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
Paul Chambers / John Coltrane
High Step
1976 (or later) · Blue Note BN-LA451-H2 · Mono · US · 2xLP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Blue Note |
|---|
| Catalogue number | BN-LA451-H2 |
|---|
| Year | 1976 (or later) |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
|---|
| Country | US |
|---|
| Format | 2xLP, gatefold |
|---|
| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
|---|
| Genre | Jazz - Hard Bop |
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| Producer | Michael Cuscuna (reissue producer); Alfred Lion and Tom Wilson (original session producers) |
|---|
| Musicians | Paul Chambers (bass), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Kenny Drew (piano), Philly Joe Jones (drums) [Side 1 and Side 2 cuts 1-2]; Paul Chambers (bass), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Donald Byrd (trumpet), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Horace Silver (piano), Philly Joe Jones (drums) [Side 2 cuts 3-4, Side 3 cuts 1-2]; Paul Chambers (bass), Curtis Fuller (trombone), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Pepper Adams (baritone saxophone), Roland Alexander (piano), Philly Joe Jones (drums) [Side 3 cut 3, Side 4] |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: BN-LA 451-1- UA #08
Side B: BN-LA 451-2- UA #15
Side C: BN-LA 451-3- UA 02#
Side D: BN-LA 451-4- UA #5
Condition
- Cover
- NM-
- Vinyl
- NM-
Variant chronology
1975 - US Blue Note BN-LA451-H2, 2xLP gatefold, Blue Note Re-Issue Series, mono
1976 - US Blue Note BN-LA451-H2, 2xLP gatefold, Blue Note Re-Issue Series, mono, with LC 02516 label code <- this copy
This Pressing
Later pressing (1976 or after, mono) - Blue Note Re-Issue Series label carrying the LC 02516 label code, placing it after the title's first 1975 pressing run.
The Album
High Step gathers three separate mid-1950s sessions led by bassist Paul Chambers, each one featuring a young John Coltrane still several years from his own breakthrough as a leader. The earliest music dates from a 1955 Boston/Detroit date assembled under a shifting leadership credit between Chambers and trombonist Curtis Fuller; the two 1956 dates, one cut in Los Angeles with pianist Kenny Drew and one in New York with Donald Byrd, Kenny Burrell and Horace Silver, had previously appeared as Chambers' Music and The Whims of Chambers. Blue Note compiled the three sessions into this double LP in the mid-1970s as part of a series devoted to unearthing vault material and out-of-print early sides by major artists. The set captures Chambers, one of the defining bassists of the hard bop era and the anchor of the Miles Davis rhythm section of the period, in a series of leader dates that let his own compositions and ensemble ideas stand alongside standards and group originals. For Coltrane it documents a formative period, heard here as a strong but still-developing voice within someone else's band rather than the forward-looking leader he would soon become. Critics have valued the album chiefly as a showcase for the whole cast - Byrd, Burrell, Silver, Fuller and Philly Joe Jones all get real room to play - with Coltrane and Chambers drawing listeners to a record that rewards attention to the group as a whole.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Dexterity
2. Stablemates
3. Easy To Love
4. Visitation
Side 2
1. John Paul Jones
2. Eastbound
3. Nita
4. Just For The Love
Side 3
1. We Six
2. Omicron
3. High Step
Side 4
1. Trane's Strain
2. Nixon, Dixon And Yates Blues
The Label
The side labels are the blue Blue Note Re-Issue Series design with the b-and-note logo in a dark circle at upper left and the United Artists Music And Records Group rim credit, the design this title carried from its 1975 release. This copy's labels print a label code (LC 02516) beside the United Artists rim text, a mark that did not exist on any record before 1976. A label code can only date a pressing from 1976 forward, so despite the ℗1975 copyright line reproduced on the label, this copy was manufactured in 1976 or later, after the title's first pressing run. It therefore sits below the earliest, code-free copies of BN-LA451-H2 in the pressing hierarchy even though the label artwork and catalogue number are unchanged.
Fidelity
High Step was mastered from the mid-1950s session tapes for its mid-1970s Blue Note Re-Issue Series release rather than cut from a dedicated audiophile source, and the United Artists-era US pressing plants used for the series are generally regarded by collectors as adequate but unremarkable compared to the original Blue Note Lexington/Plastylite-era pressings of this music's component sessions. No audiophile remastering of this specific compilation exists, so this mono pressing - a later repress within the same Re-Issue Series run - sits at the ordinary end of the title's fidelity spectrum rather than near the top of it.
Notes
This is the Blue Note Re-Issue Series mono double LP of High Step, BN-LA451-H2, in its standard gatefold packaging. The labels reproduce the 1975 artwork and copyright line, but they also carry a label code (LC 02516), a mark that only began appearing on records in 1976 - so this specific copy was pressed in 1976 or later, after the title's initial run. The matrix numbers in the runout correspond to the title's standard US stampers. The verdict rests on the label code alone, since every other visible element of the pressing matches the original label design.
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