Concord Original jazz Classics Remasters ....

SOURCE: CONQUEROO, Published: 2013-07-15

Concord Music Group will release five new titles in its Original Jazz Classics Remasters series on July 23, 2013. Enhanced by 24-bit remastering by Joe Tarantino, several bonus tracks on nearly each disc (some previously unreleased) and new liner notes providing historical context to the original material, the series celebrates the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records, the prolific New York-based label that showcased some of the most influential jazz artists and recordings of the 1950s and ’60s.

The five titles are: Thelonious Monk & Gerry Mulligan: Mulligan Meets Monk; Bill Evans Trio:How My Heart Sings!; Wes Montgomery: So Much Guitar!; Julian "Cannonball" Adderley &Milt Jackson: Things Are Getting Better; and Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe.

Riverside was launched in 1953 in New York on a shoestring budget by traditional-jazz enthusiasts Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnews as a platform to reissue jazz and blues recordings from the 1920s by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Ma Rainey, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others. Over the next decade, the label evolved into one of the premier purveyors of modern jazz. With Keepnews producing the sessions (and often writing the liner notes), Riverside brought jazz giants like Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, and Wes Montgomery to the forefront of American music. Despite successes with these and other jazz and blues artists — including Sonny Rollins, Abbey Lincoln, Art Blakey, Mongo Santamaria, John Lee Hooker,Jimmy Heath, Charlie Byrd, and The Staple Singers — Riverside folded in 1964, a year after Grauer’s death. The catalog was acquired by Fantasy in 1972, and Fantasy was in turn acquired by Concord Music Group in late 2004.

All five Riverside titles in the current round of reissues were originally produced by Keepnews and include his original liner notes. All reflect the ambitious depth and scope of influential jazz captured in the Riverside catalog over the relatively short span of 11 years.

Thelonious Monk & Gerry Mulligan: Mulligan Meets Monk: Recorded in mid August 1957, Mulligan Meets Monk is a summit of two artists from two very different and distinct worlds — Monk representing what was then known as East Coast jazz, and Mulligan deeply rooted in a West Coast sound. Rounding out the quartet are bassist Wilbur Ware and drummerShadow Wilson. Even with the two frontmen’s disparate styles, the unlikely pairing resulted in an engaging and enduring recording, according to Neil Tesser’s new liner notes.

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