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

Round About Midnight

1957 · Columbia CL 949 · Mono · US (likely Columbia Hollywood pressing plant, per 'H' stamp in runout and single-line label typography) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Columbia
Catalogue number	CL 949
Year	1957
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US (likely Columbia Hollywood pressing plant, per 'H' stamp in runout and single-line label typography)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop
Producer	George Avakian
Performer / Orchestra	The Miles Davis Quintet
Musicians	Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), "Philly Joe" Jones (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  XLP39109-1A
Side B:  XLP39110-1A H1

Condition

Cover: EX
Vinyl: VG+ DEEP GROOVE 6 EYE/VG+ DEEP GROOVE 6 EYE

Variant chronology

1957 - 6-eye deep-groove mono, earliest 1A/1A stampers (NY/Bridgeport, Hollywood or Terre Haute plants)  <- this copy
1957-58 - 6-eye deep-groove mono, later stamper generations (1B-1G etc.)
1958-61 - 6-eye label, deep groove removed
1962-64 - 'Guaranteed High Fidelity' 2-eye red/black label mono
1963-70s - Stereo reissue (CS 8649), 360 Sound red label
1970s - Orange label Columbia reissue
2013 - Sony/Legacy 'Original Jazz Classics'-style 180g mono reissue, Kevin Gray mastering

This Pressing

Early mono pressing (1957) - Columbia 6-eye deep-groove label with single-line title/artist layout; XLP39109-1A/XLP39110-1A low-generation stampers place it near the front of the original pressing run.

The Album

Round About Midnight was Miles Davis's debut for Columbia Records, recorded while he was still technically under contract to Prestige, with sessions in October 1955 and June and September 1956 at Columbia's New York studios. It introduced what became known as Davis's first great quintet - John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones - a group whose interplay reshaped small-group jazz and launched Coltrane toward his own historic career. The album is built around Thelonious Monk's title tune plus a mix of standards ("All of You," "Bye Bye Blackbird") and bebop repertoire (Charlie Parker's "Ah-Leu-Cha," Tadd Dameron's "Tadd's Delight"), showcasing Davis's newly matured, muted-trumpet lyricism alongside Coltrane's harder-edged tenor. It marked the moment Davis moved from Prestige's small-label hard bop scene to the resources and reach of a major label, setting the stage for the decade of landmark Columbia albums that followed. Critically the record is regarded as a cornerstone of hard bop and one of the definitive statements of the mid-1950s jazz quintet format, later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Its blend of controlled intensity and modern harmonic sophistication has made it a perennial entry on best-jazz-album lists and a foundational listen for understanding Davis's evolution from bebop sideman to bandleader innovator.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. 'Round Midnight
2. Ah-Leu-Cha
3. All of You

Side 2

1. Bye Bye Blackbird
2. Tadd's Delight
3. Dear Old Stockholm

The Label

This copy carries the Columbia deep-groove 6-eye label with 'ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT' and 'THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET' each printed on a single line, the classic 1956-58 Columbia mono design used before the deep groove and 6-eye logo were phased out in the early 1960s. The stamped runout reads XLP39109-1A / XLP39110-1A with an 'H'-type plant mark, consistent with an early-generation stamper pressed at one of Columbia's regional plants (Hollywood being the most likely match given the single-line label layout documented on Discogs for that pressing branch) rather than the later multi-line-title label variant tracked under other Discogs entries. The low stamper suffix ('1A' on both sides) indicates this disc was cut very early in the pressing run for CL 949, placing it at or near the front of the six-eye deep-groove pressing sequence rather than a mid-run or later reissue stamper. Exact plant attribution (Hollywood vs. Bridgeport/NY vs. Terre Haute) cannot be pinned down with total certainty from the transcription alone; a dead-wax photo showing the full plant symbol would settle it definitively.

Fidelity

This is an original 1957 Columbia mono cut, mastered from the analog session tapes engineered by Frank Laico rather than any later remaster; deep-groove 6-eye Columbia pressings of this era are generally well-regarded by collectors on forums.stevehoffman.tv for their warm, direct mono presentation, though quality can vary somewhat by pressing plant and stamper generation. Within the album's overall fidelity hierarchy this six-eye deep-groove mono sits near the top alongside other early-stamper six-eye copies, ranked above later 1960s-70s reissues (Guaranteed High Fidelity 2-eye, orange-label Columbia, and stereo remixes/rechannelings) but generally considered comparable to or just behind the most sought-after modern audiophile mono remasters, such as the 2013 Sony Legacy/Kevin Gray-mastered 180g mono reissue, which many forum listeners praise for added clarity while still crediting the original six-eye pressings with superior vintage tonal character.

Notes

1957 Columbia CL 949 mono - early original pressing. Deep-groove 6-eye label with 'ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT' and 'THE MILES DAVIS QUINTET' each on one line matches the earliest documented Discogs label design for this catalog number. Stamped runout XLP39109-1A / XLP39110-1A (with an 'H'-type plant mark) indicates an early stamper generation, likely from one of Columbia's regional plants rather than a later-run pressing. No stereo, budget, or record-club markings are present, consistent with a standard-issue original mono first pressing rather than a reissue.

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