Mysteries of “Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Chicago”

KEYWORDS:
Jazz, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, John Coltrane,
EmArcy, MG-36161, Mercury, MG-20449, SR-60134, 71712, Limelight, LM-82009, LS-86009, L-3055,
dead wax, pressing plant, Indianapolis, Richmond, Columbia label

The Exploration Started Like This...

“Cannonball Adderley Quintet In Chicago” (Mercury MG-20449 / SR-60134), Julian “Cannonball” Adderley's last recorded session on EmArcy / Mercury label (February 3, 1959), is definitely a famous and highly acclaimed album. All members on this album were sidemen working with Miles Davis' group at the Sutherland Hotel in Chicago, Illinois in 1959, and they recorded this album without the leader Miles Davis (BTW on the very same date, Vee-Jay label recorded another session headed by Paul Chambers. The session can be heard on Vee-Jay VJLP-1014 “Go / Paul Chambers”). The rock-solid rhythm section by Kelly - Chambers - Cobb is refreshing, while Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane play supreme chase from different musical approaches from each other, proving both Jazz giants' unique talents. Anyway, this is an awesome album. According to the liner notes, this recording was cut at the Universal Recording Studio B, Chicago, Illinois. The producer was Jack Tracy, and the engineer was Bernie Clapper.

Well, it was sometime in 2001 when I firstly obtained this LP - it was stereo edition (Mercury SR-60134). At the time, I didn't know any of systematic information and knowledge about Mercury label and related. And I didn't have any useful trivia of “which is the original 1st pressing?” et cetera. So I just enjoyed playing the disc on my turntable, without taking care of such complicated and freaky matters as “matrix stamps” and ”deep grooves” ... the music and the performance comes first. What else I need??

Later, since June 2002 (when I started this Mercury site), I have been collecting many Mercury vinyls, examining various information of their data (and I am doing this almost every day now) in the sense of “Vinyl Archaeology”. And over such daily work, the design of the label (right photo) gradually weighed on my mind. I was not sure, but I thought this label design was somewhat different from other Mercury titles in similar period. Then I concluded at the time that this label might indicate this copy was NOT original 1st pressing.

A certain event suddenly made me go toward much detailed researches and explorations on this mystery. It was February 7, 2004, when Refugee-san and several members of “Searching Japanese Papersleeve CDs” web site came to my house. We all enjoyed listening to various LPs, and we discussed many about “sound difference among discs with different matrixes” by auditioning many copies of equivalent titles. The “Quintet In Chicago” LP was one of them. I had one copy, and Refugee-san had another with him. We auditioned both copies, looked very closely at both discs and jacket covers, discussed in various aspects, then we concluded that both copies probably were not original 1st pressings.

After that day, I always thought “what is the definitive checkpoints to discriminate original pressings of MG-20449 / SR-60134 ?” and “how is it possible for us to distinguish original pressings from late pressings?” Then nine months have passed - I have tried to gather various informative materials, as well as many copies of “Quintet In Chicago” LPs, looked very carefully at them, auditioned each other... And finally I came to a certain conclusion (although there is still a enigma or two). Furthermore, I could happen to know some unexpected (but interesting) facts through the research.

This article is bit lengthy (there are five more pages), but please read on...

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