Lester Koenig, Producer-Engineer

Art Pepper – Smack Up on Contemporary

More of the Music of Art Pepper

  • This is a classic from Pepper – all the songs were written by saxophonists and he tears into them with gusto and naked emotion, the hallmarks of his playing style
  • This is some seriously good-sounding saxophone-led jazz, thanks to Roy DuNann and Lester Koenig
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Pepper is very much on top of his game throughout, ably demonstrating a capacity for precision and intimidating passion. Nowhere is proof more readily available than on these sides, which project Pepper at the peak of his craft.”

The horns are really jumpin’ out of the speakers here, but they never get hard or squawky like they do on some pressings. This combination of clarity and fullness is not easy to come by, but it lets the music flow in glorious waves of All Tube 1960 analog. With the always wonderful Jack Sheldon on trumpet, this is a great date from the Golden Age of Jazz Recordings. (more…)

Art Pepper – Thursday Night at the Village Vanguard

More of the Music of Art Pepper

  • This original 1979 Contemporary pressing boasts a KILLER Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) side one mated to a solid Double Plus (A++) side two
  • The sound was bigger, richer and livelier than practically all others we played – above all it’s balanced, avoiding many of the problems we heard on other pressings
  • If anyone can capture the realism of a live jazz club, it’s the engineers and producers at Contemporary, in this case Bob Simpson and Lester Koening
  • The first of four volumes that make up the Art Pepper Village Vanguard set, recorded live over a three-night period in New York in July 1977
  • 4 1/2 stars: “The great altoist soars on lengthy versions of ‘Valse Triste’ (in a particularly passionate take) and ‘Goodbye.’ In addition to Pepper, his trio – pianist George Cables, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Elvin Jones – is also in top form, and the music is consistently stimulating and emotional.”

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Sonny Rollins – Alternate Takes

  • You’ll have a hard time finding a copy that sounds remotely as good as this vintage Contemporary pressing
  • One of our favorite Sonny Rollins records for sound – both sides here are incredibly big, full-bodied and Tubey Magical
  • 4 1/2 stars: “This LP contains alternate versions of selections from two famous Sonny Rollins albums: Way out West and Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders. These ‘new’ renditions… hold their own against the classic versions. [T]he music is hard-swinging and frequently superb.”
  • If you’re a 50s and 60s jazz fan, this Must Own compilation of recordings originally released in 1958 surely belongs in your collection

The album is made up of alternate takes from the Way Out West and Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders sessions, and as such there is a bit of sonic variation between these tracks and the ones on the actual albums. The best-sounding songs here, particularly the material from Way Out West, can sound amazing.

All Tube in ’58

The best copies are rich and tubey; many pressings were thin and modern sounding, and for that they would lose a lot of points. We want this record to sound like something Roy DuNann recorded with an All Tube chain in 1958, and the best copies give you that sound, without the surface noise and groove damage the originals doubtless suffer from.

Some copies have much more space; some are more present, putting the musicians right in the room with you; some are more transparent, resolving the musical information much better than others, letting you “see” everyone in the studio clearly. Some have more rhythmic drive than others. On some the musicians seem more involved and energetic than they do on the average pressing.

The copies that do all these things better than other copies are the ones that win our shootouts.

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Shelly Manne & His Men – At The Black Hawk, Vol. 4

More of the Music of Shelly Manne

  • Here is an early Contemporary stereo pressing with solid Double Plus (A++) sound on both sides
  • This is West Coast Jazz at its best, and if anyone can capture the realism of a live jazz club, it’s the engineers and producers at Contemporary
  • For our shootout, we chose to play Volumes 2, 3 and 4 on the same day, which taught us something we might not have known otherwise — Volume 4 tends to have the best sound of those three albums
  • If you want to hear a healthy dose of the Tubey Magic, size and energy of this wonderful live session recorded at the Black Hawk in September 1959, this copy will let you do that
  • 4 stars: “Shelly Manne’s 1959 quintet (with trumpeter Joe Gordon, tenor saxophonist Richie Kamuca, pianist Victor Feldman, bassist Monty Budwig, and the drummer/leader) was … a hard-swinging unit well versed in bebop. The lengthy solos are consistently excellent, making this entire series recommended to straight-ahead jazz fans.

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Hampton Hawes / At The Piano

More Contemporary Label Jazz

  • A huge, rich and natural Contemporary pressing boasting excellent Double Plus (A++) sound from first note to last
  • This is the last record Hawes made, and it’s one of the most deeply emotional and satisfying albums of his entire career – it may even be his best, and for a man of his talents, that’s really saying something
  • “Hampton Hawes’ final recording found him returning not only to the acoustic piano after having dabbled in electric keyboards from 1972-74, but to producer Lester Koenig and his Contemporary label, where Hawes recorded most of his classic gems of the 1950s… Teamed up with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, Hawes shows that he was still in prime form.”
  • We’ve recently compiled a list of records we think every audiophile should get to know better, along the lines of “the 1001 records you need to hear before you die,” but with less of an accent on morbidity and more on the joy these amazing audiophile-quality recordings can bring to your life. Hampton Hawes last album is a good example of a record many audiophiles may not know well but should.

This is my favorite Hampton Hawes record of all time. He died less than a year after these sessions. Looking at the cover, you can almost see in his face his acceptance of the end he knew was coming. He plays with deep emotion here.

Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, the same rhythm section who back Joe Sample on my all-time favorite piano trio album, The Three, accompany Hawes beautifully here. (more…)

Benny Carter – Swingin’ the ’20s

More of the Music of Benny Carter

  • Boasting seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades from top to bottom, this vintage Contemporary pressing is doing just about everything right
  • These sides are bigger and more open, with more bass and energy, than most others we played – the saxes and trumpets are immediate and lively
  • Mr. Earl Hines himself showed up, a man who knows this music like nobody’s business – Leroy Vinnegar and Shelly Manne round out the quartet
  • “Great musicians produce great results, and most of the LP’s tracks were done in one or two takes. The result is ‘a spontaneous, swinging record of what happened’ when Carter met Hines ‘for the first time. . . .'”

For us audiophiles, both the sound and the music here are enchanting. If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good a 1959 All Tube Analog recording can sound, this killer copy will do the trick. (more…)

Shelly Manne & His Men – The West Coast Sound, Vol. 1

More Shelly Manne

  • This early MONO pressing was doing practically everything right, with both sides earning INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them
  • The first track here is by far the best sounding — it’s amazing and the perfect illustration of just how good 1956 mono sound can be if you know what you are doing
  • The sound may be a bit dated but the horns are enchantingly sweet and Tubey Magical, with solos that show off the jazz chops of “His Men” about as well as any Manne and His Men album ever has
  • Tube mastering is essential for this recording – without vintage tubes in the chain, you end up with the kind of modern sound that the average OJC pressing suffers from (this is especially noticeable on side two of the OJC pressings we played, which were mostly awful)
  • Contemporary in 1956 was making some awfully good jazz records, with room-filling, natural and realistic mono sound, the kind of sound that still holds up today and doesn’t need a lot of “mastering help” to do it
  • Good luck finding quieter early copies of this title — we sure couldn’t do it, not with top quality sound anyway
  • 5 stars: “The music has plenty of variety yet defines the era… Highly recommended and proof (if any is really needed) that West Coast jazz was far from bloodless.”
  • If you’re a fan of West Coast Jazz, this is a Top Title from 1956, and one that certainly belongs in any right-thinking audiophile’s collection.

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Barney Kessel / Barney Kessel Plays Carmen

More Barney Kessel

  • Solid Double Plus (A++) grades bring Kessel’s inspired jazz album to life on this early Contemporary stereo LP (one of only a handful of copies to hit the site in years)
  • Tubey Magic, richness, sweetness, dead-on timbres from top to bottom – this is a textbook example of Contemporary sound at its best
  • The sonics are gorgeous – all tube, live-to-two-track, direct from the Contemporary studio to you, on glorious un-remastered analog vinyl
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you

The Sound We Love

For those of you who appreciate the sound that Roy DuNann (and Howard Holzer on other sessions) were able to achieve in the 50s at Contemporary Records, this LP is a Must Own (unless you already have it, which is doubtful considering how hard it is to find a copy in clean condition). Their stuff just doesn’t get any better than this.

From an audiophile point of view, how can you beat a Roy DuNann recording of so many instruments? It’s audiophile heaven.

Talk About Timbre

Man, when you play a Hot Stamper copy of an amazing recording such as this, the timbre of the instruments is so spot-on it makes all the hard work and money you’ve put into your stereo more than pay off. To paraphrase The Hollies, you get paid back with interest. If you hear anything funny in the mids and highs of this record, don’t blame the record. (This is the kind of record that shows up audiophile BS equipment for what it is: audiophile BS. If you are checking for richness, Tubey Magic and freedom from artificiality, I can’t think of a better test disc. It has loads of the first two and none of the last.)

Two of the best sounding jazz guitar records in the history of the world were made by Barney Kessel for Contemporary: this one, and Music To Listen To Barney Kessel By. I used to have them both in my collection, but they long ago were sent to good homes.

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Shelly Manne – My Son the Jazz Drummer!

More Shelly Manne

More Contemporary Label Jazz Recordings

  • My Son the Jazz Drummer! appears on the site for only the second time ever, here with solid Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER throughout this original Contemporary pressing – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Tubier, more transparent, and more dynamic than most other copies we played, with plenty of that “jumpin’ out of the speakers” quality that only The Real Thing (an old record) ever has
  • The team of Lester Koenig and Howard Holzer insure that everything you want in an audiophile Contemporary jazz recording is here
  • “…drummer Shelly Manne and a sextet (with flugelhornist Shorty Rogers, Teddy Edwards on tenor, Victor Feldman doubling on piano and vibes, guitarist Al Viola and bassist Monty Budwig) perform jazz versions of ten Jewish and Israeli-based melodies. This long out-of-print historical curiosity is more successful than one might expect.”

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Shelly Manne and His Men – Play Peter Gunn

More Contemporary Label Jazz

  • This original Stereo Records pressing (only the second copy to ever hit the site) boasts seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades or close to them from start to finish
  • Each instrument here sounds right, particularly on side one – the piano is weighty and percussive; the drums are punchy, and the brass has lovely leading edge transients, and side two is not far behind in all those areas
  • Full-bodied, warm and natural with plenty of space around all of the players (also particularly on side one), this is the sound of vintage analog – accept no substitutes
  • Problems in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these early pressings – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “[Peter Gunn composer Henry] Mancini encouraged Manne to use the songs as vehicles for extended solos, and the results are swinging, standing apart from the show.

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