Holy Grail
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Contemporary Records – a label created by Lester Koenig that recorded some of the best west coast jazz in the 1950s (and continued until a takeover by Fantasy records in the 1970s). The records were recorded in a small warehouse studio (where everything was packed to ship) by Roy DuNann – who was easily the equal of Van Gelder. The original Contemporary records, initially in mono, but also in early Stereo (released as “Stereo” records), sound fantastic. Shelly Manne was the principle artist who recorded with Koenig, along with Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Andre Previn, Leroy Vinnegar, Red Norvo, Lennie Niehaus etc. – but, unquestionably, the superstar of Contemporary – whose albums are seriously collectable – was Art Pepper.
Let’s be clear here – there are no bad Art Pepper albums – in fact there is virtually no album (none that I have heard) that feature Pepper as a leader or sideman that is anything other than good. The best, however, is “Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section.” This was a spontaneous recording from 1957 that featured (pre- major drugs bust and rehab) prime era Pepper with Miles Davis’ rhythm section (Red Garland, Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers). There were no rehearsals and the band played a series of familiar standards live in the studio. The performances are magic and there is an extraordinary energy in the group. It is a classic recording that should be in every record collection. The problem, however, is that – despite a whole bunch of re-issues on CD, SACD, DVD-A and Vinyl – Art doesn’t actually meet the rhythm section: he is panned to the left on the stereo recording and the others are on the right. I have half a dozen vinyl versions of this record (no D1 D1 original pressing mind – massive money!), CD and SACD (Analogue Productions) – all in stereo. The Analogue Productions (Acoustic Sounds) series is releasing another stereo version in the next few weeks (of course I pre-ordered it) – but the holy grail is a MONO version. I have never even heard an original mono – and reissues are impossible to obtain (there was a DVD-A from Japan several years ago that included mono and stereo versions – but – again – big money).
So, I was delighted to read an announcement from Craft Recordings that 8,600 copies of “Rhythm Section” would be released worldwide for Record Store Day 2022 in MONO. This is a Bernie Grundman (Bernie worked at Contemporary in his early years and understands the DuNann techniques, reverb and all) cut from the original master tapes. I am already stressing about missing out (I hate RSD exclusive releases as these are very hard to obtain where I live – and usually if it is a “limited edition” I get copy 4998 out of 5000).
This version of this album could easily have been released as one of those ultra expensive superdeluxe $100 – £400 albums super-mega-disk-2 x 45rpm only for the wealthy MOFI/Analogue Productions/Electric Recording Company – but Craft (who have risen in my estimations immeasurably in recent years) have gone down a better route here. Bravo.
audioexchange 
Of course, I took my place in line on RSD and obtained a coveted copy of “Rhythm Section” in mono. Presented in an nice reproduction of the original cover, with a tip on jacket, poly lined QRP inners (identical to MOFI inners). Pressed on 180g at QRP with nice rounded edges, yellow non deep grooved labels and priced below €30. The album is a steal. It sounds amazing (Bernie Grundman master) and a much more satisfying listen to the stereo records version. Deserves an SACD release.