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
Miles Davis and Horns
1983 · Original Jazz Classics (Fantasy/Prestige reissue) OJC-053 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Original Jazz Classics (Fantasy/Prestige reissue) |
|---|
| Catalogue number | OJC-053 |
|---|
| Year | 1983 |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
|---|
| Country | US |
|---|
| Format | LP |
|---|
| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz - Bop/Cool Jazz |
|---|
| Producer | Bob Weinstock, Ira Gitler |
|---|
| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Bennie Green (trombone), John Lewis (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Roy Haynes (drums) [Jan. 17, 1951 session]; Miles Davis (trumpet), Al Cohn (tenor sax), Zoot Sims (tenor sax), Sonny Truitt (trombone), John Lewis (piano), Leonard Gaskin (bass), Kenny Clarke (drums) [Feb. 19, 1953 session] |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: OJC 053 A RE1 P
Side B: OJC 053 B RE2 P (AP)
Condition
- Cover
- NM
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1956 - US Prestige yellow/black "fireworks" label, 446 W. 50th St. NYC address, mono, flat cover with matching 446 W. 50th St. back address
1958-1965 - Prestige yellow/black fireworks label, Bergenfield NJ address (203 South Washington Ave)
1965-1971 - Prestige blue/silver logo-era label variants (Bill Grauer/ABC-era reissues)
1972-1979 - Prestige orange/black or later Fantasy-owned label reissue
1983 - Original Jazz Classics OJC-053, blue/cream OJC label, remastered by George Horn (Fantasy Studios), etched "OJC-053" in runout <- this copy
1989 - Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-053-2 (CD reissue)
This Pressing
1983 Original Jazz Classics reissue (mono) - OJC-053, etched "OJC-053 A/B" runout confirms this is the Fantasy-era flat reissue, not the 1956 Prestige NYC original.
The Album
Miles Davis and Horns compiles two early Prestige sessions from opposite ends of Davis's formative post-Parker period: a January 17, 1951 sextet date with Sonny Rollins (their first-ever studio pairing) and Bennie Green, and a February 19, 1953 septet session built around Al Cohn's compositions and arrangements, featuring the contrasting tenors of Cohn and Zoot Sims. Both dates capture Davis still finding his voice after leaving Charlie Parker's group, working in a harmonically rich, horn-heavy format that let him experiment with ensemble textures beyond the standard quartet or quintet. The Cohn-associated material, including "Tasty Pudding" and "Willie The Wailer," showcases a warmer, more relaxed strand of early-1950s bop-adjacent jazz, with Zoot Sims's soloing singled out by critics as a highlight of the session. The 1951 date, meanwhile, is historically important as the first recorded meeting of Davis and Rollins, two musicians who would go on to shape the language of modern jazz. Coming before Davis's mid-1950s quintet breakthroughs, this album offers a glimpse of a still-developing artist testing group concepts that would later inform his more celebrated Prestige and Columbia work. It remains a minor but valued entry in the Davis and Prestige catalogs, prized by collectors more for its personnel and historical placement than for landmark musical innovation, though the Davis-Rollins pairing gives it lasting documentary importance.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Tasty Pudding
2. Floppy
3. Willie The Wailer
Side 2
1. For Adults Only
2. Morpheus
3. Down
4. Blue Room
5. Whispering
The Label
On closer confirmation the disc in hand carries the standard blue-and-cream Original Jazz Classics label design, printed with catalog number OJC-053 rather than the vintage Prestige "fireworks" art - the earlier read of the label as a 1956 446 W. 50th St. NYC pressing was mistaken. OJC was launched by Fantasy Records in 1982-83 specifically to reissue out-of-print Prestige, Riverside, and Milestone titles using flat analog transfers (mastered by George Horn's team at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley), each stamped with a new OJC-prefixed catalog number replacing the original Prestige number. This OJC-053 pressing is properly dated to 1983 and sits far down the PRLP 7025 pressing hierarchy - a straightforward reissue, not the sought-after original NYC first pressing - and the accompanying jacket, while it may reproduce the original Prestige cover art, is an early-1980s OJC printing rather than a period 1956 jacket. The etched runout "OJC-053 A/B" (with RE/GH mastering codes reported on other copies of this release) is the decisive, non-ambiguous evidence for this identification.
Fidelity
The 1983 OJC-053 reissue was mastered flat from tape by George Horn's team at Fantasy Studios (Berkeley), not cut from Rudy Van Gelder's original lacquers, though it still derives from the same 1951/1953 Van Gelder-engineered Prestige sessions. Collectors on forums.stevehoffman.tv generally rate early-1980s OJC flat transfers as accurate and listenable but noticeably less punchy and dynamic than a genuine 1956 Prestige NYC "fireworks" mono original. Within the album's full fidelity hierarchy, this OJC-053 pressing sits in the middle-to-lower tier: above later Fantasy/ABC-era commercial reissues in transfer fidelity, but well below an original NYC first pressing, and there is no audiophile-grade reissue (Music Matters, Analogue Productions, Tone Poet, etc.) of this particular title to compare against.
Notes
Corrected verdict: this copy is the 1983 Original Jazz Classics reissue, catalog OJC-053, not a 1956 Prestige NYC "fireworks" first pressing. The etched runout reading "OJC-053 A/B" is decisive, non-printed dead-wax evidence that overrides any earlier label misidentification. OJC-053 replaced the original PRLP 7025 catalog number as part of Fantasy's early-1980s reissue program of out-of-print Prestige titles, mastered flat from tape by George Horn's team rather than cut from original Van Gelder metal. This places the disc solidly in the mid/lower tier of the PRLP 7025 pressing hierarchy.
Documenting collections
I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a
collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing
collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like
documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch:
email
This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/miles-davis-miles-davis-and-horns-2/
