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
1958 · Blue Note BLP 1593 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Blue Note |
|---|
| Catalogue number | BLP 1593 |
|---|
| Year | 1958 |
|---|
| 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 - US Blue Note mono, deep groove, 47 W. 63rd St address, RVG stamp + Plastylite ear <- this copy
1958-59 - US Blue Note stereo, BNST 1593, deep groove, RVG STEREO in trail-off - no sale price recorded
c.1963-67 - Blue Note/Liberty era repress, address dropped from label, "A Division of Liberty Records" - no sale price recorded
2007 - Classic Records QUIEX SV-P 200g mono reissue
2019 - Music Matters Jazz SRX 33 1/3 RPM mono 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
Original 1958 mono pressing - Blue Note deep-groove label, 47 West 63rd St. address, 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
The side labels show the deep-groove Blue Note design with "BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC. 47 WEST 63RD ST. NYC" arced above the spindle, mono catalogue number BLP 1593, and the "33 1/3 MICROGROOVE LONG PLAYING" legend. This West 63rd Street address design was in use from 1956, when Blue Note moved from Lexington Ave, through the early 1960s. The runout carries the BN-LP-1593 etched matrix, the RVG stamp and the Plastylite "ear," placing the pressing in Blue Note's own-plant original-issue window rather than the later address-less Liberty-era labels (c.1963 onward) or the New York, USA labels used after 1965.
Fidelity
The dead wax carries Rudy Van Gelder's own RVG stamp and the Plastylite "ear," confirming this is a lacquer cut by Van Gelder himself and pressed at the Plastylite plant - the combination collectors on the Hoffman-forum regard as the gold standard for Blue Note's mono catalogue, with a warmth and immediacy that later Liberty- and United Artists-era repressings (cut from dubbed or EQ'd tapes) do not match. Within the album's own fidelity hierarchy this deep-groove West 63rd St. mono original sits at the top alongside the RVG-stamped stereo counterpart, ahead of the 1960s Liberty-era reissues, the more recent Classic Records QUIEX 200g reissue, and even the well-regarded 2019 Music Matters Jazz 33 1/3 RPM audiophile pressing, which most Hoffman-forum listeners rate as an excellent but still secondary alternative to a clean original. This particular copy's G+ vinyl means some of that original mastering's advantage is undercut by surface wear and groove damage.
Notes
1958 Blue Note BLP 1593 mono - original pressing. Deep-groove labels with the 47 West 63rd St. address place this in Blue Note's own pre-Liberty era, and the runout's RVG stamp plus Plastylite ear are the standard first-pressing markers for the label's self-distributed period. No stereo indication appears on the labels, consistent with the mono-only BLP catalogue number. Vinyl grades G+/G+, well played, while the jacket grades VG+ front and back.
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