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

Blue Moods

c. 1957-1960 · Debut DEB 120 · Mono · Denmark (licensed pressing of the US Debut master, distributed by Skandinavisk Grammofon A/S) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Debut
Catalogue number	DEB 120
Year	c. 1957-1960
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	Denmark (licensed pressing of the US Debut master, distributed by Skandinavisk Grammofon A/S)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Cool Jazz / Chamber Jazz
Producer	Charles Mingus
Musicians	Miles Davis (trumpet), Britt Woodman (trombone), Teddy Charles (vibraphone, credited on label as "percussion"), Charles Mingus (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  DEB-120-A
Side B:  DEB-120-B

Condition

Cover: EX
Vinyl: VG+ FACTORY IMPERFECTIONS/VG+ FACTORY IMPERFECTIONS

Variant chronology

1955 - US Debut DEB-120, grey label, non-deep-groove, Charles Mingus's own label
1957-c.1960 - Danish Debut DEB-120, grey label, "Made in Denmark" rim text (Brande Boghandel/Skandinavisk Grammofon license)  <- this copy
1962 - US Fantasy 6001 reissue, red vinyl, new Ralph J. Gleason notes
c.1969-70 - French fake-stereo reissue (Musidisc/Debut, AM.6051 etched)
1983 - Original Jazz Classics OJC-043 reissue

This Pressing

Danish Debut pressing (c. 1957-early 1960s) - grey "debut" label with "MADE IN DENMARK" rim text, licensed by Skandinavisk Grammofon A/S/Brande Boghandel; stamped DEB-120-A/DEB-120-B matrices.

The Album

Blue Moods was recorded on July 9, 1955, for Charles Mingus and Max Roach's fiercely independent Debut Records, cut just as Miles Davis was climbing back from the personal and professional low point of his heroin years toward the triumphant Prestige and Columbia periods that would follow within months. Rather than assembling a conventional hard-bop unit, Mingus paired Davis with an unusual chamber-jazz lineup built around Teddy Charles's vibraphone and Britt Woodman's trombone, with Mingus himself on bass and a young Elvin Jones on drums, producing a spare, unhurried, almost introspective session built on standards and a single Mingus-arranged reading of "Alone Together." The album's brevity and moody restraint, foreshadowing the cool, spacious aesthetic Davis would soon perfect on Birth of the Cool's more famous cousins and later on Kind of Blue, made it a small but telling document of Davis mid-transformation, valued by historians less as a commercial landmark than as a fascinating way-station in his stylistic evolution. Critically, Blue Moods has long been treated as a minor but genuine artifact of both the Mingus-Roach Debut label's brief but historically important run and of Davis's mid-1950s creative ferment, prized today chiefly by collectors of the artist's complete discography and of the short-lived, artist-owned Debut imprint itself.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Nature Boy (Eden Ahbez)
2. Alone Together (Dietz - Schwartz)

Side 2

3. There's No You (Adair - Hopper - Durgom)
4. Easy Living (Robin - Rainger)

The Label

The grey Debut label with the star-topped "debut" logo and small-print "33 1/3 rpm LONGPLAY" banner on this copy carries "MADE IN DENMARK" arced at the top of the label rather than the New York address found on the 1955 US original. Per Danish label history (steppeulvene.com), in 1957 the bookshop Brande Boghandel, working with Skandinavisk Grammofon A/S, obtained rights to press the American Debut catalogue locally for the Scandinavian market, retaining the original US catalogue number (DEB 120) and artwork/label design. That places this copy as a Danish licensed pressing manufactured sometime after 1957, distinct from and later than the true 1955 US first pressing but predating Debut's absorption into the Fantasy reissue program (Fantasy 6001, 1962) and later OJC reissues. The stamped (not etched) DEB-120-A/DEB-120-B matrix format matches the style used on early Debut pressings generally, supporting a first-generation-plate Danish pressing rather than a later re-cut.

Fidelity

The back cover documents the original 1955 mastering approach: cut at 160 lines per inch (versus the usual 210-260), widening and deepening the grooves to allow greater bass extension and level, a hallmark of period Debut/Mingus-supervised cutting rather than a Van Gelder-specific credit. This Danish pressing reproduces that mastering philosophy via a European-cut lacquer rather than the original US metal parts, so fidelity is generally regarded by collectors as respectable but a step below a clean US first pressing; Steve Hoffman forum consensus favors the original US Debut or the 1962 Fantasy red-vinyl reissue for the most faithful transfer, with later French and OJC reissues ranked lowest in the chain.

Notes

This is not the 1955 US Debut first pressing but a Danish licensed Debut pressing produced under the Brande Boghandel/Skandinavisk Grammofon A/S arrangement that began in 1957, using the same catalogue number and jacket art. The "MADE IN DENMARK" rim text on an otherwise US-style grey Debut label, combined with stamped (not later fake-stereo etched) DEB-120-A/B matrices, places this within the early Danish run rather than the 1960s French or US reissue lines. Cover and labels reproduce the original 1955 back-cover text and mastering notes verbatim, indicating the Danish pressing used the same artwork and liner-note plates as the US release.

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