Acoustic Sounds Series

Acoustic Sounds and Contemporary Records present this new reissue of Art Pepper’s 1960 album “Smack Up”. Recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann the album also features Jack Sheldon (trumpet), Pete Jolly (piano), Jimmy Bond (bass), and Frank Butler (drums). This... 

Recorded live at the Black Hawk, San Francisco in September 1959, “At The Blackhawk, Vol 1” is the first of 4 volumes released in 1960. Featuring six cuts, Manne (drums), is joined by Joe Gordon (trumpet), Richie Kamuca (tenor sax), Victor Feldman (piano) and... 

Hampton Hawes, “For Real!” was recorded in 1958 but not released on the Contemporary Records label until 1961. Featuring Hawes (piano) alongside Harold Land (tenor sax), Scott LaFaro (bass) and Frank Butler (drums) the album incudes a mixture of both jazz standards and originals. This... 

Recorded in 1961 and released by Contemporary Records the same year, “Maggie's Back in Town!!” Is the second album released on the label by jazz trumpeter Howard McGhee. Also featured are the players Phineas Newborn Jr, Leroy Vinnegar and Shelly Manne. This new... 

Bringing together trumpeter Howard McGhee and saxophonist Teddy Edwards, “Together Again!!!!” was originally released on Contemporary Records in 1961. In addition to Edwards and McGhee, the album features Phineas Newborn Jr. (piano), Ray Brown (bass), and... 

Released in 1963 on the Contemporary Records label, “The Cry!” Is a free jazz album by saxophonists Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons. Also featured are Gary Peacock and Mark Proctor (bass), and Gene Stone (drums). This new edition, released as part of the Acoustic Sounds... 

Recorded live at The Renaissance in Hollywood, CA on Oct 14 1960, Ben Webster “At the Renaissance” was released on Contemporary Records. Featuring with Saxophonist Webster are Jim Hall (guitar), Jimmy Rowles (piano), Red Mitchell (bass), and Frank Butler (drums). This... 

Art Pepper’s third album on the Contemporary Records label, “Gettin’ Together” was released in 1960. Featuring a selection of both standards and originals the album also includes Conte Candoli (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Jimmy Cobb (drums). This... 

Recorded in 1960, Art Pepper’s 5th album release on Contemporary Records, “Intensity”, was released in 1963. A collection of 7 jazz standards the album features Dolo Coker (piano) along with Jimmy Bond (bass), and Frank Butler (drums). This new edition, released as part of... 

Jazz vocalist Helen Humes’ second album on Contemporary Records, “Songs I Like to Sing!” was released in 1961 and is conducted by Marty Paich. Backed by musicians including Art Pepper (sax), Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Shelly Manne (drums), Barney Kessel (guitar) and... 

A classic of the genre, “Way Out West” was tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins’ first album for west coast label Contemporary Records when released in 1957. The first album to employ the “strolling” technique, Rollins was backed by Ray Brown (bass) and Shelly Manne (drums). This... 

Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series presents this 180-gram LP edition of Ornette Coleman’s debut Something Else!!!!. Originally released in 1958 and recorded... 

Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series presents this 180-gram LP edition of Ornette Coleman’s second album Tomorrow Is The Question!. First released in... 

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Shelly Manne & Friends' My Fair Lady is the first album to ever consist of jazz... 

Acoustic Sounds celebrates Contemporary Records with this new reissue of Curtis Counce’s 1957 album You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce! Originally... 

• Released as part of the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series
• Featuring an all-star group of André Previn (piano), Shelly Manne (drums) & Red... 

• Released as part of the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series
• Featuring Leroy Vinnegar (bass), Victor Feldman (vibraphone), Gerald Wilson (trumpet), Teddy... 

• Acoustic Sounds and Contemporary Records present this new reissue of iconic jazz trumpet player Art Farmer's 1958 Contemporary Records debut, Portrait of Art Farmer. Featuring... 

• Acoustic Sounds and Contemporary Records present this new reissue of Phineas Newborn Jr's 1962 Contemporary Record debut A World of Piano!. Recorded by legendary engineers Howard Holzer and Roy DuNann the album also features Paul Chambers (bass), Philly Joe... 

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Saxophonist Art Pepper’s first album Meets The Rhythm Section features Pepper’s legendary sessions with the East Coast rhythm section for Miles Davis’s quintet. Originally... 

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, Saxophonist Benny Carter’s Jazz Giant album features performances by André Previn, Shelly Manne, Barney Kessel and Ben Webster amongst others. First released in 1958 and recorded by... 

Released as part of the Acoustic Sounds Series celebrating 70 years of Contemporary Records, The Poll Winners brings together the talents of Barney Kessel (Guitar), Shelly Manne (Drums) and Ray Brown (Bass). First released in 1957 and recorded by legendary engineer Roy... 

Small jazz groups brought out the best in Billie Holiday — especially groups as good as the one heard on this classic 1957 recording.Ben Webster, Barney Kessel and the other members of this stellar ensemble were not just gifted soloists but sensitive accompanists as well. Lady... 

Several times in his career star alto-saxophone soloist Johnny Hodges struck out on his own, only to return each time to Duke Ellington's band. Critic Michael Ullman suggested that the blues classics chosen for this program may have been neutral ground, where... 

- The Look of Love is a lush, cinematic collection of ballads and bossa nova tunes, produced by Tommy LiPuma, and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra arranged and conducted by the legendary Claus Ogerman, The Look of Love brings to mind such classic Frank Sinatra albums... 

Night Lights is a captivating jazz masterwork from the incredible Gerry Mulligan catalog. Originally released in 1963, this captivating album showcases Mulligan's baritone sax talents as a true icon of jazz, and a prominent musical force on the West Coast scene through the... 

One of the true masterpieces in the Verve catalogue, Kenny Burrell's Guitar Forms features unforgettable arrangements by Gil Evans. Nominated for three Grammy awards in... 

In contrast to her classic Songbook albums for Verve, this 1961 date captures the essence of Ella Fitzgerald as most people got to see her live—with a swinging quartet. The program is made up mostly of repertoire from the Swing and early Bebop periods with... 

Bill Evans and Stan Getz are about as close as musicians can get in terms of artistry, musical philosophy, technique, and personality. These previously unreleased... 

This 1957 date, produced by Norman Granz, finds the two tenors matching wits with accompaniment from Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, and Alvin Stoller. From Hawkins' screaming solo on the opener "Blues for Yolanda" to the beautiful give-and-take... 

Very Tall, released in 1961, features the first partnership between Oscar Peterson and vibraphonist Milt Jackson. The quartet set... 

Considered one of Ella's greatest recordings, she's backed on this 1960 release by pianist Paul Smith. Let No Man Write My Epitaph was... 

For this 1961 release, Mingus chose music composed before he heard the revolutionary playing of Charlie Parker. The album features large ensembles and... 

Drummer Roy Haynes swings as the leader of this 1962 Impulse! session, featuring A-list jazzmen Roland Kirk (multiple instruments including stritch and nose flute!), Tommy Flanagan (piano) and Henry Grimes (bass). Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series... 

Wild Is The Wind, Nina Simone's sixth album for Philips, has all the variety her work for the label was known for—from the minimal title track to the traditional folk song "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair" to the banned-on-radio "Four Women". In... 

With the tenor saxophone of John Coltrane joining Cannonball Adderley's alto on two tracks, this exciting 1959 session boasts the same band featured on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, sans Miles and Bill Evans, as they run through a lively set of... 

It is undeniable that Billie Holiday's singing changed in her later years. Her voice darkened and shifted to a lower range. Her economy of... 

When Charlie Byrd toured South America in 1961, Bossa Nova—a melding of Brazilian samba rhythms with the harmonic structures and cool sound of... 

To celebrate Wes Montgomery's centennial on March 6, Verve and UMe are releasing an Acoustic Sounds edition of... 

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, this release presents the complete original album Night Train, one of the many masterpieces recorded by the classic Oscar Peterson Trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen. Featuring a number of Duke Ellington compositions, this... 

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One of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Alice Coltrane's fourth Impulse! album finds her on piano and harp in the company of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. "Almost 50 years after [it] was released, the album remains a vision of... 

"One of the great Ellington albums, one of the great Hawkins albums and one of the great albums of the 1960s." This was The New York Times’ praise for Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins’ only recorded encounter. Hawkins’ meeting... 

Crescent is widely regarded as one of John Coltrane's finest albums, featuring the talents of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. During 1964, John Coltrane spent the least amount of time in the recording studio of his... 

‘Live’ at the Village Vanguard (Impulse! AS-10), was Coltrane’s first official ‘live’ album. Coltrane is joined here on two... 

Pharoah Sanders' third Impulse! album, 1969's Karma, is a milestone of the Spiritual Jazz movement and a natural progression in the sonic exploration that Sanders, along with John and Alice Coltrane, had spearheaded over the previous five years. "The Creator Has... 

Acoustic Sounds Series Producer Norman Granz had a stroke of genius when he signed the jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong to his Verve label. The duo that critics have called "A match made in heaven," take to the microphone... 

Producer Jim Davis put an emphasis on recreating the live sound of Peterson and his trio for this album; Peterson, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen had been together 5 years and performed like a well-oiled machine. Listeners are treated to pop... 

After appearing together at an all-star concert the night before, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong went into an L.A. studio to record this gem of an album. Despite having little to no time for rehearsals, the sublime artistic mastery of...