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
The Modern Jazz Quartet
Concorde
1955 · Prestige PRLP 7005 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Prestige |
|---|
| Catalogue number | PRLP 7005 |
|---|
| Year | 1955 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz - Cool Jazz / Third Stream |
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| Producer | Bob Weinstock |
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| Musicians | Milt Jackson (vibraphone), John Lewis (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Connie Kay (drums); Rudy Van Gelder (engineer, uncredited beyond "Engineering by Van Gelder" on the jacket) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: PRLP-7005-A-1 RVG
Side B: PRLP-7005-B RVG
Condition
- Cover
- VG
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1955 - US Prestige yellow/black "fireworks" label, 446 W. 50th St. NYC rim credit, mixed-case musician credits, first (obelisk photo) cover, PRLP-7005-A-1 / PRLP-7005-B lacquers with no plant stamp <- this copy
1957 - same 446 W. 50th St. NYC label but ALL-CAPS musician credits, second "typewriter-text" cover, side B recut as PRLP-7005-B-4 with Abbey pressing stamp
1958-1964 - yellow/black fireworks label moved to 203 South Washington Ave., Bergenfield NJ address
1964-1971 - Prestige trident-logo label, Bergenfield NJ
1972 - Prestige PRST-24005 2LP twofer coupling
1982 - Original Jazz Classics OJC-002 reissue
This Pressing
1st issue (mono, 1955) - first obelisk-photo cover, mixed-case label credits, un-recut PRLP-7005-A-1/B lacquers, deep groove; earlier than the later all-caps/typewriter-cover pressing.
The Album
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio on 2 July 1955, Concorde was the Modern Jazz Quartet's first album conceived from the outset for the 12-inch LP, and Ira Gitler's notes invite the listener to hear it as a set played at a leading jazz room rather than a string of singles. It is also the first MJQ record with Connie Kay, who had just replaced founding drummer Kenny Clarke; Kay's brushwork and mallet colours immediately sharpened the group's chamber-scale dynamics. The programme balances Milt Jackson's blues writing - "Ralph's New Blues," dedicated to critic Ralph Gleason - with standards recast in the quartet's contrapuntal manner ("All Of You," "I'll Remember April," "Softly As In A Morning Sunrise") and a four-song Gershwin medley in which melody is passed among Heath, Lewis and Jackson. The title piece is John Lewis's fugue, a Paris-named companion to "Vendome" and "Elysees" whose Baroque procedures nod to Bach's Musical Offering while leaving the episodes improvised. The MJQ had grown out of the Dizzy Gillespie big band's rhythm section and, under Lewis's musical direction, became the most durable and most formally ambitious small group in jazz, playing concert halls in dinner jackets without surrendering Jackson's blues heat. Concorde caught them at the moment that identity locked in - the year of Newport, Berkshire and Down Beat poll wins for Jackson - and critics have cited it ever since as an early, unforced demonstration that jazz could take on classical form and still swing. It remains a cornerstone of the Third Stream story and one of the quartet's best-loved albums.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Ralph's New Blues
2. All Of You
3. I'll Remember April
Side 2
1. Gershwin Medley: Soon; For You, For Me, Forevermore; Love Walked In; Our Love Is Here To Stay
2. Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
3. Concorde
The Label
The side-label photo shows the same yellow-centre/black-perimeter "fireworks" design used throughout the 446 W. 50th St., N.Y.C. era - one PRESTIGE box logo at top, LONG PLAYING MICROGROOVE arc at bottom, spiral and starburst rim graphics, deep groove both sides - so the label ARTWORK is identical between this copy and Prestige's other 7005 NYC pressing. The distinguishing mark is TYPOGRAPHY: the musician credit line here reads in mixed case ("Milt Jackson, vibes; John Lewis, piano; Percy Heath, bass; Connie Kay, drums"), the earlier credit setting, later reset in ALL CAPS for the pressing tied to the second, "typewriter-text" cover. Combined with the un-recut side B lacquer (PRLP-7005-B with no plant stamp, versus the later PRLP-7005-B-4 Abbey-stamped recut) and the first, Place de la Concorde obelisk-photo front cover, this places the copy at the very head of the PRLP 7005 pressing hierarchy - the first label typesetting, first cover, first lacquer pairing, made before Prestige's August 1958 move to Bergenfield NJ and before the mid-run recutting and cover change of the later pressing.
Fidelity
Cut by Rudy Van Gelder from his own Hackensack session tapes; side A carries the -A-1 lacquer and side B is the original, un-recut PRLP-7005-B lacquer with no plant stamp, making this the earliest surviving cutting pair for the title - one generation ahead of the later PRLP-7005-B-4 Abbey-stamped recut found on the second-cover/all-caps pressing. The sound is classic early Van Gelder mono - forward vibes and piano, a slightly boomy Percy Heath bass, drums set back - on quiet, heavy-vinyl 1955 NYC pressing stock. Collectors on the forums rate the NYC-label Prestige monos as the most natural-sounding versions of these sessions, ahead of the Bergenfield-era repressings, the OJC-002 reissue (thinner, flatter), and the 2008 RVG Remasters CD (brighter, compressed). With no audiophile reissue of Concorde in circulation, this un-recut first-lacquer NYC copy sits at the very top of the title's fidelity hierarchy, just ahead of the later same-label but recut-B pressing.
Notes
1955 Prestige PRLP 7005 mono - the earliest PRLP 7005 pressing configuration. Front cover is the first design (Place de la Concorde obelisk photo); the yellow 446 W. 50th St. NYC fireworks label carries mixed-case musician credits, the first typesetting, ahead of the later all-caps credit line paired with the second "typewriter-text" cover. The runouts, PRLP-7005-A-1 and an un-recut PRLP-7005-B with no pressing-plant stamp, confirm this is the first side-B lacquer, predating the later PRLP-7005-B-4 Abbey-stamped recut. All three markers - cover, label typography, and lacquer/stamper state - agree and point to the same early-1955 pressing window, before any Bergenfield NJ re-address.
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