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 Quintet
Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet
1957 · Prestige PRLP 7094 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Prestige |
|---|
| Catalogue number | PRLP 7094 |
|---|
| Year | 1957 |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
|---|
| Country | US |
|---|
| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz - Hard Bop |
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| Producer | Bob Weinstock |
|---|
| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Philly Joe Jones (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: PRLP-7094-A RVG A AB 1
Side B: PRLP-7094-B RVG C AB
Condition
- Cover
- VG+ TOP SEAM SPLIT/VG+
- Vinyl
- VG+ DEEP GROOVE SOME LIGHT SUPERFICIAL MARKS/EX DEEP GROOVE
Variant chronology
1957 - US 1st press, yellow "fireworks" label, 446 W. 50th St address, deep groove, RVG stamp, AB (Abbey) etch <- this copy
1958-59 - Yellow label, later stamper/no deep groove variants
1965-71 - Blue Prestige label (address change to Bergenfield/Englewood Cliffs NJ)
1972+ - Prestige/Fantasy reissue (green/black or red/black "trident" labels)
1980s - OJC (Original Jazz Classics) reissue
2000s+ - Analogue Productions APRJ 7094 audiophile 200g reissue
This Pressing
1st press (mono, 1957) - Prestige yellow fireworks label, 446 W. 50th St address, deep groove; RVG + AB (Abbey Record Mfg.) etches in runouts.
The Album
Cookin' With the Miles Davis Quintet was drawn from two marathon single-day studio sessions - May 11 and October 26, 1956 - that Miles Davis booked with his newly formed quintet to fulfill his contract with Prestige before departing for Columbia Records. Rather than carefully producing a single planned album, Davis and Bob Weinstock had the working band - Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones - simply play through its nightly club book live in the studio with no overdubs or retakes, capturing the group's working-band chemistry at its peak. The resulting music, split later across the four LPs Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin', is often cited as some of the most natural, unguarded small-group jazz on record, mixing standards like the ballad staple with hard-swinging originals and Sonny Rollins's
Tracklist
Side 1
1. My Funny Valentine
2. Blues By Five
Side 2
1. Airegin
2. Tune Up
3. When Lights Are Low
The Label
This copy carries the classic yellow "fireworks" Prestige label with the "PRESTIGE RECORDS INC. \u2022 446 W. 50th ST., N.Y.C." address text and a deep-groove ring stamped into both sides, hallmarks of Prestige's earliest New York pressings run out of the 446 W. 50th Street offices used from the mid-1950s until the label's move to Bergenfield/Englewood Cliffs, NJ in the mid-1960s (when the labels switched to the blue Prestige design). The back cover shows the near-identical "447 West 50th Street" address, a small, well-documented in-house discrepancy seen on many original Prestige jackets of this era and not indicative of a later pressing. The typed runouts show RVG (Rudy Van Gelder) hand-etched stamps on both sides plus an "AB" etch identifying the Abbey Record Manufacturing Co. pressing plant, and the A-side stamper is coded "1" - together these place this copy solidly as an original 1957 first-pressing run, at or very near the earliest stamper generation, rather than a later yellow-label restrike.
Fidelity
Mastered by Rudy Van Gelder directly from his original 1956 session tapes, with the RVG stamp in the deadwax confirming this is an original-metal cut rather than a later re-mastering. Collectors on forums.stevehoffman.tv consistently rate these original mono Van Gelder-mastered Prestige LPs as the most vital and immediate-sounding versions of the Marathon sessions material, ahead of the 1960s blue-label Bergenfield repressings (still RVG-sourced but from later-generation stampers) and well ahead of the 1970s-80s Fantasy/OJC reissues, which used newer, more processed mastering. Modern audiophile reissues such as Analogue Productions' 200g APRJ 7094 (mastered by Kevin Gray) are prized for quiet, high-fidelity surfaces but are generally regarded as smoother/more modern-sounding than the original's raw immediacy; the Abbey Record Mfg. pressing on this copy is a solid, standard-quality period pressing rather than a premium plant, but the metal and stamper generation are what matter most here.
Notes
1957 Prestige PRLP 7094 mono - original first pressing. Yellow fireworks label with "446 W. 50th St." address and deep groove on both sides confirm the earliest Prestige NY label design, used before the label's move and later blue-label redesign. RVG hand-etched stamps plus AB (Abbey Record Mfg.) plant etch in the runouts, with a low "1" stamper code on side A, place this at or near the first stamper generation. Released July 1957.
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