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 featuring Sonny Rollins
Dig
1955 · Prestige PRLP 7012 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Prestige |
|---|
| Catalogue number | PRLP 7012 |
|---|
| Year | 1955 |
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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 |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz - Hard Bop |
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| Producer | Bob Weinstock (supervision) |
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| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Walter Bishop Jr. (piano), Tommy Potter (bass), Art Blakey (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: PRLP-7012-A-1 RVG B AB
Side B: PRLP-7012-B RVG A AB
Condition
- Cover
- VG+
- Vinyl
- VG+
Variant chronology
1955 - US first press, yellow/black 'fireworks' label, 446 W. 50th St. N.Y.C. address, deep groove both sides, RVG etching <- this copy
c. 1958-63 - yellow label, 203 S. Washington Ave., Bergenfield, N.J. address
1964-71 - blue/silver trident label reissues
1980s-90s - OJC/Fantasy reissues (OJC-005)
2000s-present - modern audiophile/budget reissues
This Pressing
1st press (mono, 1955) - yellow/black fireworks label, 446 W. 50th St. address; deep groove both sides, RVG etch + AB plant stamp, first-lacquer '-1' on side A.
The Album
Dig collects the bulk of a single October 5, 1951 session, one of the first jazz dates conceived with the new long-playing format in mind, letting the musicians stretch beyond three-minute 78 constraints. It documents the first extended studio partnership between Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, alongside a teenaged Jackie McLean still deep in his Charlie Parker apprenticeship; Parker himself reportedly visited the studio during the date. 'Dig' and 'Denial' are Davis contrafacts built on 'Sweet Georgia Brown' and 'It's Only a Paper Moon' changes respectively, 'Bluing' is an extended blues meditation, and 'Out of the Blue' went on to become a jazz staple. The session falls in Miles's early-1950s Prestige years, after Birth of the Cool but before his mid-decade heroin struggles and his celebrated 1954-55 comeback dates, capturing him consolidating a harder, more driving post-bop language against Art Blakey's explosive drumming. The two remaining performances from the date, 'Conception' and 'My Old Flame,' appeared on the companion LP Conception (PRLP 7013). Ira Gitler's original liner notes frame the record as a landmark in the Davis-Rollins relationship, and it has since been recognized as a foundational hard-bop document and an early showcase for Rollins's emerging voice.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Dig
2. It's Only a Paper Moon
3. Denial
Side 2
1. Bluing
2. Out of the Blue
The Label
The side labels show the classic yellow-and-black 'fireworks' Prestige design, single '@'-style swirl logo upper left and starburst upper right, rim text reading 'PRESTIGE RECORDS INC. • 446 W. 50th ST., N.Y.C.' with 'LONG PLAYING MICROGROOVE' arced below, deep groove present on both sides. Prestige occupied the 446 W. 50th St. address from 1955 until moving to Bergenfield, N.J. around 1958, so this address places the pressing squarely in the 1955-58 window and, combined with the '447 West 50th Street' catalog address on the jacket, into the 1955-56 first-issue period specifically. The runouts carry hand-etched RVG with AB (Abbey Record Mfg.) plant stamps and a first-lacquer 'PRLP-7012-A-1' marking on side 1, consistent with an original 1955 Van Gelder-remastered pressing rather than a later Bergenfield-era repress on the same metal.
Fidelity
Cut and remastered for LP by Rudy Van Gelder (hand-etched RVG in the deadwax and back-cover credit) from the October 1951 session tapes, pressed at Abbey (AB stamps). Original mono deep-groove copies like this are the benchmark for the title among collectors on the forums, offering a warm, present midrange typical of Van Gelder's early remastering work, though the underlying 1951 recording predates his Hackensack studio and lacks the bloom of his later sessions. Later Bergenfield-address pressings share the same stampers and sound very close; OJC/Fantasy reissues and modern audiophile reissues are competent but sit a generation removed from this first-cut pressing.
Notes
1955 Prestige PRLP 7012 mono - original first pressing. Yellow/black fireworks labels with 446 W. 50th St., N.Y.C. address (Prestige's 1955-58 home) and deep groove on both sides. The runouts carry hand-etched RVG, AB (Abbey) plant stamps, and a first-lacquer '-1' on side 1; back cover credits 'remastered by Van Gelder' and gives the 447 W. 50th St. catalog address, all locking this into the 1955 first-issue window. Session recorded October 5, 1951; LP released 1955.
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