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

Lou Donaldson

Blues Walk

c. 1959-1962 · Blue Note BLP 1593 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BLP 1593
Year	c. 1959-1962
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop/Soul Jazz
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	Lou Donaldson (alto sax), Herman Foster (piano), Peck Morrison (bass), Dave Bailey (drums), Ray Barretto (conga)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BN-LP.1593.A.1 EAR 9M RVG
Side B:  BN-LP.1593.B EAR RVG

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: G+

Variant chronology

1958 - 47 West 63rd St. deep-groove label without INC, the earliest label state for this catalogue number
c. 1959-1962 - 47 West 63rd St. deep-groove label with INC added to the company name, RVG stamp and ear in the runout  <- this copy
c. 1961-1966 - New York, USA address label, mono repress
1959 on - stereo issue, BST 1593/BST 81593
1985 - Blue Note reissue, BST 81593 remastered
2009 - 45 RPM double LP reissue
2007 - Classic Records QUIEX SV-P 200g mono reissue
2017/2019 - Music Matters Jazz 33 1/3 audiophile reissue
2022 - Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series 180g stereo reissue, mastered by Kevin Gray from the analog master tapes, pressed at Optimal (Germany)

This Pressing

Blue Note mono pressing on the 47 West 63rd St. INC label, dating to roughly late 1959 through the early 1960s, with the RVG stamp and Plastylite ear in the runout.

The Album

Recorded on July 28, 1958 for Alfred Lion's Blue Note label, Blues Walk arrived as alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson was sharpening the soulful, blues-drenched attack that would define his mature style. Donaldson had come up through the bebop ranks in the early 1950s, closely tied to the Charlie Parker lineage, but by the late 1950s he was steering his own quintet toward a rawer, groove-based sound built on riffs, congas and the blues form itself. The addition of Ray Barretto's conga to the standard piano-bass-drums quartet gave the date a Latin-tinged, dance-floor lift that distinguished it from the harder bebop dates on the label, and the title track became one of Donaldson's signature compositions. The album balances originals like the title cut, "Play Ray" and "Callin' All Cats" with warmly played standards such as "The Masquerade Is Over" and "Autumn Nocturne," showcasing Donaldson's vocal-like tone and his gift for melodic, blues-based improvisation. Blues Walk is widely regarded as a foundational text of the soul-jazz movement that would flourish on Blue Note through the 1960s, and it remains one of Donaldson's most celebrated and influential recordings, prefiguring the boogaloo and groove-jazz records he and others would make in the years that followed.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Blues Walk (Donaldson)
2. Move (Denzil Best)
3. The Masquerade Is Over (Magidson-Wrubel)

Side 2

1. Play Ray (Donaldson)
2. Autumn Nocturne (Josef Myrow)
3. Callin' All Cats (Donaldson)

The Label

Both side labels read BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC · 47 WEST 63rd · NYC in one line arcing under the 33 1/3 MICROGROOVE LONG PLAYING legend, with the deep-groove ridge pressed into the label surface. Blue Note's company name on the label was expanded from "BLUE NOTE RECORDS" to "BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC." in late 1959, so a copy carrying INC with this address was pressed in that later West 63rd St. window, running from roughly late 1959 through the early 1960s, rather than in the 1958 release year. The deep groove and the same general address layout place it within Blue Note's Plastylite-pressed era, on the 47 West 63rd labels that came before the New York, USA labels, but the INC wording moves it past the earliest no-INC state of this catalogue number. The runout carries the BN-LP-1593 etched matrix, the RVG stamp and the Plastylite ear on both sides.

Fidelity

The runout carries Rudy Van Gelder's own RVG stamp together with the Plastylite ear, marking a lacquer cut by Van Gelder and pressing at the Plastylite plant, the combination collectors on the forums continue to rate as the gold standard for Blue Note's mono catalogue. Because the labels carry the INC wording, this is a later pressing from within that same West 63rd St. production run rather than the earliest no-INC pressing, though it draws on the same mastering chain and plant. It still outranks the later Liberty- and United Artists-era repressings cut from dubbed or EQ'd tapes, and stands alongside or just behind the best-regarded modern audiophile cuts such as the Music Matters Jazz 33 1/3 RPM pressing in most forum assessments. This copy's G+ vinyl means groove wear undercuts some of that mastering's advantage in practice.

Notes

Both side labels print BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC. with the 47 West 63rd St. address, and that INC wording was added to Blue Note's label text at the close of 1959, so this copy was pressed in the window running from late 1959 into the early 1960s rather than at the 1958 release date. The deep groove and the RVG stamp with Plastylite ear in the runout place it within Blue Note's Plastylite-pressed, Van Gelder-mastered production, on the 47 West 63rd labels that preceded the New York, USA labels. Vinyl grades G+/G+, well played, while the jacket grades VG+ front and back.

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