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

Thad Jones

After Hours

c. 1972-1996 (Fantasy-era reissue; catalog format) · Prestige PR-7118 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Prestige
Catalogue number	PR-7118
Year	c. 1972-1996 (Fantasy-era reissue; catalog format)
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop/Blues Jam Session
Producer	Bob Weinstock
Composer	Mal Waldron
Musicians	Thad Jones (trumpet), Frank Wess (flute, tenor sax), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Mal Waldron (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Arthur Taylor (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  PR-7118 A1 (T)
Side B:  PR-7118 B1 (T)

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: NM

Variant chronology

1957 - US Prestige, yellow/black label, 446 W. 50th St. NYC address, deep groove, RVG stamp (mono, original)
1959 - UK Esquire 32-080 reissue
1963 - US Prestige PR/PRLP 7278 mono repress (retitled catalog no.) - No documented sale found for this variant
1963-64 - US Prestige PRST 7278 stereo reissue, remastered - No documented sale found for this variant
1971-1996 - US Fantasy-era Prestige PR-7118 reissue, symbol-ring label (no NYC address), non-RVG runout  <- this copy
1974 - Japan Prestige LPR 88017, mono reissue with obi
1991 - US Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-1782-2 reissue, remastered - No documented sale found for this variant
1996 - US Prestige PR-7118/7118/LP 7118 reissue, mono - No documented sale found for this variant
2009 - Japan Prestige UCCO-9797, remastered, limited reissue - No documented sale found for this variant
2025 - Craft Recordings CR00868, 180g reissue (in print)

This Pressing

Fantasy-era reissue (symbol-ring Prestige label, no NYC address) - not the 1957 NYC first pressing.

The Album

Recorded June 21, 1957 at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio, After Hours is one of a loose string of unrehearsed blues-based jam sessions Prestige built around its bullpen of contract musicians in the mid-1950s, nominally fronted here by trumpeter Thad Jones. Jones, fresh from his celebrated run in the Count Basie orchestra (which he'd joined in 1954), leads a group of Prestige regulars - Frank Wess on flute and tenor, guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Mal Waldron, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Arthur Taylor - through four extended, mostly blues-form performances that stretch past eight and even twelve minutes apiece. Mal Waldron, the label's de facto house pianist and a prolific composer for these dates, is credited with all four originals, giving the loosely structured jam a real compositional backbone beneath the solos. The album's concept, as the back-cover notes by Ira Gitler frame it, is mood music for musicians' own after-work hours - relaxed, unhurried blowing sessions that let the individual voices (Wess's flute on

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Steamin' 9:20
2. Blue Jelly 11:20

Side 2

1. Count One 8:00
2. Empty Street 12:35

The Label

Prestige dropped the 446 W. 50th St./Bergenfield NYC-era label after Bob Weinstock sold the company to Fantasy Records in 1971, replacing it with the symbol-ring design (no street address) seen on this copy. Fantasy-era Prestige pressings are generally regarded as feeble pressings relative to the NYC originals, placing this copy in the post-1971 Fantasy manufacturing era rather than the 1957 first-issue window.

Fidelity

Fantasy-era Prestige pressings made after the 1971 Berkeley takeover are generally regarded as feeble pressings compared to the original Van Gelder-cut NYC-era discs, and this copy's non-RVG runout places it in that later, sonically lesser tier, well below the 1957 original and also below the audiophile 2025 Craft Recordings OJC reissue.

Notes

This copy's symbol-ring Prestige label with no street address dates to after Fantasy's 1971 purchase of Prestige, and its runout (PR-7118 A1/B1, no RVG or ear stamp) confirms it is a later Fantasy-manufactured pressing rather than the 1957 Van Gelder-cut original.

Documenting collections

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