PRESTIGE 5-LP RSD Box PRS-36036-01 MILES DAVIS 10" Prestige Vol. 2 - 2015 USA SS

Sold Date: July 5, 2020
Start Date: August 19, 2019
Final Price: $199.99 $180.00 (CAD)
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Background - Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Davis played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless Harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to his instrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlingly protean. To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-'40s to the early '90s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes, both with his own performances and recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaborators who forged new directions. It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn't there to push it forward.

Davis was the son of a dental surgeon, Dr. Miles Dewey Davis, Jr., and a music teacher, Cleota Mae (Henry) Davis, and grew up in the black middle class of East St. Louis after the family moved there shortly after his birth. He became interested in music during his childhood and by the age of 12 began taking trumpet lessons. While still in high school, he started to get jobs playing in local bars and at 16 was playing gigs out of town on weekends. At 17, he joined Eddie Randle's Blue Devils, a territory band based in St. Louis. He enjoyed a personal apotheosis in 1944, just after graduating from high school, when he saw and was allowed to sit in with Billy Eckstine's big band, which was playing in St. Louis. The band featured trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker, the architects of the emerging bebop style of jazz, which was characterized by fast, inventive soloing and dynamic rhythm variations.
It is striking that Davis fell so completely under Gillespie and Parker's spell, since his own slower and less flashy style never really compared to theirs. But bebop was the new sound of the day, and the young trumpeter was bound to follow it. He did so by leaving the Midwest to attend the Institute of Musical Art in New York City (renamed Juilliard) in September 1944. Shortly after his arrival in Manhattan, he was playing in clubs with Parker, and by 1945 he had abandoned his academic studies for a full-time career as a jazz musician, initially joining Benny Carter's band and making his first recordings as a sideman. He played with Eckstine in 1946-1947 and was a member of Parker's group in 1947-1948, making his recording debut as a leader on a 1947 session that featured Parker, pianist John Lewis, bassist Nelson Boyd, and drummer Max Roach. This was an isolated date, however, and Davis spent most of his time playing and recording behind Parker. But in the summer of 1948, he organized a nine-piece band with an unusual horn section. In addition to himself, it featured an alto saxophone, a baritone saxophone, a trombone, a French horn, and a tuba. This nonet, employing arrangements by Gil Evans and others, played for two weeks at the Royal Roost in New York in September. Earning a contract with Capitol Records, the band went into the studio in January 1949 for the first of three sessions and produced 12 tracks that attracted little attention at first. The band's relaxed sound, however, affected the musicians who played it, among them Kai Winding, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, J.J. Johnson, and Kenny Clarke, and it had a profound influence on the development of the cool jazz style on the West Coast. (In February 1957, Capitol finally issued the tracks together on an LP called Birth of the Cool.)
Davis, meanwhile, had moved on to co-leading a band with pianist Tadd Dameron in 1949, and the group took him out of the country for an appearance at the Paris Jazz Festival in May. But the trumpeter's progress was impeded by an addiction to heroin that plagued him in the early '50s. His performances and recordings became more haphazard, but in January 1951 he began a long series of recordings for the Prestige label that became his main recording outlet for the next several years. He managed to kick his habit by the middle of the decade, and he made a strong impression playing "'Round Midnight" at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1955, a performance that led major-label Columbia to sign him. The prestigious contract allowed him to put together a permanent band, and he organized a quintet featuring saxophonist John Coltrane, pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones, who began recording his Columbia debut, 'Round About Midnight, in October.
As it happened, however, he had a remaining five albums on his Prestige contract, and over the next year he was forced to alternate his Columbia sessions with sessions for Prestige to fulfill this previous commitment. The latter resulted in the Prestige albums The New Miles Davis Quintet, Cookin', Workin', Relaxin', and Steamin', making Davis' first quintet one of his better-documented outfits. In May 1957, just three months after Capitol released the Birth of the Cool LP, Davis again teamed with arranger Gil Evans for his second Columbia LP, Miles Ahead. Playing flügelhorn, Davis fronted a big band on music that extended the Birth of the Cool concept and even had classical overtones. Released in 1958, the album was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, intended to honor recordings made before the Grammy Awards were instituted in 1959.
In December 1957, Davis returned to Paris, where he improvised the background music for the film L'Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud. Jazz Track, an album containing this music, earned him a 1960 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance, Solo or Small Group. He added saxophonist Cannonball Adderley to his group, creating the Miles Davis Sextet, which recorded Milestones in April 1958. Shortly after this recording, Red Garland was replaced on piano by Bill Evans and Jimmy Cobb took over for Philly Joe Jones on drums. In July, Davis again collaborated with Gil Evans and an orchestra on an album of music from Porgy and Bess. Back in the sextet, Davis began to experiment with modal playing, basing his improvisations on scales rather than chord changes.
This led to his next band recording, Kind of Blue, in March and April 1959, an album that became a landmark in modern jazz and the most popular album of Davis' career, eventually selling over two million copies, a phenomenal success for a jazz record. In sessions held in November 1959 and March 1960, Davis again followed his pattern of alternating band releases and collaborations with Gil Evans, recording Sketches of Spain, containing traditional Spanish music and original compositions in that style. The album earned Davis and Evans Grammy nominations in 1960 for Best Jazz Performance, Large Group, and Best Jazz Composition, More Than 5 Minutes; they won in the latter category.
By the time Davis returned to the studio to make his next band album in March 1961, Adderley had departed, Wynton Kelly had replaced Bill Evans at the piano, and John Coltrane had left to begin his successful solo career, being replaced by saxophonist Hank Mobley (following the brief tenure of Sonny Stitt). Nevertheless, Coltrane guested on a couple of tracks of the album, called Someday My Prince Will Come. The record made the pop charts in March 1962, but it was preceded into the best-seller lists by the Davis quintet's next recording, the two-LP set Miles Davis in Person (Friday & Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk, San Francisco), recorded in April. The following month, Davis recorded another live show, as he and his band were joined by an orchestra led by Gil Evans at Carnegie Hall in May. The resulting Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall was his third LP to reach the pop charts, and it earned Davis and Evans a 1962 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Large Group, Instrumental. Davis and Evans teamed up again in 1962 for what became their final collaboration, Quiet Nights. The album was not issued until 1964, when it reached the charts and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Large Group or Soloist with Large Group.
In 1996, Columbia Records released a six-CD box set, Miles Davis & Gil Evans: The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings, that won the Grammy for Best Historical Album. Quiet Nights was preceded into the marketplace by Davis' next band effort, Seven Steps to Heaven, recorded in the spring of 1963 with an entirely new lineup consisting of saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Victor Feldman, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Frank Butler. During the sessions, Feldman was replaced by Herbie Hancock and Butler by Tony Williams. The album found Davis making a transition to his next great group, of which Carter, Hancock, and Williams would be members. It was another pop chart entry that earned 1963 Grammy nominations for both Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Soloist or Small Group and Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Large Group. The quintet followed with two live albums, Miles Davis in Europe, recorded in July 1963, which made the pop charts and earned a 1964 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Small Group or Soloist with Small Group, and My Funny Valentine, recorded in February 1964 and released in 1965, when it reached the pop charts.
By September 1964, the final member of the classic Miles Davis Quintet of the '60s was in place with the addition of saxophonist Wayne Shorter to the team of Davis, Carter, Hancock, and Williams. While continuing to play standards in concert, this unit embarked on a series of albums of original compositions contributed by the band members themselves, starting in January 1965 with E.S.P., followed by Miles Smiles (1967 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Small Group or Soloist with Small Group [7 or Fewer]), Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles in the Sky (1968 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Small Group or Soloist with Small Group), and Filles de Kilimanjaro. By the time of Miles in the Sky, the group had begun to turn to electric instruments, presaging Davis' next stylistic turn. By the final sessions for Filles de Kilimanjaro in September 1968, Hancock had been replaced by Chick Corea and Carter by Dave Holland. But Hancock, along with pianist Joe Zawinul and guitarist John McLaughlin, participated on Davis' next album, In a Silent Way (1969), which returned the trumpeter to the pop charts for the first time in four years and earned him another small-group jazz performance Grammy nomination. With his next album, Bitches Brew, Davis turned more overtly to a jazz-rock style. Though certainly not conventional rock music, Davis' electrified sound attracted a young, non-jazz audience while putting off traditional jazz fans.
Bitches Brew, released in March 1970, reached the pop Top 40 and became Davis' first album to be certified gold. It also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Arrangement and won the Grammy for large-group jazz performance. He followed it with such similar efforts as Miles Davis at Fillmore East (1971 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Group), A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, On the Corner, and In Concert, all of which reached the pop charts. Meanwhile, Davis' former sidemen became his disciples in a series of fusion groups: Corea formed Return to Forever, Shorter and Zawinul led Weather Report, and McLaughlin and former Davis drummer Billy Cobham organized the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Starting in October 1972, when he broke his ankles in a car accident, Davis became less active in the early '70s, and in 1975 he gave up recording entirely due to illness, undergoing surgery for hip replacement later in the year. Five years passed before he returned to action by recording The Man with the Horn in 1980 and going back to touring in 1981.
By now, he was an elder statesman of jazz, and his innovations had been incorporated into the music, at least by those who supported his eclectic approach. He was also a celebrity whose appeal extended far beyond the basic jazz audience. He performed on the worldwide jazz festival circuit and recorded a series of albums that made the pop charts, including We Want Miles (1982 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Soloist), Star People, Decoy, and You're Under Arrest. In 1986, after 30 years with Columbia, he switched to Warner Bros. and released Tutu, which won him his fourth Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.
Aura, an album he had recorded in 1984, was released by Columbia in 1989 and brought him his fifth Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance by a Soloist (on a Jazz Recording). Davis surprised jazz fans when, on July 8, 1991, he joined an orchestra led by Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival to perform some of the arrangements written for him in the late '50s by Gil Evans; he had never previously looked back at an aspect of his career. He died of pneumonia, respiratory failure, and a stroke within months. Doo-Bop, his last studio album, appeared in 1992. It was a collaboration with rapper Easy Mo Bee, and it won a Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Instrumental Performance, with the track "Fantasy" nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. Released in 1993, Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux won Davis his seventh Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance.
Miles Davis took an all-inclusive, constantly restless approach to jazz that had begun to fall out of favor by the time of his death, even as it earned him controversy during his lifetime. It was hard to recognize the bebop acolyte of Charlie Parker in the flamboyantly dressed leader with the hair extensions who seemed to keep one foot on a wah-wah pedal and one hand on an electric keyboard in his later years. But he did much to popularize jazz, reversing the trend away from commercial appeal that bebop started. And whatever the fripperies and explorations, he retained an ability to play moving solos that endeared him to audiences and demonstrated his affinity with tradition. He is a reminder of the music's essential quality of boundless invention, using all available means. Twenty-four years after Davis' death, he was the subject of Miles Ahead, a biopic co-written and directed by Don Cheadle, who also portrayed him. Its soundtrack functioned as a career overview with additional music provided by pianist Robert Glasper and associates. Additionally, Glasper enlisted many of his collaborators to help record Everything's Beautiful, a separate release that incorporated Davis' master recordings and outtakes into new compositions. - William Ruhlmann
Miles Davis' legendary Prestige recordings are amongst the all-time classics in the genre. This special Black Friday exclusive presents the first five 10" vinyl albums on which Davis appeared as a leader for Prestige Records (1951-1954). Faithfully reproduced on 10" vinyl, with the original 10" LP cover artwork and liner notes included, this deluxe boxed set also includes an accompanying booklet featuring insightful new liner notes by jazz historian Ira Gitler, a Prestige staffer in the early '50s and the author of the original liner notes for many of these recordings.

When you talk about Miles Davis, you’re really talking about something like eight musicians: a sideman to Bird during the bebop revolution; catalyst of cool jazz; hard bop and modal pioneer; enabler of John Coltrane and leader of the “first great quintet”; nurturer of the younger “second great quintet” in the mid-'60s; collaborator in large ensembles with his musical soul mate, Gil Evans; initiator of an uncompromising jazz-rock-funk fusion; and elder statesmen of a more polished, though still-distinct, fusion in the 1980s.

Even within those periods there are fascinating mini-chapters, like his work from the early 1950s. Now, on the occasion of what would’ve been Miles Davis’ 90th birthday this month, comes The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection, a sometimes-disorienting, ultimately sumptuous set of eleven vinyl records from 1951–54, nine of which feature Miles as the sole leader.

The bulk of Miles Davis’ canonical output is on Columbia Records, which he left in 1986 for Warner Brothers in his final years. His pre-Columbia work from 1951–56 was, for the most part, on Prestige Records, a small, fledgling indie label in Hell’s Kitchen launched by Bob Weinstock in 1949. This set is not a comprehensive examination of his stay at Prestige—that is available on the 8-CD Miles Davis Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings, 1951–1956—nor is there any new material here, but the recordings are in the exact format of their release, the forgotten 10-inch vinyl record, something new at the time that could accommodate more minutes than 78 rpm discs, which were the common format for popular recordings. “I was excited about the freedom this new technology would give me,” Miles wrote in his autobiography. “I had gotten tired of that three-minute lockstep that the 78s had put musicians in.”

If you’re not familiar with the 10-inch format, you’ll have to stay on your toes, as sides rarely go beyond 12 or 13 minutes (and sometimes run for as little as 8 minutes.) The set is in chronological order, more or less, to show how his work progressed, and features the original cover art, complete with typographical errors. (A 7–by–10 replica of one of Miles Davis’ paintings is also included.)

The music, too, will keep you on your toes, and enthralled. In many ways, this is one of his most rollicking periods. It’s post-Bird, post-birth-of-cool (released by Capitol Records), yet pre-great quintet with John Coltrane, which coalesced at Prestige in 1955 (not included in this set) and progressed into super-stardom at Columbia. Miles is still very much trying to find himself, musically and personally. A few of the musicians he organized for what several years later was called Birth of The Cool—white musicians, it should be said— took it to the West Coast and ran with it. Meanwhile, he was battling heroin addiction. “Heroin,” he wrote in his autobiography, “was my girlfriend.”

The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection is a document then of a search, an exhilarating one: a search for self, a search for a sound, a search for an aesthetic, a search for like minds. His various band mates on these dates include: Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, John Lewis, Max Roach, Lucky Thompson, Roy Haynes, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Thelonious Monk, and Zoot Sims, whom, according to Miles’ autobiography, he did heroin with right before they recorded Miles Davis Plays the Compositions of Al Cohn in January 1953, on LP 4. It is—maybe because of the drugs, maybe because it wasn’t Miles’ idea to play Cohn’s music—one of the rare uninspired records here. So is the first, Modern Jazz Trumpets, of which Miles is only one of four leaders, along with Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, and the forever under-appreciated Kenny Dorham, highlighted on the cover as “Kinny.” (Remember, typos preserved.)

The rest—before H and after H—is nearly always stirring. Of that first recording, even Miles admitted he wasn’t up to par: “I didn’t play well,” Davis wrote of that January 1951 session, “but I think everyone else played well—especially Sonny [Rollins].” Indeed, Miles and Sonny had something special, and they have three dates together on this set across four of the LPs. As exceptional as some of the talent Miles assembled is, it didn’t always produce memorable partnerships. Charles Mingus, who plays piano on one tune—and he was a good piano player, just listen to Mingus Plays Piano—was never a going to be good fit with Miles. They both had huge personalities. And although he and Thelonious Monk did mesh well together, and played beautifully on four of these LPs, they clashed personally.

By around 1954, Miles wrote that he’d hoped to form a steady touring band with Rollins, Horace Silver on piano, Kenny Clarke on drums, and Percy Heath on bass. It wasn’t meant to be: Rollins had to deal with his own drug issues; Silver joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers; and Clarke went to the Modern Jazz Quartet. That great-quartet-that-never-was did have one session, on the LP Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins from June 29, 1954. The results hover around perfection as they play the Rollins originals “Oleo,” “Airegin,” “Doxy,” and the Gershwin standard “But Not for Me.”

Miles kicked his heroin habit by 1954 and had a great year, all of which is included in this set, and almost all of his sessions were now recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s across the river in New Jersey (though in his Hackensack living room, before he built his fabled studio in Englewood Cliffs). The following year, he did settle on a band, but with another tenor, John Coltrane, a 20-year-old bassist named Paul Chambers, Red Garland on piano, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Not so bad. That quintet would go on to have recording dates for Prestige in 1955 and '56, which became the four albums Cookin’, Steamin’, Relaxin’, and Workin’, though now on 12-inch vinyl as the industry transitioned yet again by the mid-'50s.

The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection can, however, be a little puzzling. If you have a collection of Miles Davis records and want to know if you already own some of this material, it might not be immediately clear. Many fans might own a previous version of, say, Walkin’, which on the cover says “Miles Davis All Stars.” But here, “Walkin’ ” appears not as an LP but merely as a tune—a phenomenal 13-minute version with the superlative tenorist Lucky Thompson—from the April 29, 1954 LP Miles Davis All Star Sextet. Nor is it spelled out that Walkin’ (the 12-inch version, released by Prestige in 1957) is a compilation of two of the 10-inch LPs—Miles Davis Quintet in addition to Miles Davis All Star Sextet—plus one song not on this set. It all gets a little eye-crossing. You can figure most of this out, eventually, flipping back-and-forth from the 12-inch or CD you own (if you do) and the enclosed booklet. It is either maddening or a little fun, depending on your disposition—the fan as archivist.

The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection even rewards when you least expect it, like in 1951’s Lee Konitz Featuring Miles Davis, one of the few times, besides with Bird, where Miles was a sideman. (Cannonball Adderley’s 1958 Blue Note album Somethin’ Else was another, a record so luminous Uniqlo made a T-shirt out of it.) They were colleagues from Birth of the Cool, and Miles liked his playing, even defended him when he was criticized by other black musicians for hiring a white saxophonist. Konitz, the proto avant-gardist who was the first musician to record for Prestige in '49, worked hard—like Miles—to never sound like anyone else, and the two are almost otherworldly here, drifting inquisitively around each other, then as one, as if it were the birth of the free-cool. The daring hints at what would come, for Konitz (still underrated and still playing challenging music at age 88), and for Miles, always prepared to risk, always willing to move beyond his comfort zone. To hear Miles Davis develop—as a person, as a musician, and as a bandleader, in the midst of technological changes—makes this series of recordings on Prestige specialized, yes, but also quite special. - Michael J. Agovino PRESTIGE / CONCORD MUSIC GROUP RECORDS 5-LP (10") Boxed Set - FACTORY SEALED
 Records Made in the USA Pressings are in MONO
 Limited Edition - RSD 2015 Exclusive Release
 Record Speed: 33 rpm Records / Made issued in: 2015
 Record Catalog Number / UPC: PRS-36036-01 (upc 888072360365) Featured on this item: Miles Davis Title of this Collectible RSD item - The Prestige 10" LP Collection, Volume 2 Track Listings - Miles Davis All Star Sextet
A1 – Miles Davis All Star Sextet - Blue 'N’ Boogie - Written-By – Gillespie, Paparelli - 8:14
B1 – Miles Davis All Star Sextet - Walkin’ - Written-By – Richard Carpenter - 13:22         
Miles Davis Quintet C1 – Miles Davis Quintet - Solar - Written-By – Miles Davis - 4:40
C2 – Miles Davis Quintet - You Don't Know What Love Is - Written-By – Raye, DePaul - 4:19
D1 – Miles Davis Quintet - I'll Remember April - Written-By – Raye, DePaul, Johnston - 7:50
Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins E1 – Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins - Airegin - Written-By – Sonny Rollins - 4:57
E2 – Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins - Oleo - Written-By – Sonny Rollins - 5:11
F1 – Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins - But Not For Me - Written-By – Gershwin-Gershwin - 5:42
F2 – Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins - Doxy - Written-By – Sonny Rollins - 4:51
Miles Davis All Stars, Vol. 1 G1 – Miles Davis All Stars - Bags’ Groove - Written-By – Milt Jackson - 11:11         
H1 – Miles Davis All Stars - Swing Spring - Written-By – Hart-Rodgers - 10:41         
Miles Davis All Stars, Vol. 2 I1 – Miles Davis All Stars - Bemsha Swing - Written-By – Best, Monk - 9:28
J1 – Miles Davis All Stars - The Man I Love - Written-By – Gershwin-Gershwin - 7:55
Performed By / Credits on the item include -

 • Copyright (c) – Concord Music Group, Inc.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Concord Music Group, Inc.
• Alto Saxophone – Dave Schildkraut (tracks: C1, D1)
• Bass – Percy Heath
• Compilation Producer, Reissue Producer – Nick Phillips
• Design – David Gorman
• Drums – Kenny Clarke
• Layout – Kassondra Monroe
• Piano – Horace Silver (tracks: A1 to F2), Thelonious Monk (tracks: G1 to J1)
• Recorded By – Rudy Van Gelder
• Remastered By – Clint Holley, Paul Blakemore
• Research [Assistance] – Tad Hershorn
• Research [Editorial] – Ryan Jebavy
• Research [Project Assistance] – Brian Schuman, Chris Clough, Jimmy Hole
• Supervised By [Original Recordings] – Bob Weinstock
• Tenor Saxophone – Lucky Thompson (tracks: A1, B1), Sonny Rollins (tracks: E1 to F2)
• Trombone – J.J. Johnson (tracks: A1, B1)
• Trumpet – Miles Davis
• Vibraphone – Milt Jackson (tracks: G1 to J1)
RSD 2015 limited release. Limited to 2000 Copies. 
Reissues: 
LP #1 - The Miles Davis Sextet - Miles Davis All Star Sextet (PRLP 182) 
LP #2 - Miles Davis Quintet* - Miles Davis Quintet (PRLP 185) 
LP #3 - Miles Davis With Sonny Rollins (PRLP 187) 
LP #4 - Miles Davis All Stars - Vol. 1 (PRLP 196) 
LP #5 - Miles Davis All Stars - Miles Davis All Stars (Vol. 2) (PRLP 200)
• Barcode: 888072360365 CONDITION Details: Box:
The BOX is in MINT condition - no seam splits or corner dings - this item is BRAND NEW and FACTORY SEALED! The BOX has NO splits of any kind - it is completely solid and intact, and shows only some very minimal shelf wear. 
It has NO drill holes or saw marks of any kind.
There is NO writing on the front or back of the jacket.
The cover has clean and sharp colors - see picture with this listing for more detail.
The Vinyl:
The Vinyl is assumed to be in MINT condition - BRAND NEW, FACTORY SEALED! This is the mint copy you want for your collection - any super picky audiophile would be happy with this one!
 As for any record, even brand new, sealed ones, we always recommend a proper record cleaning before playing! A Short Note About LP GRADING - Mint {M} = Only used for sealed items. Near Mint {NM} = Virtually flawless in every way. Near Mint Minus {NM-} = Item has some minor imperfections, some audible. Excellent {EXC} = Item obviously played and enjoyed with some noise. Very Good Plus {VG+} = Many more imperfections which are noticeable and obtrusive.