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
Miles Davis
Bags' Groove
1957 · Prestige PRLP 7109 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Prestige |
|---|
| Catalogue number | PRLP 7109 |
|---|
| Year | 1957 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz - Hard Bop |
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| Producer | Bob Weinstock |
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| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax, side 2), Milt Jackson (vibraphone, side 1), Thelonious Monk (piano, side 1), Horace Silver (piano, side 2), Percy Heath (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: PRLP-7109-A RVG A AB
Side B: PRLP-7109-B RVG A AB
Condition
- Cover
- EX/EX-
- Vinyl
- VG+
Variant chronology
1957 - US Prestige PRLP-7109, yellow/black label, 446 W. 50th St. NYC address, deep groove, hand-etched RVG/AB runout <- this copy
1958-c.1963 - Bergenfield, NJ address second pressing, no deep groove - No documented sale found for this variant.
c.1964-1971 - blue/silver 'trident' logo Prestige label reissue - No documented sale found for this variant.
c.1972-1980s - Original Jazz Classics (OJC) reissue - No documented sale found for this variant.
2003 - Analogue Productions 45rpm 2xLP audiophile reissue, AJAZ 7109
current - Analogue Productions 200g mono reissue, APLPPR7109N/NB
This Pressing
1st pressing (mono, 1957) - Prestige yellow/black label, 446 W. 50th St. NYC address, deep groove, hand-etched RVG in the runout.
The Album
Bags' Groove compiles two Miles Davis sessions from 1954: a December 24 date with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist Thelonious Monk, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke, and an earlier June 29 session featuring Sonny Rollins on tenor and Horace Silver on piano. The December date has become one of the most mythologized sessions in jazz history, fueled by later, partly embellished accounts of friction between Davis and Monk over how the pianist should comp behind the trumpeter's solos. Whatever the truth of that tension, the two contrasting takes of Jackson's title tune capture the loose, blues-drenched interplay that defined small-group jazz of the era. The June session, essentially an early Rollins showcase, produced enduring Rollins originals including Oleo, Airegin and Doxy alongside two takes of the Gershwins' But Not for Me. The album arrives at a pivotal moment in Davis's career, just before he assembled his classic quintet with John Coltrane and signed with Columbia, and it stands as a landmark documenting both Davis's maturing conception and Rollins's emergence as a major composer-improviser. It is widely regarded as one of the essential hard bop recordings of the 1950s, prized for its blend of blues feeling, harmonic sophistication, and unresolved creative tension that has fascinated critics and musicians for decades.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Bags' Groove (take 1)
2. Bags' Groove (take 2)
Side 2
1. Airegin
2. Oleo
3. But Not for Me (take 2)
4. Doxy
5. But Not for Me (take 1)
The Label
The label design is the classic Prestige yellow-and-black design with the swirl and star graphics, reading "PRESTIGE RECORDS INC. • 446 W. 50th ST., N.Y.C." around the rim, with pronounced deep groove on both sides. This 446 W. 50th St. NYC address was used from the label's founding through the 1958 relocation to Bergenfield, New Jersey, after which the address text and deep groove disappeared from the labels. The hand-etched "RVG" plus "AB" (Abbey Record Manufacturing) suffix in the runouts is consistent with Prestige's earliest custom-pressed runs of this catalog number. This combination of address, deep groove and runout etching places this copy squarely as a first-pressing example, ahead of the Bergenfield-address second pressing and all later reissues in the hierarchy.
Fidelity
Mastered from Rudy Van Gelder's original Hackensack tapes and lacquers, with his hand-etched RVG stamp confirming a Van Gelder-cut original rather than a later re-cut. Collectors on the forums generally regard these mid-1950s Prestige/Van Gelder mono originals as warm but narrow-band by modern standards, a function of the era's mastering chain rather than pressing quality, with Abbey's pressings considered solid if unspectacular. Within the album's fidelity hierarchy, this RVG/deep-groove 446 W. 50th St. original sits at the top for vintage collectors, ahead of the later Bergenfield-address repress, the 1960s-70s blue-label reissues, and the OJC reissue. The more recent Analogue Productions/Craft audiophile remaster from the original tapes is generally rated the most refined-sounding cut but is prized for surface quiet and extended top end rather than vintage authenticity.
Notes
1957 Prestige PRLP 7109 mono - original first pressing. The 446 W. 50th St. NYC label address (pre-1958 Bergenfield move) combined with deep-groove labels and hand-etched RVG runouts (PRLP-7109-A/B RVG A AB) is the canonical marker of this variant. The "AB" suffix confirms Abbey Record Manufacturing as the pressing plant, consistent with Prestige's own custom pressing arrangement of the period. VG+ vinyl grade with deep groove intact supports the first-pressing attribution.
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