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
c. 1959-1960 · Columbia CL 1355 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Columbia |
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| Catalogue number | CL 1355 |
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| Year | c. 1959-1960 |
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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 |
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| Genre | Jazz - Modal Jazz |
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| Producer | Irving Townsend |
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| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet, leader), Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto saxophone), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Bill Evans (piano), Wynton Kelly (piano, on "Freddie Freeloader" only), Paul Chambers (bass), James Cobb (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: XLP 47324-1BH
Side B: XLP 47325-1AL P
Condition
- Cover
- VG+
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1959 - Six-eye red/black label, deep groove, earliest stampers (1A/1B/1C), uncorrected Side 2 track order on some copies
1959-1960 - Six-eye red/black label, deep groove, mid-run stampers (1D through low double-letter mothers), corrected Side 2 listing
1960-1961 - Six-eye red/black label, deep groove, later-run stampers (higher double-letter mothers, e.g. this copy)
1961-1962 - Six-eye label, flat edge (deep groove phased out), transitional CBS-overprint stock
1962-1970 - "Guaranteed High Fidelity" 2-eye red label
1970-1982 - Orange label Columbia
1977 - Columbia Half-Speed Mastered / Mastersound audiophile reissue
1997 - Classic Records 200-gram mono reissue
2008 - Legacy 50th Anniversary stereo/mono reissues
2009-present - Various stereo audiophile reissues (Analogue Productions, Music Matters, Mobile Fidelity)
This Pressing
Original six-eye mono pressing (Columbia CL 1355, c. 1959-60) - late-run stamper pair (1BH/1AL), not first-stamper, but within the authentic original six-eye pressing window.
The Album
Kind of Blue was recorded by the Miles Davis Sextet at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York across two sessions in March and April 1959, with the group reading Bill Evans's sketched modal frameworks for the first time at the session rather than rehearsing beforehand, a working method Evans himself described in his own liner-note essay printed on the back cover. Davis had been moving away from dense chord-change improvisation toward modal composition, and this album became the definitive statement of that shift, built on scales rather than chord changes across all five performances. The sextet united Davis with Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane on saxophones, Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums, and both Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly sharing the piano chair, an unusually stacked lineup of musicians who were each already, or would soon become, major bandleaders in their own right. The record arrived at a pivotal moment in Davis's career, following his hard-bop and orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans, and it redirected jazz improvisation toward modal harmony for the following decade. It is widely regarded as the best-selling and most influential jazz album ever made, cited as the entry point to jazz for generations of listeners and a foundational document of modal jazz. Critical reception was immediate and has only grown over the decades, with the album consistently ranked among the greatest recordings in American music.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
Side 2
1. All Blues
2. Flamenco Sketches
The Label
This copy carries the classic Columbia "six-eye" red-and-black label with the arched white COLUMBIA logotype and six perimeter eye-logos, the design bsnpubs and LondonJazzCollector date to roughly 1958-1961 for Columbia mono releases before the label switched to the plain 2-eye "Guaranteed High Fidelity" design around 1961-62. The matrix suffixes XLP47324-1BH / XLP47325-1AL indicate this pressing was cut from comparatively late mother/stamper pairs in the six-eye era rather than the earliest 1A/1B/1C lacquers collectors chase, per the LondonJazzCollector matrix-code census of this title. That places this copy solidly within the original six-eye mono pressing run (not a 2-eye or later reissue) but toward the later end of that run's stamper sequence, below the small handful of true first-stamper copies in the pressing hierarchy.
Fidelity
This is an original 1959-era Columbia mono cutting, mastered from Fred Plaut's session tape by Columbia's in-house mastering staff rather than an outside engineer; the mono mix is generally regarded by collectors (including threads on forums.stevehoffman.tv) as the most faithful rendering of the album's original session balance, since the commonly circulated stereo mix has documented channel and speed anomalies from the master tape. Within the six-eye mono pressing run, sound quality varies by stamper generation, and this copy's later mother/stamper pair (1BH/1AL) places it below the handful of prized first-stamper (1A/1B/1C) copies that collectors and Steve Hoffman forum posters single out as sonically superior, though it remains a legitimate vintage flat, non-remastered six-eye cut. Later audiophile mono reissues, notably Classic Records' 1997 200-gram mono LP and Mobile Fidelity/Music Matters stereo cuts, are prized for quieter surfaces and modern mastering but are generally regarded by mono purists as less essential than an authentic six-eye original for hearing the record as first issued.
Notes
This is a genuine Columbia six-eye mono first-issue-era pressing of CL 1355, identified by the red/black six-eye label design used circa 1958-1961 before Columbia moved to the plain 2-eye label. However, the runout suffixes XLP47324-1BH and XLP47325-1AL are well down the mother/stamper alphabet sequence documented for this title, meaning this is a later six-eye pressing rather than a first-stamper (1A/1B/1C) copy. The side 2 label here lists "All Blues" before "Flamenco Sketches" in the correct (corrected) order, consistent with post-earliest-run six-eye copies. No deep-groove or dead-wax photo was available to confirm the deep-groove ridge; that detail would help further narrow the exact stamper generation.
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