| Contemporary Records | |
| Parent: | Concord Bicycle Music |
| Founder: | Lester Koenig |
| Status: | Inactive |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Country: | U.S. |
Contemporary Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Lester Koenig in Los Angeles in 1951. Contemporary produced music from a variety of jazz styles and players.[1]
Contemporary became identified with a style of jazz called West Coast jazz as exemplified by Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Shelly Manne, and André Previn.
In the mid 1960s the company fell into relative limbo, but limited new recordings were made in the late 1970s, including a series of albums by Art Pepper recorded at the Village Vanguard club in New York. After Les Koenig's death in 1977, the label was run for seven years by his son, John, who produced albums by George Cables, Joe Farrell, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Peter Erskine, and Chico Freeman.
In 1984 Contemporary was purchased by Fantasy Records, which used the name for a short time. Most Contemporary titles were reissued by Fantasy. Also, some titles have found new life among today's audiophiles as high-quality LP remasters from Analogue Productions and other audiophile labels. The Fantasy catalog, including Contemporary and its associated labels, Good Time Jazz Records, Society for Forgotten Music, and Contemporary Composers Series, was sold to Concord Records in 2004.
Over the years, a number of major figures in the music business worked for Contemporary. Among them were Atlantic Records executive Nesuhi Ertegun, writers Nat Hentoff and Leonard Feather, producer Joe Boyd, recording engineer and studio designer Howard Holzer, and mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.
Koenig maintained high audio standards. He hired Roy DuNann from Capitol Records in 1956, who, out of the label's shipping room turned studio, turned out some of the best sounding records of the time. DuNann provided some details of his techniques in a Stereophile article nearly 50 years later. He said Koenig provided him with German (Neumann/Telefunken U-47) and Austrian (AKG C-12) condenser microphones and he immediately noted the very high output of these microphones, especially close-in on jazz musicians' dynamic playing. DuNann achieved his signature sound - crisp, clear and balanced without distortion or unpleasant "peak presence" - by keeping his microphone setups very simple (generally one per musician) and avoided the use of pre-amplifiers for them.
He built a simple passive mixing system that directly fed the electronics of his Ampex 350 and 351 tape machines. Also, DuNann told Stereophile that Contemporary sessions were recorded "dry" (without electronic echo added or in a reverberant room). Sometimes, such as in the case of Sonny Rollins' Way Out West, a plate reverb unit was inserted between the tape machine and the LP disc cutting lathe. This is why some later LP and CD reissues of Contemporary albums sound "dry" and "dead" compared to the original LPs mastered by DuNann.
The 3500 (mono)/7500 (stereo) series of 12 inch LP records commenced in 1955 and ran until 1961.[2] Contemporary was the first jazz label to record albums in stereo from 1956.[3]
| Catalog | Artist | Album | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3501 | 's Lighthouse All-Stars | Sunday Jazz a la Lighthouse, Vol. 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3502 | He Swings the Most | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3503 | Vol 3: The Octet #2|-|3504|'s Lighthouse All-Stars|Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars Vol. 6|-|3505| Trio|Hampton Hawes Trio|-|3506||12-Tone Compositions and Arrangements by Lyle Murphy|-|3507 | & His Men|The West Coast Sound|-|3508|'s Lighthouse All-Stars|Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars Vol. 3|-|3509|'s Lighthouse All-Stars/Barney Kessel/Hampton Hawes Trio with Shelly Manne|Lighthouse at Laguna|-|3510||Vol 4: The Quintets & Strings|-|3511||Easy Like|-|3512||Kessel Plays Standards|-|3513||To Swing or Not to Swing|-|3514||Duane Tatro's Jazz for Moderns|-|3515| Trio|This Is Hampton Hawes|-|3516| & His Men|Swinging Sounds|-|3517|'s Lighthouse All-Stars|In the Solo Spotlight|-|3518||Volume 1: The Quintets|-|3519| & His Men|More Swinging Sounds|-|3520|'s Lighthouse All-Stars|Oboe/Flute|-|3521||Music to Listen to Barney Kessel By|-|3522||Man of Many Parts|-|3523| Trio|Everybody Likes Hampton Hawes|-|3524||Vol 5: The Sextet|-|3525||Shelly Manne & His Friends|-|3526||The Curtis Counce Group|-|3527| & His Friends|My Fair Lady|-|3528|'s Lighthouse All-Stars|Music for Lighthousekeeping|-|3529||Pub Crawling with Jimmy Deuchar|-|3530||Way Out West|-|3531||Nice Day with Buddy Collette|-|3532||Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section|-|3533| & His Friends|Li'l Abner|-|3534||Music to Listen to Red Norvo By|-|3535|, Shelly Manne and Ray Brown|The Poll Winners|-|3536| & His Men|Concerto for Clarinet & Combo|-|3537| & Russ Freeman|Double Play!|-|3538||Presenting Red Mitchell|-|3539||You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce!|-|3540||Zounds!|-|3541||Suite Sixteen|-|3542||Leroy Walks!|-|3543| & His Pals|Pal Joey|-|3544||Coop! The Music of Bob Cooper|-|3545||All Night Session! Vol. 1|-|3546||All Night Session! Vol. 2|-|3547||All Night Session! Vol. 3|-|3548| & His Pals|Gigi|-|3549||The Arrival of Victor Feldman|-|3550||Harold in the Land of Jazz|-|3551||Something Else!!!!|-|3552||Benny Golson's New York Scene|-|3553||Four!|-|3554||Portrait of Art Farmer|-|3555||Jazz Giant|-|3556|, Shelley Manne & Ray Brown|The Poll Winners Ride Again!|-|3557| & His Men|The Gambit|-|3558||André Previn Plays Songs by Vernon Duke|-|3559| & His Friends|Bells Are Ringing|-|3560| & His Men|Shelly Manne & His Men Play Peter Gunn|-|3561| Quartet|Swingin' the '20s|-|3562||Looking Ahead!|-|3563||Carmen|-|3564||Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders|-|3565||Some Like It Hot|-|3566| & His Men|Son of Gunn!!|-|3567||André Previn Plays Songs by Jerome Kern|-|3568||Art Pepper + Eleven - Modern Jazz Classics|-|3569||Tomorrow Is the Question!|-|3570| Jazz Trio|King Size!|-|3571||Tain't Nobody's Biz-Ness If I Do|-|3572| & His Pals|West Side Story|-|3573||Gettin' Together|-|3574| Group|Carl's Blues|-|3575||Like Previn!|-|3576|, Shelly Manne & Ray Brown|Poll Winners Three!|-|3577| & His Men|At the Black Hawk 1|-|3578| & His Men|At the Black Hawk 2|-|3579| & His Men|At the Black Hawk 3|-|3580| & His Men|At the Black Hawk 4|-|3581||Exploring the Scene!|-|3582||Songs I Like to Sing!|-|3583||Teddy's Ready!|-|3584||The Three & The Two|-|3585||Workin' Out! with the Barney Kessel Quartet|-|3586||André Previn Plays Songs by Harold Arlen|-|3587| & His Men|The Proper Time|-|3588| and Howard McGhee|Together Again!!!!|-|3589||For Real!|-|3590||Ruth Price with Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole|-|3591||Folk Jazz|-|3592||Good Gravy!|-|3593/4| & His Men|Live! Shelly Manne & His Men at the Manne-Hole|-|3595||Relax and Enjoy It!|-|3596||Maggie's Back in Town!!|-|3597||Lookin' Good!|-|3598||Swingin' with Humes|-|3599| & His Men|Shelly Manne & His Men Play Checkmate|}Contemporary Popular 5000/9000 seriesThe 5000 (mono)/9000 (stereo) series of 12 inch LP records commenced in 1956 and ran until 1962.[4] [5]
Contemporary 3600/7600 seriesThe 3600 (mono)/7600 (stereo) series of 12 inch LP records commenced in 1962 and ran until around the early 1980s.[6] After 3624 all releases were stereo only.[7] 14000 seriesThe 14000 series began in 1980 with 12 inch LP records and in 1982 commenced releases on compact disc.[8] After 1992 all releases were CD only.
See alsoExternal links |