Contemporary Records 2024: Jazz Craft
12 Titles From Craft/Acoustic Sounds Level Up an Excellent Series
Jazz fans can rejoice while their bank accounts weep once again! It’s a great time to be a jazz enthusiast, with label groups offering various reissue options—some bringing titles that have been out-of-print, scarce, or otherwise Unobtanium to the marketplace. Blue Note led the way with their Tone Poet and Classics, Rhino jumped into the fray with their High Fidelity series, and Acoustic Sounds works with several labels, including Warner Music, Verve, and Impulse. The announcement that’s got me all hot and bothered right now is from Concord Music’s catalog group, Craft Recordings. They’ve just issued a press release touting a dozen titles from the Contemporary Records catalog that will receive “the treatment” and appear via the Acoustic Sounds Series in 2024. While the press release provides some background, as I did with the Blue Note Tone Poet announcement, I’ve decided to do an annotated breakdown of the announced titles, some of which are longtime favorites, and others are entirely new to my ears.
All of these Contemporary reissues share the following things in common:
The lacquers are cut from the original master tapes (AAA) by renowned engineer Bernie Grundman. Fun fact—one of Mr. Grundman’s first jobs in the recorded music business was at Contemporary Records!
The LPs will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) and housed in Stoughton old-style tip-on jackets.
Roy DuNann and/or Howard Holzer engineered these titles back in the day—two of THE BEST in the biz. While Rudy Van Gelder—the Notorious RVG—tends to receive much attention in this area, DuNann and Holzer deserve a seat at the table beside him. Contemporary Records has a reputation for sonic excellence. Craft has overseen Contemporary reissues for the last couple of years, and you can hear the exemplary sonics of their releases on any number of records from Art Pepper, Shelly Manne, The Poll Winners, and Andre Previn.
Each title will simultaneously be released in hi-res digital (192/24) with the vinyl. I'm pleased that this fact is included in Craft’s press release. I hope there’s some marketing around it as well. I dig my vinyl in a big way, but I also have a fantastic digital rig that makes well-mastered hi-res FLAC sound FANTASTIC—in some cases, as good or better than the vinyl equivalent. It's also tough playing vinyl on the go, so digital options prevail in those instances.
The 2024 Contemporary Records Craft/Acoustic Sounds schedule:
February 23, 2024: Art Pepper Quintet - Smack Up
The brilliant but deeply troubled altoist Art Pepper flew from this world in 1982 at age 56, leaving an extensive discography and a personal and professional reputation that has only grown in stature. Humans can be complicated, many artists even more than average, and Pepper runs for the upper echelon. His must-read autobiography Straight Life—the best account of an artist's life I've ever read—is fascinating, harrowing, and tragic. You may not like Pepper more after reading it, though it puts his music in an even sharper context. But while it's easy to pile on his criminal activity, bad decisions, and flaws while acknowledging that mental illness, substance abuse, and personality disorders played a role, his artistry was remarkable if one can separate it from the artist. He never made a bad record. Most were excellent, several were incredible, and a couple were iconic. This record underscores a positive facet of Pepper that I admire greatly. Smack Up is an outlier in Pepper’s catalog. Instead of the expected show tunes and standards which were typical fodder for jazz records of that era, Pepper sought to explore the depth, breadth, and scope of his fellow sax player's compositional qualities, from hard-bop hero Harold Land (who wrote the title track) to "new thing" revolutionaries like Ornette Coleman. His push for inclusiveness at a time when conservative/traditionalist jazzers pushed back against change was a show of courage and respect. His quote from the liner notes speaks volumes:
"The way a man walks, the way he talks, the timbre of his voice, the cadences of his speech, his little variations in phrasing a thought — all have so much to do with individuality. The same thing is true of a man's playing in jazz... his tone, the way his sound moves, his feeling for time. That's why jazz is consistently fascinating. You could ask six guys to play an identical solo, but when you heard the results, you'd hear six different solos." —Art Pepper
March 1, 2024: Shelly Manne & His Men at the Black Hawk Vol. 1
Live jazz records don’t get much better than this. All four volumes of Manne’s At the Black Hawk (five if you include the CD-only bonus release on OJC) are mandatory titles in any jazz library. I name-check them frequently whenever asked what I believe are the most remarkable live jazz recordings ever. Each volume has highlights among highlights, and what most folks will chatter about when it comes to Vol. 1 is the opening track “Summertime.” I agree. It’s a reading for the ages. But rather than concentrate on any individual performance, let’s focus on this group, the magic in the air during their run at the Black Hawk, and what I hear that excites me so much. The example I’ll use is the track “Cabu” from Vol. 4.
At around two minutes into “Cabu,” while tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca is in the driver’s seat with full band support, listen as Joe Gordon (trumpet) and Victor Feldman (piano) start a quiet sidebar. Manne issues a drum/eye-roll with a cymbal crash as if to say, “Uh guys, really? Richie’s got it goin’ on right now!” before urging everyone back into supporting Kamuca in the next bar with understated (but effective) percussive direction. While this slight detour is afoot, Manne and bassist Monte Budwig have deepened their swing, giving Kamuca even more runway, so he continues to take flight. But a couple of bars later, Gordon & Feldman give it another go—they’re confident there’s something worth exploring. Manne chases it briefly with them, leaving Budwig in charge of maintaining the pulse. But Manne quickly decides the original Kamuca groove is where it’s at, and almost imperceptibly shifts the band focus to fall into line behind Kamuca. Manne’s leadership pays off—Kamuca wails with a marvelous solo before passing the baton to Gordon while Feldman, Budwig, and Manne are just COOKIN’. So, if that’s about a minute of jazz conversation from one tune, imagine over four hours across five volumes covering much of what Shelly Manne & His Men played at the Black Hawk over three nights in late September 1959. Superb interplay and blazing solos are interspersed with ballads and downtempo material, making for lots of variety and nearly endless replayability. And everything is BRILLIANTLY recorded by Contemporary Records engineer Howard Holzer. It's worthy of a boxed set, but for now, I’m thrilled that Vol. 1 is on the schedule!
April 12, 2024: Harold Land The Fox
This outstanding session is hard-bop par excellence to its very core. While Land is the leader in name, he’s got two key wingmen who make this record all it is. The first is pianist Elmo Hope, who penned four of the album’s six tracks (Land the other two) and whose solo on the title track is DAZZLING. Land’s other consigliere is the exceptional, enigmatic Dupree Bolton on trumpet. Bolton flat-out RIPS (again, that title track is a smoker) and can also convincingly carry a ballad that’ll move you to tears. He’s the total package...a truly marvelous player. Herbie Lewis (bass) and Frank Butler (drums) complete the quartet—a top-flight bass/drum combo, though, to be honest, the brass and piano tend to take up much of the oxygen in the room, so repeat spins are recommended for complete absorption. Astonishingly and sadly, this is just one of two studio LPs that Bolton appears on, period. The other, Curtis Amy’s Katanga, was one of the all-time outstanding underground jazz records rescued from the darkness of obscurity by Blue Note’s Tone Poet series a couple of years ago, and you should add it to your collection immediately. But for now, revel in the majesty that is ‘The Fox’ via digital (check out that title track…phew!) while awaiting the April vinyl drop, and let’s get a few more people invested in the magnificent Harold Land!
May 17, 2024: Hampton Hawes For Real!
I’ve enjoyed a CD (ripped to FLAC for Roon playback) for ages, but it's been on my vinyl want list forever. I don't believe it's all that rare, but the copies I've run across have seen better days, and I'm unwilling to compromise—look at this lineup! I've loved every Hampton Hawes record I've heard on Contemporary. He’s a superb player and bandleader. Harold Land has never disappointed as a sideman, and I'd listen to the late, great bassist Scott LaFaro play a multidisc box of "The Twinkle Variations." His work with the Bill Evans Trio—especially the iconic Waltz For Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard albums—draws much of the focus on LaFaro, so it's always great to hear him in other contexts. Of all the titles expected this year, I’m probably most excited about this one!
June 14, 2024: Howard McGhee Maggie's Back in Town!!
July 12, 2024: Teddy Edwards & Howard McGhee Together Again!!!!
I have to claim total ignorance on this pair. I know who they are—Teddy Edwards Sunset Eyes has been in heavy digital rotation for the last week, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it receives some attention from Blue Note at some point—but I’ve never heard either release. I’ve enjoyed Howard "Maggie" McGee’s other albums, and I’m REALLY fond of Dusty Blue, so I’m stoked to hear these.
August 16, 2024 Prince Lasha Quintet feat. Sonny Simmons: The Cry!
Ready for adventure? My intro to the Lasha/Simmons duo was via their work on the amazing Eric Dolphy Musical Prophet archival release on Resonance Records. Dolphy was both an influencer on and a fan of the duo, and Lasha was a schoolmate of Ornette Coleman when they were both growing up in Texas—those of you who aren’t fans of the Avant-garde and are already tip-toeing towards the exit might want to stick around for just another minute, though, so you don’t miss out on a great jazz record that isn’t all that scary. Yes, Lasha, Simmons, Dolphy, and Coleman shared a certain like-mindedness in their approach to freer musical structures. Yet while The Cry certainly takes the exit ramp towards Avantgardeville, it stays in the suburbs and never ventures downtown to where the REALLY weird shit goes down. I played this record all the way through, and not only did my wife stay in the room the entire time, but she never once raised an eyebrow or gave me “the look.” The rhythmic structures are surprisingly toe-tapping, and the melodies—while sometimes appearing and disappearing suddenly like prairie dogs popping from their burrows to take a quick peek around to scan for predators—aren’t very dissonant. Simmons's sax never sounds like an elephant standing on its own testicles or a flock of rabid geese, either. The quintet has a fascinating makeup—Prince Lasha (flute), Sonny Simmons (alto sax), Gary Peacock (lead bass), Mark Proctor (bass), Gene Stone (drums)—but on some tracks, only a trio plays, and on others, one bassist will lay back and let the other do the heavy lifting. Still, the soundstage never sounds over-crowded, so following the serpentine melodies as they wind mysteriously through their labyrinths doesn’t require a sensory deprivation tank. Easy listening? Not exactly. A catalyst to end the dinner party, scare the neighborhood children, or find a Dear John note atop a stack of divorce papers? Not that edgy. As good as their NEXT Contemporary session, Firebirds? No, but The Cry is REALLY, really good, and I give credit to the team at Craft for thinking outside the box with this title. There’s nothing on Spotify from this record, so enjoy something from Firebirds instead.
September 13, 2024: Ben Webster At the Renaissance
This is another title I’ve had in my digital library but never sought out on vinyl. This live set from 1960 is BEAUTIFULLY recorded (I believe this was one of the titles that Analogue Productions reissued some years back as a double LP cut at 45RPM) and is one of those classic “you are there” live records. Jim Hall FTW! At the Renaissance is so well-recorded and sounds so good digitally; I’m curious to see how much better they could make this record sound.
October 11, 2024: Art Pepper Intensity & Gettin' Together!
Two essential Art Pepper classics that couldn't be more different from one another make October the month to beat! Gettin’ Together is a sequel of sorts to Art Pepper’s iconic Meets the Rhythm Section. That’s because, again, the Miles Davis rhythm section—evolved since ‘57 and comprised of Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums)—were in LA performing with Davis, so Contemporary boss Lester Koenig thought perhaps lightning might strike twice. Gettin’ Together doesn’t quite hit the lofty heights reached by Meets the Rhythm Section, but it comes close in enough places to earn a space on the shelf. Of particular note are the title track and a reimagining of “Diane” (both Pepper originals), as well as a great take on Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning.” Pepper brought trumpet collaborator Conte Candoli along for three tracks, including Paul Chambers’ original “Whims of Chambers,” which opens the album and contains a stellar solo from Pepper.
Intensity is Art Pepper in transition as he began to open his playing up to the influences of Trane and Ornette. He doesn’t wear their ideas on his sleeve, though, as he’s got other things on his mind—Intensity is Pepper’s final leader session for Contemporary before beginning a San Quentin sentence. When you’re getting ready to go away for a while, are you relaxed and methodical in preparing, or do the anxieties pile up like flapjacks? “Where’s my passport? Did I lock the back door? Does the TSA consider peanut butter a gel?” Even the most seasoned, modern traveler works to maintain their focus and calm while securing electronic tickets and documents and remembering to pack everything. But imagine if you were looking at two-to-twenty years at San Quentin—a prison notorious for the most hardened criminals in the USA? Suppose you didn’t know the backstory while listening to Intensity. In that case, you’d never know that in late November 1960, Art Pepper had a countable number of weeks before he’d spend the next 15 years in a cycle of incarceration, drug-fueled criminality, and addiction treatment. The album title speaks volumes—Art Pepper may be heading towards the point of no return, but his focus here never falters. Pepper’s playing is on point and expressive at all times. He pours himself into every solo with his signature West Coast alto voice while foreshadowing the edgier sounds he’d embrace in his post-1975 comeback. The painful reality of his impending incarceration seeps through his horn, though the swing never leaves his step, and you hear plenty of hope in his playing. Pepper was already a hardened addict, and prior prison stints toughened his spirit—San Quentin looms large, but he plans to return. Intensity represents a completion of sorts but not an end.
November 8, 2024: Helen Humes Songs I Like to Sing!
Let’s see…arrangements by the great Marty Paich? Check. A varied program that includes small combos and big bands? Check. Superb musicians like Barney Kessel, Jack Sheldon, Art Pepper, Ben Webster, and Shelly Manne? Check. Excellent recording and engineering? Check. One of the best records in Helen Humes catalog? Check! Full disclosure—I’m less enamored of the tracks that feature strings, but there are only a couple, and they won’t get in the way of my enjoying this album to the max. This is a beautiful record and a great pick for a jazz vocal album to keep the selection varied.
December 6, 2024: Sonny Rollins Way Out West
A masterclass in imagination. Sonny Rollins’s first trip west must’ve been both exciting and a lot for him to take in. Personally, his long-running affinity for Westerns and interest in Black cowboys was a source of inspiration—this plays out musically, as well as Rollins’s tongue-in-cheek cover photo. But when I say it plays out musically, I don’t mean this is some country-jazz record. ‘Way Out West’ is Rollins pioneering (see what I did there?) a piano-less jazz trio to evoke a sense of space, providing greater freedom for his ideas to germinate, take root, and grow. He’d lean into that format even further over the next few years, pushing boundaries, erecting new ones, breaking through, and repeating the process in different ways—his superpowers of construction/deconstruction in this regard have become the stuff of legend. The notion of “the West” and its wide-open vistas, vast plains, and skyways embodied the space Rollins wanted to work with. And he found more-than-willing partners in bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne. While their busy schedules meant the session for ‘Way Out West’ wouldn’t begin until 3 AM on 7 March 1957—and note there was no rehearsal time, and none of them had played together before—the chemistry between these players is real, and it’s spectacular. You do get a sense that all three musicians are having a great time—even if, towards the end, they’re looking at their watches and perhaps a bit worried about getting to their *NEXT* session! Chemistry and inventiveness win the day. ‘Way Out West’ is Rollins at his most compelling.
Epic write up Syd! One of your all time best..and that’s a very high bar!!