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Blue Note session · in the studio

February 27, 1955

Gil Melle Quintet

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ

In the room

The takes

What the numbers mean

BN308-2 is a matrix number: Blue Note gave every tune it recorded the next number in one running series (BN308 is "Humph"), and the figure after the dash is which take of that tune was kept. Early on the series starts each tune's takes at 0, so -0 is usually the first try.

tk. 5 is the take as counted through the whole day, from the first tune to the last: the way the studio's log and, from the mid-1950s, Rudy Van Gelder's tapes number them. Later dates have only these.

On the earliest records (1939–40) the numbers in the matrix place, like 486A-1 or GM535-6, are the masters' numbers from the studios and pressing plants Blue Note used before it had its own series.

Matrix · takeTitleFirst out on
tk. 1Five Impressions Of Color: I. Spectrum Violet / II. Sea Green / III. Royal Blue / IV. Ebony / V. Spectrum RedBLP 5063
tk. 5Life Begins At MidnightBLP 5063
tk. 7Threadneedle StreetBLP 5063
tk. 9Night Train To WildwoodBLP 5063
4 takes · the ones we haven't matched yet are looked up on Spotify when you make it

Where it ended up

Together elsewhere

The other albums at least two of these players are on together.

4 of them 1 album

No.TitleLeaderYearWho
BLP 5054New Faces-New SoundsThe Gil Melle Quartet Vol. 31954Gil Melle, Lou Mecca, Billy Phillips, Vinnie Thomas

2 of them 2 albums

No.TitleLeaderYearWho
PRLP 7040Melle Plays Primitive ModernThe Gil Melle Quartet1956Gil Melle, Billy Phillips
PRLP 7063Gil's GuestsGil Melle Quartet1956Gil Melle, Don Butterfield