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 And Milt Jackson
Quintet / Sextet
1956 · Prestige PRLP 7034 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Prestige |
|---|
| Catalogue number | PRLP 7034 |
|---|
| Year | 1956 |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
|---|
| Country | US |
|---|
| Format | LP |
|---|
| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz - Hard Bop |
|---|
| Producer | Bob Weinstock |
|---|
| Musicians | Miles Davis (trumpet), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Jackie McLean (alto sax, on Dr. Jackle & Minor March), Ray Bryant (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Arthur Taylor (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: PRLP-7034-A C RVG
Side B: PRLP-7034-B B RVG
Condition
- Cover
- VG WATER DAMAGE/P WATER DAMAGE
- Vinyl
- VG+ DEEP GROOVE/VG+ DEEP GROOVE
Variant chronology
1956 - Yellow/black "fireworks" label, deep groove, 446 W. 50th St. NYC address, RVG etched in deadwax <- this copy
1958 - Yellow fireworks label, Bergenfield, N.J. address, "HIGH FIDELITY" at right of labels
c. 1960s - Silver/black "Prestige" logo label, no deep groove
1968 - Reissued as Miles Davis "Odyssey!" Prestige PRST 7540 (stereo reprocessed)
1982 - Original Jazz Classics OJC-012 reissue
This Pressing
1st press (mono, 1956) - Prestige yellow/black fireworks label, deep groove, 446 W. 50th St. NYC address; RVG etched in deadwax.
The Album
Recorded on August 5, 1955 at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio and issued by Bob Weinstock's Prestige label in August 1956, this session paired Miles Davis with vibraphonist Milt Jackson for a one-off "all-star" date that used none of Davis's regular working-group members of the period. The billed "quintet/sextet" distinction refers to the addition of a young Jackie McLean, who sits in on alto sax for his own two compositions, "Dr. Jackle" and "Minor March," while the remaining tracks feature the core quintet of Davis, Jackson, pianist Ray Bryant, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Arthur Taylor. The record arrived during Davis's prolific mid-1950s run of Prestige sessions that preceded his signing to Columbia, capturing him at a pivotal moment just before he assembled his classic quintet with John Coltrane. Thad Jones's "Bitty Ditty" and Bryant's blues-based closer "Changes" round out a compact, blowing-session program that showcases the easy interplay between Davis's understated lyricism and Jackson's fluid, blues-drenched vibraphone lines. The album has long been valued by hard-bop collectors as an early, informal document of two major voices of the era working together outside their usual bandstands, and it remains a minor but respected entry in Davis's vast Prestige discography, later reissued under the alternate title "Odyssey!" and as part of the Original Jazz Classics reissue series.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Dr. Jackle
2. Bitty Ditty
Side 2
1. Minor March
2. Blues Changes
The Label
This copy carries the earliest Prestige label design for PRLP 7034: yellow labels with the black curved "Prestige" fireworks graphic, deep-groove ring stamped into both sides, and the "Prestige Records Inc. • 446 W. 50th St., N.Y.C." address arced around the rim. Prestige used the 446 W. 50th Street NYC address from its founding through 1957, after which the company relocated to Bergenfield, New Jersey and the labels were updated to reflect that address (a change documented on bsnpubs' Prestige label-history timeline). Deep-groove pressing plus the NYC address places this copy squarely in the first-pressing manufacturing run made at the time of the album's original August 1956 release, ahead of the later Bergenfield-address and subsequent silver/black-label repressings.
Fidelity
Mastered by Rudy Van Gelder directly from his own Hackensack session tape, this deep-groove NYC-address pressing represents the closest generation to the original 1955 masters and is the cut most prized by Prestige collectors and Steve Hoffman forum posters for its warmth and presence, though period Prestige pressings can vary in surface quality plant-to-plant. It ranks above the later Bergenfield-address and silver-label Prestige repressings, the 1968 "Odyssey!" reprocessed-stereo reissue, and the OJC vinyl/CD reissues, none of which carry the same first-generation Van Gelder lacquer; there is no widely noted audiophile (Analogue Productions/Music Matters-style) remaster of this specific title to compare against.
Notes
1956 Prestige PRLP 7034 mono - original first pressing. Deep-groove yellow "fireworks" labels with the 446 W. 50th St., N.Y.C. address (used by Prestige only through 1957, per bsnpubs) confirm this predates the Bergenfield, NJ address change seen on later copies. RVG hand-etched in the deadwax on both sides matches Van Gelder's original 1955/56 lacquers for this catalog number; the collector's transcribed stamped letters ("C" on side A, "B" on side B) are consistent with the early stamper-letter sequence Discogs documents for this pressing. Released August 1956.
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