- Format: CD
- Label: Fantasy
- Genre: Jazz
In 1951, two years after establishing his Good Time Jazz label as an outlet for traditional jazz, Lester Koenig ventured into modern jazz with Contemporary Records. The Los Angeles-based company quickly set industry standards with its superb audio, quiet pressings, striking album graphics, and informative liner notes, and, in 1956, was the first to record jazz in stereo. Contemporary Records not only captured the cream of the Southern California jazz scene, including such musicians as Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Art Pepper, Andre Previn, and Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, but also cut two albums by East Coast tenor titan Sonny Rollins and launched the recording career of jazz revolutionary Ornette Coleman, all of whom are represented in this compact disc overview.
Track listing:Shelly Manne: Get Me to the Church on Time; Sonny Rollins: Way Out West; Hampton Hawes: Blues the Most; Benny Carter: A Walkin' Thing; Art Pepper: Star Eyes; Helen Humes: Million Dollar Secret; Ornette Coleman: Invisible; The Poll Winners: Minor Mood; Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars: Witch Doctor No. 2; Andre Previn: I'll Remember April; Curtis Counce: Complete; Phineas Newborn, Jr.: Oleo; Harold Land: Delirium; Teddy Edwards: Up There; Benny Golson: Just by Myself
