- A vintage Contemporary pressing that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning seriously good Double Plus (A++) grades – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
- Many consider this to be the best record Art Pepper ever made, along with Art Pepper + Eleven, and I agree completely
- The Contemporary stereo sound here is completely natural in all respects – rich, warm, and smooth, in short, the sound we love
- Recorded in 1957 (the same year as Way Out West) by the legendary Roy DuNann, the sound of the better pressings is absolutely superb
- 5 stars: “… this recording convinced [Pepper] that emotion was the paramount impulse of jazz performance… a diamond of recorded jazz history.”
- This is a Must Own jazz album from 1957 that belongs in every jazz-loving audiophile’s collection
Many consider this to be the best record Art Pepper ever made, along with Art Pepper + Eleven, and I agree completely.
This one has many of the qualities of the better black label originals, without their bad vinyl and bloated bass. We get black label original Contemporary pressings in from time to time, but few of them are mastered right and most never make it to the site.
Some are pure muck. Some have bloated bass that is hard to believe. Don’t buy into that record collecting slash audiophile canard that Original Equals Better. That’s pure BS. It just doesn’t work that way, and anyone with two good ears, two good speakers and a decent-sized record collection should know better.
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