copy was a label promo sent to radio or press rather than a standard retail copy. No street address or Liberty corporate line appears on the labels, consistent with the brief transitional label window used just before Liberty's credit was added to later Blue Note pressings.

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