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

c. 1957 · Prestige PRLP 7005 · Mono (1955 pre-stereo issue; no stereo pressing of PRLP 7005 exists) · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Prestige
Catalogue number	PRLP 7005
Year	c. 1957
Mono / Stereo	Mono (1955 pre-stereo issue; no stereo pressing of PRLP 7005 exists)
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Cool Jazz / Third Stream
Producer	Bob Weinstock
Musicians	Milt Jackson (vibraphone), John Lewis (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Connie Kay (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  PRLP-7005-A-1 A RVG
Side B:  PRLP-7005-B-4 B RVG

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: EX

Variant chronology

1955 - US 1st issue: obelisk-photo cover ("Prestige / LP 7005" in red), yellow 446 W. 50th ST. label, mixed-case personnel line, unsuffixed/early A-1/B lacquers, no plant stamp
1957 - Prestige PRES 16-1 two-LP-title repackage pairing 7005 material with Milt Jackson Quartet PRLP 7003
c. 1957 - 2nd issue: "typewriter" text cover (repeated "concorde / the modern jazz quartet / prestige 7005"), same yellow 446 W. 50th ST. label design, ALL-CAPS personnel line, recut A-1/B-4 lacquers, Abbey Record Mfg. stamp  <- this copy
1958-1963 - yellow fireworks label, 203 So. Washington Ave., Bergenfield, N.J. address
c. 1964-1971 - Prestige blue/silver trident label reissue, Bergenfield then Fantasy-era
1970s-80s - Japanese Victor/Prestige licensed reissue LPs with obi
1982 - Original Jazz Classics OJC-002 (Fantasy, Berkeley)
1987-2010s - OJC/Prestige CD, Van Gelder Remaster CD and modern European reissue LPs

This Pressing

2nd pressing (mono, c. 1957) - Prestige typewriter-text cover, all-caps label credits, recut A-1/B-4 RVG lacquers with Abbey stamp on side B; NYC 446 W. 50th label design, deep groove both sides.

The Album

Concorde was recorded in a single session on July 2, 1955 at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio and is the first Modern Jazz Quartet album to feature Connie Kay, who replaced founding drummer Kenny Clarke after Clarke left New York to freelance in Europe. Kay's background in rhythm-and-blues and swing settings, alongside Lester Young, Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins, gave John Lewis the quiet, precisely shaded pulse his writing wanted, and Kay would stay with the group for nearly forty years. Under Lewis's direction the quartet had already begun moving away from the standard bebop combo model toward counterpoint, chamber-scale dynamics and classically derived forms, and the title track, a Lewis fugue with improvised episodes, is one of the boldest attempts of the period to make baroque procedure genuinely swing. The programme balances Milt Jackson's blues-rooted

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Ralph's New Blues (Milt Jackson)
2. All Of You (Cole Porter)
3. I'll Remember April (Raye-DePaul)

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 (Hammerstein-Romberg)
3. Concorde (John Lewis)

The Label

Both side labels carry the yellow Prestige "fireworks/constellation" design used continuously from 1955 to mid-1958 - spiral upper left, starburst upper right, PRESTIGE flag at top, LONG PLAYING MICROGROOVE arc at foot, rim reading PRESTIGE RECORDS INC. • 446 W. 50th ST., N.Y.C. This address and artwork is identical across the 1955 and 1957 issues, so the label design alone cannot separate the two. What does separate them is the front cover and the label typography: this copy carries the second cover design, the all-text "typewriter" jacket repeating "concorde / the modern jazz quartet / prestige 7005", replacing the 1955 obelisk-photograph cover with "Prestige / LP 7005" in red. The label centre print here also reads the personnel line in ALL CAPS.

Fidelity

Recorded and lacquer-cut by Rudy Van Gelder, with RVG etched in both runouts, so this copy still plays from Van Gelder-mastered metal with the close, dry mono balance suited to the MJQ's chamber textures. However side B is a later, Abbey-stamped 4th-cut lacquer rather than the earliest cut on the 1955 issue, and collectors on the forums rate Abbey Record Manufacturing's pressing quality in the later 1950s a notch below the earliest Prestige NYC pressings. In the album's fidelity hierarchy this typewriter-cover, all-caps-label copy sits below the obelisk-cover 1955 first issue, above the later Bergenfield-address pressings and the 1960s trident reissues, and well above the 1982 OJC-002 and the digital Van Gelder Remaster CD, neither of which has displaced the NYC-era RVG cuts.

Notes

Prestige PRLP 7005, mono, US, c. 1957 - this copy is the second issue, identified by the "typewriter" text front cover rather than the 1955 obelisk-photo cover, and by the ALL-CAPS personnel line on the labels. The 446 W. 50th ST. yellow fireworks label design and deep groove are shared with the 1955 first issue and do not by themselves distinguish pressings. The runouts read PRLP-7005-A-1 with a stamped A, and PRLP-7005-B-4 with an Abbey stamp - a recut, later side-B lacquer (4th cut), pressed by Abbey Record Manufacturing Co., versus the earlier A-1/B (no stamp) pairing on the 1955 first issue. Verdict: a genuine NYC-era RVG pressing but a second-issue configuration, ranking below the 1955 first issue.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/the-modern-jazz-quartet-concorde/