Craft Recordings to Release 6 Contemporary Records Album Reissues

The vinyl revolution continues with this announcement from Craft Recordings who have been super busy over the past 2 years with some excellent reissues. The music will be familiar to many and we’re excited to listen to these forthcoming 6 Contemporary Records reissues that have been repressed in partnership with Acoustic Sounds.

Founded in 1951 by Lester Koenig (December 3, 1917 – November 21, 1977), Contemporary Records is a uniquely Hollywood story. An intellectual who loved the arts, Les Koenig (pronounced Kay-nig) fell in love with jazz as an adolescent in New York, where he grew up, the son of a judge.

Record collecting led to a lifelong friendship with future music industry icon John Hammond, seven years his senior, who took the young Koenig along to recording sessions he, Hammond, was producing, sparking in Koenig the passion to own a jazz record company one day. 

Craft are very excited 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.

Hi-Res Digital (96/24 and 192/24) and CraftRecordings.com exclusive SACD formats of each title will also be made available on the same dates as each LP release.

Beginning on May 13, 2022 with the release of Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics, the series also includes Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Ray Brown – The Poll Winners (6/10), Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Red Mitchell – Four! (7/15), Benny Carter – Jazz Giant (8/12), Shelly Manne & His Friends – My Fair Lady (9/9),  and Art Pepper – Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (11/11).

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), and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) and presented in a Stoughton Old Style Tip-On Jacket.

You can now pre-order these jazz titles online: Craft Recordings Contemporary Series