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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 in 1957 and recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman. It is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and presented in a Stoughton Old Style Tip-On Jacket. — (via Label)

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Making a classic better and affordable?

Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section is a mythic recording. The circumstances surrounding its genesis were first revealed in Pepper's steely autobiography Straight Life and reproduced countless times in articles and liner notes. Here it goes, one more time. On the morning of the recording session, January 19, 1957, Pepper's then-wife Diane informed him that she had secured an afternoon recording session with the Miles Davis rhythm section who were in Los Angeles appearing with Davis. Unhappily surprised and with a horn in bad need of repair, Pepper fixed an extra large amount of heroin and was off to the session. The music produced from this chaos has been described as "a diamond of recorded jazz history."

The material for the session previously selected by the artists. After some discussion, drummer Philly Joe Jones suggested Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" and the historic session was off and running. The date gradually began to take shape. Red Garland provided an original "Red Pepper Blues." The Burke/Van Heusen ballad "Imagination" was included. The quartet mixed things up with the New Orleans classic "Jazz Me Blues" played against Chano Pozo's Afro-Cubano credo "Tin Tin Deo" (featuring some solid drumming by Jones) A pair of blues juxtaposes as well. "Waltz Me Blues" was a session original composed by Pepper and bassist Paul Chambers. It is lilting and light. It stands in great contrast to John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie's smoky minor blues "Birks' Works." Perhaps central to the recording was the Pepper original "Straight Life." This Pepper classic is a complex and fast paced piece of West Coast Be Bop. It, along with "Somewhere over the Rainbow," would become his signature song. A brisk "Star Eyes" and bonus track "The Man I Love" round out the collection.

Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section is one of those singular events that can only occur in a blaze like reading King Lear by a lightning flash. — (via All About Jazz)

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More about the Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series:

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.

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Vinyl Tracklist
A1 You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
A2 Red Pepper Blues
A3 Imagination
A4 Waltz Me Blues
A5 Straight Life
B1 Jazz Me Blues
B2 Tin Tin Deo
B3 Star Eyes
B4 Birks Works

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Label: Craft Recordings / Stereo Records
Series: Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, 180 g
Reissued: 2023 / Originally Released: 1957
Genre: Jazz
Style: Bop

File under: Audiophile Jazz
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