Superb reissue
5 Stars
Posted
Saturday, May 14, 2022
by
Eric L
This is the first release in the Contemporary Series and
it's been a long time coming. Finally Craft teamed up
with Acoustic Sounds to remaster these reissues. If
you're a fan of Roy DuNann, the engineer for these
sessions, you'll probably want to have these.
Contemporary is admired by many audiophiles for it's
great natural sound and this is no exception. Bernie
Grundman, who worked at Contemporary, has
mastered these.This recording is from 1959. The sound
retains the vibrancy and warmth of the originals. In
many ways the sound here is more satisfying and
realistic then Van Gelder's Blue Notes. And the
arrangements by Marty Paich are really stunning.
I compared a couple of selections with the OJC 1988
release remastered by Phil De Lancie. The OJC is
excellent as well and to be truthful I really can't tell
which one is superior. But don't go by me. Hopefully
others with a keener ear will be more analytic.