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
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop
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+
Vinyl: VG+

Variant chronology

1957 - US Prestige yellow "fireworks" label, 446 W. 50th St address, deep groove, RVG/AB etches, early ('1') stamper  <- this copy
c.1959-62 - same yellow fireworks design with Bergenfield, NJ address replacing the NYC rim text, deep groove and RVG retained
1964 - later Prestige pressing of this catalog number
1970s-80s Fantasy/OJC reissue, blue label
2013 - Analogue Productions APRJ 7094 (Kevin Gray) audiophile 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 assembled from two marathon single-day sessions, May 11 and October 26, 1956, that Davis booked to fulfill his Prestige contract before moving to Columbia Records. Rather than a carefully planned studio project, producer Bob Weinstock simply had the working quintet - Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones - run through its live club repertoire in one or two takes with no overdubs, capturing the band's road-tested interplay at its peak. The results, later parceled across four LPs (Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', Steamin'), are prized as some of the most unguarded, natural small-group jazz of the era, pairing standards like the ballad feature with hard-swinging vehicles by Sonny Rollins and Davis himself. This was the first great Miles Davis Quintet with Coltrane, a group whose brief run reshaped both men's careers and became a cornerstone of hard bop small-group vocabulary. Critics and historians have long ranked the quintet's chemistry here among the most influential in jazz, and the album is consistently cited among the essential entries in the Davis-Coltrane discography.

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 shows the yellow Prestige "fireworks" label with a single yellow starburst/fireworks graphic, the "PRESTIGE RECORDS INC. • 446 W. 50th ST., N.Y.C." address on the rim, and a deep-groove ring pressed into both sides, all hallmarks of the earliest New York-era Prestige LP design used from the mid-1950s until the label's mid-1960s move to Bergenfield/Englewood Cliffs, NJ, when the design switched to the blue Prestige label. The back cover's "447 West 50th Street" address is a minor in-house discrepancy on original-era Prestige jackets and does not indicate a later pressing. This label/address/deep-groove combination corresponds to pressing by Abbey Record Manufacturing Co., consistent with the "AB" etch in the runouts. The RVG hand-etch plus a low "1" stamper code on the A-side places this copy at or very near the first stamper generation for this catalog number, ahead of the later Bergenfield-address second pressings (which retain deep groove and RVG but drop the NYC address) and well ahead of the blue-label and Fantasy/OJC reissues.

Fidelity

Mastered by Rudy Van Gelder directly from the original 1956 session tapes, with the hand-etched RVG stamp confirming an original-metal cut rather than a later re-mastering. Collectors on the forums consistently rate these original mono Van Gelder-cut Prestige pressings as the most vital and immediate versions of the Marathon sessions material, ahead of the 1960s Bergenfield-address second pressings (still RVG-sourced but later-generation stampers) and well ahead of 1970s-80s Fantasy/OJC reissues, which used more processed remastering. Modern audiophile cuts such as Analogue Productions' 200g APRJ 7094 (Kevin Gray) offer quieter, high-fidelity surfaces but are generally regarded as smoother and less raw than this original. The Abbey Record Mfg. pressing here is a solid, standard-quality period plant job rather than a premium pressing, but the early metal generation is the decisive factor for sound quality.

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.

Documenting collections

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