{"product_id":"rolliconte_2510_12_2_4x__","title":"Rollins, Sonny - Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders - Super Hot Stamper (With Issues)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e*NOTE:\u003c\/strong\u003e There is a stitch that plays lightly for approx. the first 30 seconds of track 1 on side 1, \"I've Told Ev'ry Little Star.\" There is also a stitch that plays lightly for approx. the first 30 seconds of track 1 on side 2, \"I've Found A New Baby.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Contemporary Label LP has the big sound we love here at Better Records -- rich and full-bodied with live-in-your-listening-room immediacy. The bass is deep, rock-solid, and note-like. There’s plenty of clarity and extension up top, bringing Shelly Manne's fantastic work on the cymbals to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is no Heavy Vinyl slogfest. Just listen to the leading edge transients on Sonny's sax. The guitar is warm, rich, and sweet, and just swimming in ambience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSonny is backed here by a heavy-hitting lineup of \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22barney-kessel%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBarney Kessel\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22shelly-manne%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eShelly Manne\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22leroy-vinnegar%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLeroy Vinnegar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%22hampton-hawes%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHampton Hawes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e -- all favorite players of ours here at Better Records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat The Best Sides Of Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders Have To Offer Is Not Hard To Hear\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe biggest, most immediate staging in the largest acoustic space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe most Tubey Magic, without which you have \u003ci\u003ealmost\u003c\/i\u003e nothing. CDs give you clean and clear. Only the best vintage vinyl pressings offer the kind of Tubey Magic that was on the tapes in \u003ca href=\"\/search?q=tag:%221958%22\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e1958\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTight, note-like, rich, full-bodied bass, with the correct amount of weight down low\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNatural tonality in the midrange -- with all the instruments having the correct timbre\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTransparency and resolution, critical to hearing into the three-dimensional studio space\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo doubt there's more but we hope that should do for now. \u003ci\u003ePlaying the record is the only way to hear all of the qualities we discuss above,\u003c\/i\u003e and playing the best pressings against a pile of other copies under rigorously controlled conditions is the only way to find a pressing that sounds as good as this one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAlbum Background\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was Sonny's second Contemporary album and his second West Coast session, a year and a half after the historic Way Out West. Jazz labels acquire \"personalities\" not only from the musical tastes of the owner\/recording director but also from the roster of musicians signed to the company. The \"Contemporary Sound\"–every bit as distinctive as the competing \"Blue Note Sound,\" \"Prestige Sound,\" and \"Pacific Jazz Sound\"–was largely a product of the work by Hampton Hawes, Barney Kessel, and Shelly Manne, all of whom had won Down Beat awards for their respective instruments and recorded as \"The Poll Winners.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e- Concord Music\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/blockquote\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat We're Listening For On Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEnergy\u003c\/strong\u003e for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Big Sound\u003c\/strong\u003e comes next -- wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThen \u003cstrong\u003etransient information\u003c\/strong\u003e -- fast, clear, sharp attacks, not the smear and thickness so common to these LPs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTight, full-bodied bass\u003c\/strong\u003e -- which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNext: \u003cstrong\u003etransparency\u003c\/strong\u003e -- the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eExtend the top and bottom\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003ci\u003evoila\u003c\/i\u003e, you have The Real Thing -- an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVinyl Condition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMint Minus Minus and maybe a bit better is about as quiet as any vintage pressing will play, and since only the right vintage pressings have any hope of sounding good on this album, that will most often be the playing condition of the copies we sell. (The copies that are even a bit noisier get listed on the site are seriously reduced prices or traded back in to the local record stores we shop at.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose of you looking for quiet vinyl will have to settle for the sound of other pressings and Heavy Vinyl reissues, purchased elsewhere of course as we have no interest in selling records that don't have the vintage analog magic of these wonderful recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you want to make the trade-off between bad sound and quiet surfaces with whatever Heavy Vinyl pressing might be available, well, that's certainly your prerogative, but we can't imagine losing what's good about this music -- the size, the energy, the presence, the clarity, the weight -- just to hear it with less background noise.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rollins, Sonny","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50807241015592,"sku":"rolliconte","price":74.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/3415\/2295\/files\/rolliconte.jpg?v=1758646347","url":"https:\/\/better-records.com\/products\/rolliconte_2510_12_2_4x__","provider":"Better Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}