Two highly sought after, deeply collectible, early Miles Davis LPs have just received the audiophile spa reissue treatment from Craft Recordings’ Original Jazz Classics (OJC) series: 1957’s Walkin’ and 1955’s The Musing Of Miles. These all-analog (AAA) reissues were cut directly from the original master tapes, both recorded by the legendary Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, NJ, and meticulously remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.
The dead quiet, black, 180-gram vinyl was pressed at the respected RTI facilities. Both are available for $38.98 each via Amazon (links in the titles) or at your favorite music shop.
While there are some minor — inevitable — tape dropouts apparent on Workin’, overall the tapes sound remarkable for their age and these pressings are excellent.
Walkin’ features sessions from 1954 revolving around a core quartet — Davis, Horace Silver, Percy Heath, Kenny Clarke — in expanded sextet and quintet settings. The music is super enjoyable and straight ahead. Its easy to love hard boppin’ workouts such as Lou Donaldson’s swingin’ “Love Me Or Leave Me” and Dizzy Gillespie’s “Blue ’N Boogie.” But the slow swagger title track “Walkin’” will easily have you humming along and tapping your toes in time.
The Musings Of Miles was Davis’ first 12-inch LP and includes the great Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums and bassist Oscar Pettiford. Here they cover Gillespie’s classic “A Night In Tunisia” and apparently Jones used special sticks with little cymbals riveted to them for added shimmer.
Quality reissues of these albums have been long overdue and Craft Recordings set the bar high throughout its OJC series. In case you are wondering what it might cost to obtain a rare original in condition approaching that of a brand new quality reissue like this, following are some quick stats (if you will) via music online marketplace Discogs. At the time of this writing, Walkin’ would cost you anywhere from $250 to $700 for a “VG-plus” condition copy. The Musings Of Miles can run upwards of $650 for a super clean original. These prices are not surprising to me and in keeping with what I’ve seen being sold at collectors shops over the years.
That said, I suspect these OJC editions will satisfy most audiophile vinyl enthusiasts. They sound and look great. The cover quality is excellent, recreating original artwork and manufactured like 1950s releases of thick cardboard stock. They’ve even recreated the “fireworks” design Prestige Records labels of that time period. Save for a new catalog ID number, these are quality reproductions and very reasonably priced.
In closing, I’ll offer a little personal reflection on this golden age of reissues we are enjoying. Back in the mid 70s when I was still in Jr. High, I started seeking out used early pressings of vintage albums because I wanted the original packaging and better sound compared to the weak reissues most labels were issuing at the time. Fifty years on, we are finally getting the kind of quality reissues many (dare I say, most) of us have wanted all along due to the efforts of companies like Craft Recordings. Bravo!
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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