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.

Meets The Rhythm Section is the altoist’s auspicious 1957 Contemporary debut pairing him with pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones, three-fifths of Miles Davis’ nonpareil quintet. The album was recorded by legendary engineer Roy DuNann this new edition and features remastered audio from the original tapes.

Originally released in 1957, this new edition features ALL-ANALOG mastering from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at QRP and presented in a Stoughton Old Style Tip-On Jacket.

Side A:
1. You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
2. Red Pepper Blues
3. Imagination
4. Waltz Me Blues
5. Straight Life

Side B:
6. Jazz Me Blues
7. Tin Tin Deo
8. Star Eyes
9. Birks Works

This classic east meets west, cool imbues hot collection of infectious melodies opens on the precise interpretation sculpted within the slip-sliding affair You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To and then we get the veritably swinging Red Pepper Blues, a delicately impassioned treatment of Imagination, the smoothly grooved Waltz Me Blues (where you can hear and feel the ¾ time), and the first side rounds out on the gently frenetic Straight Life.

The jazzy, bebopimbued tunes carry onward with the reachingly euphoric twists and turns showcased within Jazz Me Blues and that is in turn backed by the crisp Latin-to-swing pace of Tin Tin Deo, the album rounding out on the aching beautiful, dulcetly soulful Star Eyes (which was itself turned into a jazz standard by the great Charlie Parker), coming to a close on the quietly perky, smooth as silk Birks Works (where Pepper seamlessly goes into a lower octave tone, more like a tenor).

Last year, Craft Recordings launched the Acoustic Sounds Series, which celebrates 70 years of Contemporary Records and highlights gems from legendary jazz label’s extraordinary catalog and featuring artists who both defined and expanded the sound of West Coast jazz.

Following reissues of Art Pepper’s +Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics and Barney Kessel’s The Poll Winners and Benny Carter’s Jazz Giant Craft releases Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section on vinyl today.

The Acoustic Sounds Series continues on September 15th, 2023 release of Shelly Manne’s hugely popular 1956 trio session My Fair Lady with bassist Leroy Vinnegar and pianist Andre Previn, paved the way for hundreds of jazz albums dedicated to Broadway shows.

All six albums are being released on Acoustic Sound Series 1-LP and are available for pre-order HERE. Hi-Res Digital (96/24 and 192/24) and Craft Recordings exclusive SACD formats of each title will also be made available.

Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section [LP] - Official Purchase Link