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 All Stars

Walkin'

1957 · Prestige PRLP 7076 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Prestige
Catalogue number	PRLP 7076
Year	1957
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop
Producer	Bob Weinstock
Performer / Orchestra	Miles Davis Sextet (side 1); Miles Davis Quintet (side 2)
Musicians	Miles Davis (trumpet), Jay Jay Johnson (trombone, side 1), Lucky Thompson (tenor saxophone, side 1), Davey Schildkraut (alto saxophone, side 2), Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  PRLP-7076-A RVG E AB
Side B:  PRLP-7076-B RVG D

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: VG+ DEEP GROOVE/EX DEEP GROOVE

Variant chronology

1957 - US first-label mono, yellow/black deep-groove fireworks labels, 446 W. 50th St. N.Y.C., RVG/AB metal  <- this copy
1958-59 - US second original mono, yellow/black fireworks labels, 203 South Washington Ave., Bergenfield, N.J., RVG/AB metal
c. 1964-66 - US later mono reissue/repress, later Prestige label and cover configurations, RVG-derived metal
1969 - US stereo reissue, Prestige PRST 7608
1986 - US Original Jazz Classics OJC-213 mono reissue, RVG-derived analog mastering
2009 - US Prestige RVG Remasters 180-gram reissue, P-7076
2023-25 - Craft/Original Jazz Classics all-analog 180-gram reissue, Kevin Gray cut from original tapes, RTI pressing

This Pressing

1st-label early press (mono, 1957) - Prestige 446 W. 50th St. NYC fireworks DG labels; typed RVG + AB dead-wax codes.

The Album

Walkin' brings together two April 1954 sessions recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his Hackensack home studio, placing two different Davis groups on opposite sides of one LP. Side one preserves the all-star sextet date built around two extended blues performances, while side two features the quieter, harmonically searching quintet session with Davey Schildkraut. The thirteen-minute title performance became one of Davis's defining early statements: patient, blues-soaked and rhythmically direct, it helped point modern jazz away from crowded bebop virtuosity toward the emerging hard-bop language. Its relaxed momentum also made "Walkin'" a durable Davis concert anthem. "Solar" became one of the most frequently played compositions associated with Davis, though later research established its close relationship to Chuck Wayne's earlier "Sonny." Horace Silver, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke form an exceptionally sympathetic rhythm team across both dates, while Schildkraut's poised alto work supplies one of the album's most underappreciated pleasures. Contemporary critics immediately treated the set as a valuable Davis package, and later writers have continued to rank its performances among the finest modern jazz of the period. The record captures Davis at a crucial transitional point, after his early-1950s difficulties and just before the 1955 Newport appearance and the first great quintet made him a major public figure.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Walkin'
2. Blue N' Boogie

Side 2

1. Solar
2. You Don't Know What Love Is
3. Love Me Or Leave Me

The Label

This copy has the original yellow-and-black Prestige "fireworks" label, deep groove on both sides, with "PRESTIGE RECORDS INC. • 446 W. 50th ST., N.Y.C." in the upper rim and "LONG PLAYING MICROGROOVE" at the bottom. Prestige used this 446 West 50th Street design for its early 12-inch LPs, approximately 1955-58 and through roughly PRLP 7141, before moving its office to 203 South Washington Avenue, Bergenfield, New Jersey; the first Bergenfield-address release was PRLP 7141 in 1958. The jacket still gives the 447 West 50th Street company address, a normal first-issue pairing with the 446-label record. The typed dead-wax codes include RVG for Rudy Van Gelder and AB for Abbey Record Manufacturing, with E/D metal codes documenting an early but not necessarily earliest stamper set within the first-label issue. Thus this is the original US first-label configuration, safely ranked ahead of all Bergenfield-label and later Prestige reissues, although the letters do not by themselves prove the very first mother/stamper.

Fidelity

This is a Rudy Van Gelder recording and original Van Gelder mono cut, pressed by Abbey; the RVG/AB dead-wax combination preserves the close, immediate trumpet and saxophone sound characteristic of mid-1950s Prestige. Original Prestige pressings can have more surface noise and less refined vinyl than Blue Note because of the company's economical manufacturing, but a clean deep-groove RVG copy generally offers the most period-correct presence, punch and tonal density. The 1960s blue-trident reissues can still sound very good because they used RVG-derived metal, while 1980s OJC copies are typically cleaner and a little brighter but less authoritative. The 2009 RVG Remaster and the newer Kevin Gray/Craft all-analog RTI edition offer quieter, more polished playback, with Gray's cut the strongest modern-fidelity option; neither displaces an original NYC-label RVG/AB pressing for historical and collector priority.

Notes

1957 US Prestige PRLP 7076 mono - original first-label/early pressing. Deep-groove yellow/black fireworks labels carry the 446 W. 50th St. N.Y.C. address, paired with the correct 447 W. 50th Street jacket. The typed RVG and AB dead-wax codes confirm Rudy Van Gelder mastering and Abbey Record Manufacturing pressing; E/D are early metal codes, not evidence of a later label issue. Released in March 1957.

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