What were once closely-guarded secrets of the record-collecting inner circle, now thanks to the Internet, everyone including my grandmother knows about the Blue Note “ear”. “Another Lexington sir?” quips the postman as he collects the signature for a recorded delivery. ” Kakubuchi frame cover and flat edge, no doubt? I was saying to the wife only the other day, those cheeky 47 West 63rds with the NY 23 address…” Blue Note knowledge is commonplace, though unfortunately not the original records.
But may be you are still frustrated by the cloud of mystery that confounds the Prestige label. If so, join the club. Search the internet you will find free download music files, small blurred cover photos, discography, session indexes, pages of words galore, but nowhere can you find the obvious – what do the damn things look like? Or may be you know it all. Here’s your chance.
Inspector ‘Foggy’ Day, London Vinyl Detective extraordinaire, runs his magnifying glass over the mysteries of the deadwax, to bring you a visual guide to original pressings of the Prestige label, with added covers – (click pictures twice to view at full screen resolution 1600 x 4000 px)
May be that sounds a bit grand, but its a start. And there’s even more intimate “vinyl close-up” here, at my The Prestige Label Detective page. (Hey not so close! We hardly know each other!) There are three more in forensic detail like the one below. You’ve already seen The Matrix? Not like this you haven’t. (Soon to come, Samples courtesy of “Jack the Ripper”)
7281 Miles Diggin’ released originally on NYC labels, here re-issued on Bergenfield NJ labels in the early Sixties – NJ second issue dates are not well documented
Other forensic examinations from the LondonJazzCollector morgue:
7031 Art Farmer Plays Quincy Jones on NYC
7044 Miles Collectors Item on NYC
7085 When Farmer Met Gryce on NJ
New – Forensic view of a Blue/Trident Prestige reissue, circa 1964. Still has the Van Gelder initials, the AB engraving, but frantic crossing-out and updating of matrix numbers.
Originally issued with one catalogue number, reissued with another, then reissued again this time with different label, the deadwax leaves an audit trail of the reissue process, to maintain the correct identify of stampers in the pressing plant environment. (Deadwax enhancement through Photoshop, by LJC)
LondonJazzCollector 
Aha, sorted. Cutting off and pinning to the wall a front cover of an album like that… Sacrilege!
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Radio for the army, and such is war. War is Hell. Only Peace is worse.
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Indeed this is a start. Let’s hope that there will be more additions, also from others ‘in the know’. Oh, and I have to agree with Randy: the front cover photo of Workin’ by Miles Davis indeed does look kinda, eh… foggy. Just click the trail off etchings overview photo and you’ll see it.
Anyway, who knows you’re onto something that might lead to a book like Dottore’s or Cohen’s! 😉
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Ah the front cover – my bad – the reason the “Workin'” cover is foggy is deliberate. That is a ghostly substitute from the internet deliberately “greyed out” . My copy came from an army radio station with the front cover missing – they cut off the covers for easy of spinning the discs, may be the covers were pinned on the walls, but I dont have a cover front, only the back of the jacket where the DJ wrote various notes to help him with the links on air. So I filled in the empty space with a ghost cover.
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Very nice! How do you manage to get such clear photos of the deadwax engravings? Also, I think it was either a very foggy day in London when you photographed the cover of “Workin'” or something is amiss with your image.
-Randy
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Foggy day, bobbies on bicycles, warm winter mittens, chimney sweeps dancing on the roof, just another day in good ol’ London town.
The trick is to tilt the record to the right angle, lit by window light from behind, so the light just catches the engraving but leaves the vinyl in shadow. Its actually easier to do the reverse ( as in Farmer/Gryce) and let the engraving cast the shadow and the vinyl surface catch the light, but its not as effective as when it is “reversed”” white out of black.
Then it needs just a few tweaks – photoshop highlight/shadow contracts the dynamic range to reveal the engraving clearly, and a mixture of curves and levels puts the dark/light balance back. Simples.
Same principle as the perfect English cricket lawn. Its not difficult, just requires some grass, a roller, and three hundred years.
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