Both UK covers are merely rehashed versions of the US. “Screamin'” is red instead of green, with a cropped picture of Oliver and a change of font size, while “For Basie” is exactly the same text on plain yellow instead of blue / white.

that’s a nice thing. interesting, too. that must have cut a bit into weinstock’s bottom line, though, which is surprising, given his notorious penny pinching.

I have a 10″ Barclay pressing of Miles David All Star Sextet, originally as Prestige 182 and later as Prestige 7076 for those keeping score at home. I picked it up on a whim for about US$5. The cover art is not as nice as the US press, and the US cardboard covers are such more substantial in construction, but the vinyl appears to use the US press parts (RVG, etc.). The vinyl is in the +-++ range and sounds pretty good. US pressings can be hit-or-miss in terms of press quality in this era. I don’t know if this is true of European pressings of the same time period, but I’m happy to have a decent pressing of great music.

I recall reading that the powers that be at Prestige wanted to give local UK artists the opportunity to be recognized, hence the change in artwork. I consider the Esquire artwork quirky and beatnik in its style – I like it (although I do prefer the US Saxophone Colossus artwork … so dramatic).

Also, I think the reason you might tend to prefer the UK art is because it is less familiar to you, and subconsciously you think “oh, new jazz from my favorite artists!” just a hypothesis. i have nothing to back it up. I know I do that, anyway.