Clear vinyl vs. regular black vinyl

@petg60 - great album. It is actually a Miles Davis album - same crew as Kind of Blue without Trane. There was an argument with the record label so they had to bill it as a Cannonball Adderly album.It's my second favorite Miles album.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I already have this on an excellent 180g pressing - not sure which label/pressing, so I wouldn't go for the 45. Now if I didn't already have it.....I'd probably spring for the extra $20-25 bucks or so. But then again I wouldn't have known how great it is and maybe would have just gotten the 180g Analogue Productions or Speakers Corner or whatever.

@bdp24 - I saw that video when I got the email from Acoustic Sounds pushing for preorders. I am sure it is great, but I have that on the MFSL 45, which sounds great and has a photo mini-book and a UHQR like box. I don't think the UHQRs at $100 are moving as fast as they expected, as now they're saying you can buy 3 copies. Originally I think it was one, then 2, to prevent the resellers from scalping them. I think anyone who wants a great recording of this has one, but there are the people (collector types) who will buy 5-6 different issues of the same album and compare them and keep them all. Not sure of the point of it - why not just play the best one all the time? I am not a collector - I am a player. Just like cars - I am a driver, not a collector.

They're making 25K pressings, which is quite a lot. Back in the day UHQRs were limited to 5000 and they numbered them on certificates inside the box. I have them all except the classical one and Tea for the Tillerman. They cost $50 list I think back in the day, which adjusted for inflation after 40 years or so is a bargain at $100, but back then you could easily get them discounted. I think I paid $35-40 a pop, which is about right for inflation at $100, maybe the $100 is a slight bargain.

@sokogear,
it is a great great album, Classic Records have released it in QUIEX -SVP also.
The clear 45 version is 4 single sided LP's box set. 

Re “Somethin’ Else”:

There’s always been a lot of speculation and myth surrounding the question of who the leader of the date was with little definitive proof one way or another. IMO, the most plausible reasons for Miles’ prominence on the recording are that Cannonball, being a sideman in Miles’ Quintet at the time as well as a newcomer on the scene, and Miles already an established giant with a huge ego caused “leader” Cannonball to defer to Miles on matters like tune choices and amount of solo space. A correction: the personnel on the record is not at all the same as in KOB. Only Cannonball appears on KOB. Great records both.

@petg60 - is that still available? My brother in law has a 4 sided 45 of KOB but it’s black vinyl. That’s worth big $$ unopened.

@frogman - My mistake. I thought PC and the others were on it. The records sound similar, but it was Miles’ record, but he couldn’t release it on his existing label. Think of it, if Cannonball was a newcomer, why would Miles play on his album? Maybe he couldn’t use the rest of his quintet because it would be too obvious to the label that it was his album, not Cannonball’s. He didn’t play on any of Trane’s albums.

Well, to expound on my previous comments and to address your question “why would Miles play on a newcomer’s record?”:

Not uncommon at all. Cannonball was a rising star, not to mention member of Miles’ own band and was being heavily promoted. By some accounts it was Cannonball who received the invitation from Bluenote to record an album and that it was Cannon who then picked the band. It is not unusual for a high profile leader to play on a solo effort by one of his sidemen. Moreover, Miles was under contract with Columbia and Cannon was not under contract with any label. Why wouldn’t Columbia simply release another Miles record? Why wouldn’t Miles use his working sextet and why would he record with a different rhythm section and ask only one member of his band to play? Seems like bad politics. Leonard Feather points out that the title tune “Somethin Else” which was written by Miles is an expression of praise for Cannonball.

“He didn’t play on any of Trane’a records”

Probably because, unlike Cannonball, Trane didn’t ask him. Trane and Miles didn’t have a great personal relationship. In fact. Miles fired Trane at one point.

Lastly and probably most importantly and telling, to me, SE sounds nothing like KOB. Constantly changing musical chameleon that he was, Miles had moved to a modal style by then. KOB is the groundbreaking and best example of modal Jazz, while the material on SE is much more traditional with most of the tunes being standards which is a style much closer to home for Cannonball.

I guess we’ll never know for sure, but interesting to speculate; but that is where I put my money.  No matter how the record really came about, we’re lucky that it did.  

Regards.

Btw. in my previous post I mistakenly referred to Miles’ band as a quintet. Obviously, it was a sextet.