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
Kind of Blue
1997 · Classic Records (Columbia catalog number retained) CS 8163 · Stereo · US · LP, test pressing · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Classic Records (Columbia catalog number retained) |
|---|
| Catalogue number | CS 8163 |
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| Year | 1997 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Stereo |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | LP, test pressing |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz - Modal Jazz |
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| Producer | Irving Townsend (original 1959 production); Michael Hobson (Classic Records reissue producer); Bernie Grundman (mastering) |
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| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet, leader), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone, courtesy of Riverside Records; not on "Blue in Green"), Bill Evans (piano, all tracks except "Freddie Freeloader"), Wynton Kelly (piano, courtesy of Riverside Records, "Freddie Freeloader" only), Paul Chambers (bass), Jimmy Cobb (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: CS 8163-A T BG
Side B: CS 8163-B T BG 08
Condition
- Cover
- NM
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1959 - US Columbia 6-eye label, mono/stereo (CL 1355/CS 8163), NY manufactured
1963-1965 - US Columbia 2-eye label (Guaranteed High Fidelity)
c.1970-1976 - US Columbia orange label (360 Sound Stereo)
1977 - US Columbia Terre Haute press, orange label
1980 - CBS Mastersound half-speed mastered LP (HC 44087)
1995/1997 - Classic Records CS 8163, 200g Quiex SV-P, Bernie Grundman all-tube cut
1997 - Classic Records RTI white-label TEST PRESSING (pre-release) <- this copy
2001 - Classic Records reissue, same catalog/jacket (repress run)
2008 - Classic Records 200g Clarity Vinyl reissue
2009 - Sony Legacy/Columbia 50th Anniversary Legacy Edition LP
2022/2025 - Analogue Productions/QRP "Corrected Speed" 45RPM & 33 1/3 reissues
This Pressing
1997 RTI white-label TEST PRESSING for the Classic Records CS 8163 audiophile reissue - stamped 'APR 2 1997', matrix CS 8163 A1/B1 with BG (Bernie Grundman) lacquer suffix, sitting above the retail 200g run in the pressing hierarchy.
The Album
Recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York on March 2 and April 22, 1959, Kind of Blue grew out of Miles Davis's turn toward modal composition, developed in dialogue with pianist Bill Evans, with the band given only skeletal scales and melodic sketches rather than fully written charts. The septet paired Davis with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley on saxophones, Bill Evans on piano (with Wynton Kelly sitting in for "Freddie Freeloader"), Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums, letting contrasting horn voices and two pianists explore the same modal frameworks from different angles. The album arrived at the peak of Davis's late-1950s creative run and marked a decisive break from bebop's harmonic density toward a spacious, scale-based improvisational language. Its relaxed tempos, blues-inflected melodies, and largely first-take performances captured a spontaneity that Evans, in his own liner note, likened to a painter working directly onto parchment without revision. Kind of Blue is widely regarded as the best-selling and most influential jazz album ever recorded, routinely cited as the genre's essential entry point and a fixture on best-album lists across all styles of music. Its introduction of modal improvisation reshaped jazz soloing vocabulary for generations of musicians who followed.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
Side 2
1. All Blues
2. Flamenco Sketches
The Label
The side labels are plain white RTI (Record Technology Incorporated) stock printed only with the RTI logo, the words "TEST PRESSING," and blank DATE/MATRIX NUMBER fields that have been hand-stamped "APR 2 1997" and "CS 8163 A1/B1" - there is no Columbia or Classic Records branding, deep groove, or track information printed on the label itself. This identifies the disc as a pre-release quality-control pressing struck at RTI for Classic Records' licensed audiophile reissue of Columbia's CS 8163, not a retail copy; Classic Records began issuing CS 8163 on 200g Quiex SV-P vinyl in the mid-1990s with Bernie Grundman recutting lacquers from the original three-track masters (the "BG" suffix in the runout confirms this cutting engineer). The jacket paired with this copy is the eventual 2001-copyright Classic Records/Sony licensed sleeve, but the stamped test-pressing date shows this specific BG lacquer/stamper pair was approved in April 1997, well ahead of that later retail print run. As an approval-stage RTI test pressing, this sits at the top of the Classic Records CS 8163 hierarchy, above the routine 200g retail copies that used the same or a subsequent stamper generation.
Fidelity
The lacquers were cut by Bernie Grundman directly from the original three-track analog session masters with no additional EQ, using Classic Records' all-tube cutting chain, then pressed at RTI on audiophile-grade vinyl; this test pressing captures that same Grundman cut at its earliest, pre-approval stage. Collectors on the forums rate the Classic Records Kind of Blue highly among tape-sourced reissues for openness and low-level detail versus standard CBS/Columbia pressings, though some prefer the later Analogue Productions/QRP 45rpm cut for outright resolution. Within the album's fidelity hierarchy this sits below the original 1959 six-eye Columbia lacquers (prized for tape freshness) and below the 2020s Analogue Productions 'Corrected Speed' 45rpm QRP pressing, but above routine 1970s-80s Columbia reissues and most CD/digital editions; as a test pressing it also offers an unusually clean, low-wear playback surface from that stamper pair.
Notes
This is not a retail copy but an RTI test pressing for Classic Records' audiophile reissue of Kind of Blue (CS 8163). The generic RTI 'TEST PRESSING' labels, rubber-stamped 'APR 2 1997' with matrix 'CS 8163 A1/B1,' identify the lacquer/stamper pair used for quality-control approval ahead of the commercial run. The 'BG' suffix ties the cut to Bernie Grundman's mastering from the original three-track analog masters, distinguishing this from both the vintage Columbia originals and the later retail 200g Quiex pressings. The plain white jacket-adjacent insert matches a test configuration rather than a packaged consumer product, confirming pre-release status.
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