MILES DAVIS BITCHES BREW ORIGINAL PRESS DOUBLE LP

$

128

Artist or Band: MILES DAVIS

Album Title: Bitches Brew.

Track Listing: Pharoah’s Dance; Bitches Brew; Spanish Key; John McLaughlin; Miles Runs the Voodoo Down; Sanctuary.

Label/Format: CBS (Full orange original format).

Label Condition: Four absolute stunning, virtual mint ‘as new’ labels. This astonising first press copy has been played only once by the original owner.

Mono or Stereo: Stereo.

Rarity: A genuine first pressing of this monster jazz classic is pretty rare these days, two records that appear like new and feel as heavy as marble with a thickness of vinyl so thick they could have made four ‘normal’ thickness records from this pair.

Original Year of Release: 1969

Matrix Nos: A1, B1, C1 and D1. The faint stampers are all A 0 or 1s. this one is 1E

Brief Artist & Album Info: Is this the greatest jazz album of all time? Well only Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Davis’s < i>are serious contenders for me to challenge this crown. This is a stunning double set and was as pioneering in the field of modern music as any ever made. Its influences can still be heard today and this massive set should even appeal to non-jazz fans.Cover Grade and Format: Strong EX, a gatefold format, not laminated. Printed and made by the E. J. Day Group, London and Bedford.

Cover Front: A splendid front with stunning artwork, even this design entered Davis into new realms of excellence for his covers - this was nearly as groundbreaking as the music enclosed. With such strongly coloured artwork and lack of protection this is prone to wear, grime, rubbing and ringwear - happy to say this front has very little of any of that. This is clean, with small amounts of wear and no ringwear - double sets with heavy records rarely escape this unsightly form of wear. Creasing is confined to just the two bottom corners and these are only relatively light. A few odd general light marks but little spoils this glorious front and it should please most collectors.

Cover Back: Pretty much the same again.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Very clean and little to fault again, classic picture of Davis too.

Top Edge: Very light rub traces.

Bottom Edge: Light(+) rubbing, confined just to the edges, nothing encroaches the important main faces.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, sharp with little wear. Records entered on right outside edges.

Spine and Text: Solid and square with little wear, all text is close to perfect and unworn.

Corners: All four show a little wear, nothing heavy and most around the tip areas. All retain fine shape.

Cover Summary: A lovely all round example of this fragile early 70’s cover, one that could prove hard to find significantly better. This strong item should please many, if not most collectors.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: Anything much less than a Mint grading would be an insult to this pair. I have never seen an original pressing better. A superb visual copy. Super clean, shiny, jet black and very heavily pressed. Barely a mark to be seen, this looks really lovely. A pair not even ‘run-in’ and how many will be found like this? Visually super records that should please every collector around.

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This super pair play up to their high visual grading with little to nothing to fault. Powerful, undistorted sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear, including that awesome trumpet and bass clarinet - sound quality is astonishing with a massive dynamic range and very full sound and detail. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed, all what I played was near perfect and I heard nothing unwanted, and few copies will play better than this. Both channels are clean and sharp, I feel totally sure these records have been on a deck and have been generally well stored and looked after, almost certainly in a non-smoking environment. Little, if anything spoilt my pleasure when partially play-grading this pair. This copy could prove near impossible to find better and I mean that with all sincerity.