Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds are proud to announce the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series, which begins with six album releases from the Contemporary Records catalog, celebrating 70 years of the legendary jazz label. The releases are supervised by Chad Kassem, CEO of Acoustic Sounds, the world’s largest source for audiophile recordings.
Each title, originally engineered by Roy DuNann and/or Howard Holzer, features all-analog mastering from the original tapes by legendary engineer Bernie Grundman (himself a former employee of the label), as well as unsurpassed audiophile pressing on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, presented in a Stoughton Printing old-style tip-on jacket.
The series highlights gems from Contemporary’s extraordinary catalog and features artists who both defined and expanded the sound of West Coast jazz.
The 1958 classic Jazz Giant showcases the alto saxophone, trumpet and arrangements of triple threat Benny Carter, whose majestic talent awed four generations of jazz artists (he’s joined by a formidable cast including Manne, Kessel and tenor sax titan Ben Webster).
Here, Carter displays three of his many talents, principally as an alto saxophonist, but also as a composer on two numbers and a trumpeter on two. The company he kept, with Webster and Frank Rosolino rounding out the front line, and such fellow giants as Andre Previn, Barney Kessel, Leroy Vinnegar, and Shelly Manne in the rhythm section (Jimmy Rowles replaces Previn on two tracks) left no doubt that this album would be a milestone in straight-ahead, small group, mainstream jazz.
- Old Fashioned Love” (James P. Johnson, Cecil Mack) –
- “I’m Coming Virginia” (Will Marion Cook, Donald Heywood) –
- “A Walkin’ Thing” (Carter) –
- “Blue Lou” (Irving Mills, Edgar Sampson) –
- “Ain’t She Sweet” (Milton Ager, Jack Yellen) –
- “How Can You Lose” (Carter) –
- “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me” (Charles McCarron, Russ Morgan, Arthur Swanstrom) –