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

Here 'Tis

c. 1962-1965 · Blue Note BLP 4066 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BLP 4066
Year	c. 1962-1965
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Soul Jazz/Hard Bop
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	Lou Donaldson (alto sax), Grant Green (guitar), John "Baby Face" Willette (organ), Dave Bailey (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BN-LP-4066-A EAR RVG 9M
Side B:  BN-LP-4066-B 9M RVG EAR

Condition

Cover: NM-
Vinyl: VG

Variant chronology

1961 - true 1st pressing, "47 WEST 63rd" address on BOTH labels, no deep groove, laminated front cover, RVG + Plastylite ear
c. 1962-65 - mixed-label transitional mono repress, Side 1 retains "47 WEST 63rd" label, Side 2 switches to address-less "NEW YORK, USA" label, RVG + ear stamps retained <- this copy
c. 1963-66 - both labels re-set to address-less "NEW YORK, USA" text, RVG + ear still present - no documented sale of this exact both-sides variant found
2009 - Analogue Productions 45rpm 2xLP audiophile reissue, Kevin Gray/Ron Rambach mastering
2023-25 - Blue Note Tone Poet mono reissue, Kevin Gray mastering, numbered edition

This Pressing

Mixed-label mono repress (mono, c.1962-65) - Side 1 "47 West 63rd" label, Side 2 address-less "New York, USA" label; RVG + Plastylite ear retained on both sides.

The Album

Recorded for Blue Note in January 1961, Here 'Tis captures alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson at the moment he pivoted his hard-bop language toward the earthier, funkier feel that would define soul jazz, introducing New York audiences to two young sidemen he had discovered on tour, guitarist Grant Green and organist John "Baby Face" Willette. The set mixes originals steeped in gospel and blues vamping ("Here 'Tis," "Watusi Jump," "Walk Wid Me") with a bop-tinged reading of Charlie Parker's "Cool Blues" and a warm ballad treatment of "A Foggy Day," letting Donaldson show both his bebop pedigree and his growing commercial instincts. Green's clean, single-note guitar lines and Willette's churchy Hammond organ swing gave the date a groove-heavy, blues-drenched character that anticipated the organ-combo boom Blue Note would ride through the mid-1960s. Donaldson, a North Carolina-born altoist who came up through Charlie Parker's shadow before finding his own populist voice, used albums like this to bridge jazz's improvising rigor with dance-floor and jukebox appeal. The record helped launch Grant Green's own prolific Blue Note career and stands as a foundational document of the soul-jazz movement, still cited by critics and DJs as one of the genre's most durable and influential grooves.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. A Foggy Day (Gershwin)
2. Here 'Tis (Lou Donaldson)
3. Cool Blues (Charlie Parker)

Side 2

1. Watusi Jump (Lou Donaldson)
2. Walk Wid Me (Donaldson)

The Label

Side 1 carries the "BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC. · 47 WEST 63rd · NYC" rim text used on Blue Note's true first-issue mono labels (1961-62), while Side 2 has already switched to the address-less "BLUE NOTE RECORDS INC · NEW YORK USA" rim text that Blue Note introduced as it phased out the street address, generally placed in the c.1962-66 window. Neither label shows a pressed-in deep groove, consistent with the flat-edge West 63rd-era stock rather than the earlier deep-groove Lexington Ave labels (1956-58). This side-to-side mismatch is a documented Blue Note phenomenon (plants exhausting old label stock on one side while drawing new stock for the other) and places this copy as a mono repress made from leftover early labels and new labels rather than the strict simultaneous-both-sides-63rd first pressing; it still carries the era-correct RVG/ear stampers, so it sits just behind the true firsts in the pressing hierarchy.

Fidelity

Cut by Rudy Van Gelder directly from the January 1961 session tapes and pressed at Blue Note's Plastylite plant (ear mark, "9M" etch), this mono pressing shares the same first-generation metalwork lineage as the strict first-issue copies, so its sonics are essentially indistinguishable from an original despite the mixed labels. Collectors on the forums generally rank any RVG/ear-stamped mono BLP 4066 well above the later stereo Liberty-era and Music Matters/United Artists reissues for warmth and presence, though slightly below a pristine simultaneous-both-sides-63rd copy in collector prestige (not necessarily sound). Modern audiophile remasters - the Analogue Productions 45rpm 2LP (Kevin Gray/Ron Rambach, mastered from tape) and the Blue Note Tone Poet mono LP (Kevin Gray) - are quieter and more resolved on modern equipment but are prized as separate, complementary listening options rather than replacements for the vintage RVG cut's tonal character.

Notes

BLP 4066 mono, mixed-label pressing: Side 1 shows the "47 WEST 63rd" rim text used on true 1961-62 first-issue labels, but Side 2 has already moved to the address-less "NEW YORK, USA" text that Blue Note phased in through the early-to-mid 1960s. Both sides retain the era-correct RVG stamp and Plastylite ear (etched "9M"), confirming an authentic Van Gelder-cut, Plastylite-pressed mono disc rather than a later Liberty-era pressing. The side mismatch indicates a repress run using leftover early label stock alongside newer stock, placing this copy just after the strict simultaneous-both-sides-63rd first pressing in the hierarchy.

Documenting collections

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