History of Contemporary Records

Shelly Manne & His Men Play Checkmate

In a documentary film about food supplies to be consumed in time of war, stored in underground bunkers, I used a solo of drummer Shelly Manne for a sequence of never ending rows of shiny tins with biscuits and corned beef. The solo was from the Contemporary LP "Shelly Manne & His Men Play Checkmate". My colleagues complimented me on the excellent choice of music and the mixing engineer asked me where I got that superb recording from.

Well, I had bought the Checkmate LP in a sale in a department store. After coming home and playing it, I became an avid lover of West Coast Jazz instantly. The adaptation of the score of John Williams - who was a pianist and who in those days was called Johnny Williams and was writing a lot of music for television before he became the prolific John Williams of the big screen - was played with suspense and a sort of coolness by Shelly Manne (drums), Conte Candoli (trumpet), Richie Kamuca (tenor), Russ Freeman (piano) and on bass Chuck Berghofer, the youngest of them all.

Extraordinary Sound - Howard Holzer -
Roy DuNann

The sound of the LP was indeed superb, realistic and full of detail and I realized that I had stumbled upon a treasure, a product in the category "State of the Art" - even if in those days this term was not commonly used.
Technician Howard Holzer and producer-owner of Contemporary Records Inc., Lester Koening, were the creators of this recording art on Contemporary C3599 the issue I had bought. What I sensed was that technical knowledge, artistic feeling, empathy with the music and the musicians, and a very musical ear, were assisted by the valve circuits in microphones, mixers and amplifiers, by the specially designed cutting lathe and cutting head, and finally by the quality of the pressings. We are talking 1962. John Koenig, Les Koenig's son, adds:

Sure, Roy Dunann built the studio. Yet even the earliest recordings before Dunann joined Contemporary, the recordings made by engineers Val Valentine or John Paladino had already a specific signature in sound, as can be heard on Shelly Manne Vol. 2 with modern jazz works, composed and played by Bob Cooper, Jimmy Giuffre, Bill Holman, Jack Montrose, Marty Paich, and Shorty Rogers on C2511: Divertimento For Brass & Rhythm, Alternation, Lullaby, Etude de Concert, Dimensions in Thirds, Shapes, and Motion and Color.

Liner notes by Lester Koenig and Johnny Williams.

Sebastian Cabot, Doug McClure & Anthony George

The Drummer

Although my respect was for producer Koenig, it was Shelly Manne who became, at least to me, a sort of trademark. His name on the label was the quality stamp. Sure there were the other artists, and more good drummers among them. But Manne with his controlled and refined style - which is completely the opposite of, say, Gene Kupra's - appeared to be the bonding factor of 'music making without egos fighting to get the upper lead' (which by the way can be fun too!). And when Shelly's group came to the end of a live session, A Gem from Tiffany was played, the names of the musicians were mentioned and the audience was thanked for their attendance. John Koenig says about Shelly Manne:

In "The Gramophone" of December 1962 Jazz & Swing reviewer Alun Morgan quotes Shelly Manne saying about Checkmate: "What attracted me to the music was the mood the pieces create—you might call it a "modal" mood. I mean there aren't a lot of changes and because of it you can create more exciting rhythmic interest".

At The Manne Hole

Now more Contemporary artists were on my list to be investigated: Curtis Counce, Hampton Hawes, Art Pepper, Cecil Taylor, Barney Kessel, Chet Baker, André Previn, Phineas Newborn, Ray Brown. This led to my second best buy, this time the 2 LP set "Shelly Manne and his Men at The Manne Hole" (S7593/4) which is another striking Koenig account, again with Howard Holzer responsible for the sound recording, and again with Shelly Manne, Conte Candoli, Richie Kamuca, Russ Freeman, and Chuck Berghofer.

Reference Recording

Contemporary records do have a high content of naturalness. Like Mercury Living Presence, Contemporary served as an example and inspiration to other labels from the 1970s like Sheffield Lab, Eastwind, Concord Jazz, Proprius (because of a strange phase shift their title Jazz At The Pawnshop cannot compete with The Manne Hole Sessions), and also Three Blind Mice, I dare say. Even today many a Contemporary record can be qualified as being a true reference.

Technical Data

Many record companies do print technical data on the back of their covers just to impress the buyer. Often these data are accompanied by an advertising slogan. The technical data mentioned on the back of Checkmate were there for advertising purposes, no doubt, but the mention of these data was really meaningful and justified, and surely Lester Koenig wanted the buyer to know that his recordings were among the best a fan can get. I had taken the wide frequency band of 30 to 20.000 Hz. and the tangible mid band for granted until l noticed that the cover of the stereo version of Checkmate - which I bought later - mentioned 15.000 cycles as upper limit. That stereo issue sounded rather thin. I realized that the cutting head was not yet able to engrave the same dynamics stereophonically. Many early stereo cuttings of Blue Note, Riverside, Pacific, London (English Decca) and Philips Hi-Fi Stereo do have this slender sound.

Shelly's Manne Hole, located at 1608 North Cahuenga Boulevard, between Holywood Boulevard and Selma Avenue.

Instrumental Realism

Making a live recordings in a club is something completely different from making a studio recording where producer and recording engineer can have full control over acoustics, the positions of the players, the sound can be tested and microphone placement can be meticulously adjusted, and if the musicians do not have the right spirit they just can go away and come back some other day. Not so when an actual performance is to be recorded in Shelly's club in Hollywood. Then and there one must make shift with what one has. From the recording it is clear that there is no luxurious grand piano but a simple upright piano. And an upright has a distinctive sound because the attack of the felt hammer moves the string with force towards the soundboard first. The reflection which is picked up by the microphone is primarily out of phase.

In and Out of Phase

In recordings of a grand piano, microphones are often positioned left and right from the piano. And at least one microphone above the strings. There the felt hammer strikes from underneath and the mike(s) picks up the sound which is for the most part in phase. The intensity of the reflected sound is less and that reflected sound of course is out of phase with a minute time delay.

In an upright piano the sound board is in a vertical position and the space between the strings and the sound board is rather limited. Now the felt hammer strikes in the direction of the sound board and the initial vibration is out of phase relative to the microphones, does not matter if these are positioned above the piano or in front when the lid is taken of. Of course it is possible to connect the microphone out of phase, but only then if it does not mess up the characteristic of the complete sound recording.

Shelly Manne & His Men at The Manne-Hole features a 'primitive' upright piano. Primitive, but at the same time determining the atmosphere in the club. On top of that one can hear that during a few passages and solos the level of one of the microphones is adjusted to bring out the piano or another instrument better. One can hear, that at least in one instance in Cole Proter's melancholy "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye", the signal of the microphone placed near the piano, is slightly increased. That too tells the listener that this is a live recording. Despite this circumstance, S7593/4 became one of my treasured Contemporary albums too, because the recording gives a strong sense of 'being there'.

Recordings

Checkmate on C3599 and Shelly Manne & His Men at The Manhole on S7593/4 - with classics like Softly as in a morning sunrise; Love for sale; On green Dolphin Street; I am a bell, What’s new?, etc. all embedded in the live atmosphere - have always been favorites. But there are more Contemporary titles on the shelves. For instance LP's of pianist Phineas Newborn, and there is the disc with Swingin Sounds. A later title 'More Swinging Sounds' is from 1956 and - mind you - was already recorded in stereo. It has Russ Freeman's The Wind on it which is in some way foreboding the atmosphere of the Checkmate recording. Whenever a Contemporary disc was spotted, it was bought. Too many examples. One fine example in the long list is 'Grooveyard' with Harold Land (tenor), Rolf Ericson (trumpet), Carl Perkins (piano), Leroy Vinnegar (bass) and Frank Butler (drums) on S7550. And even when many titles of the catalog were re-issued on Old Classic Jazz by Fantasy, they were considered if the originals were missing in the collection. That is why More Swinging Sounds as a reissue in the OJC-Series is a much appreciated release.
Then there are of course the 4 Black Hawk session discs with those trotting titles as Whisper Not and Step Lightly... S7577, S7578, S7579, and S7580.
Even a very young guitarist Pepe Romero is on Contemporary. He came with his father to the studio to play flamenco guitar. No matter what, there is always this kind of perfect music making. And there is the "natural sound", notwithstanding the fact that Lester Koenig and his technicians used multi miking. There are no problems with phase that are noticeable. Early pressings had green and black labels. They also can be recognized by the machine stamped matrix number in the dead wax whether they are in handwriting or stamped. For stereo discs the reference began with LKS, meaning Lester Koenig Stereo. The newer editions had the matrix numbers written by hand. Records were pressed under license in Great Britain with reference LAC probably meaning Los Angeles Contemporary. When the Contemporary catalog was issued by Fantasy, the releases were issued by Boplicity. Also Contemporary records were pressed in Japan with prefix GP, and in Feance pressed pressed by Vogue (as far as I know).
Click here to view images of the original American inner sleeve with the listed releases.

Lester Koenig

Lester Koenig (December 3, 1917 - November 21, 1977) may have founded Contemporary Records in 1951 at the time when his label Good Time Jazz was already mentioned in Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog. Good Time Jazz was the home of dixieland and ragtime music. His second label, Society for Forgotten Music (SFM), brought Piano Sonatas for Four Hands (Jan Ladislav Dusek) as the earliest mono release on M 1002, and later recordings of instrumental and chamber music by composers Mily Balakirev, Guillaume Lekeu, Ernest Chausson, and Vernon Duke.
Both in the Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog and The Long Player, the Contemporary label is first listed in the fall of 1953 with Howard Rumsey's Light House All-Stars on three ten inch records with reference C2501, 2506, 2510. And there is Shelly Manne and His Men on C 2503, 2511, 2516, and 2518, available as a four 10"-set. But soon Koenig switched to the 12" format in the 3500 series and the titles "The Three" and "The Two" (Shelly Manne with Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre, and pianist Russ Freeman) landed on Contemporary M3584. Koenig's early recordings were made in cooperation with 'European Records' from France - maybe because of the contacts Koenig had with film people from abroad. There are indeed a couple of recordings which were made in France but these seem to be the result of a license agreement: C 358 (Dizzy Gillespie - My Man - Ooo-Bla-Dee); C 2502 (Henri Renaud's All-Stars - Modern Sounds); C 2504 (Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy In Paris); C 2512 (with young Martial Solal); C 2504 (Dizzy Gillespie - Dizzy In Paris). You may want to view The Contemporary Records Discography Project.

Dizzie Gillespie (at far left, with glasses, looking up) at the time he made the recordings in Paris, in 1953. In centre Don Byas (thumbs up) and at right Sarah Vaughan.
(Picture taken from the French Vogue double LP DP15 "Memorial" Don Byas.)

Conte Candoli (trumpet) - Richie Kamucka (tenor sax) - Shelly Manne (drums) - Russ Freeman (piano) - Chuck Berghofer (bass)

 

In 1956 when tape recorder, cutting lathe and matrix production had reached a higher level, Lester Koenig produced his first stereo recordings. 1956 was the year Roy DuNann (originally from Capitol Records) joined the company. Lester Koenig often wrote the liner notes himself. There are also notes written by Leonard Feather who himself was already producing records and playing piano in the nineteen forties. See Jazz on Continental 78 RPM.

Paramount Pictures

In the nineteen forties Lester Koenig was a writer for documentaries (Thunderbolt, The Memphis Belle) and later he was an associate-producer with Paramount Pictures. IMdB mentions The Heiress (with Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift, 1949), Detective Story (with Kirk Douglas and Eleanor Parker, 1951) and Carrie (with Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones, 1952), although Art Pepper in his biography mentions also Roman Holiday (Audry Hepburn and Gregory Peck, 1953). It was already in his early years with Paramount that Lester Koenig displayed his interest in the technical aspects of filming and recording sound and investigated in these aspects. John Koenig:

Joseph McCarthy

After World War Two had ended the Soviet Union was no longer a partner to confer with, naturally, but became the new enemy in the political doctrine. It meant that The Cold War had started. Now anyone with more or less liberal ideas was suspected of having communist sympathies. Josef McCarthy, a Senator from Wisconsin who himself had served in World War Two, made a speech about how the Democratic administration had been infiltrated by subversive Americans, to be more precise, by communists. From 1950 on not only the government and its institutions, but also the media were being scrutinized. People who had suspicions about the liberal views of colleagues were urged to report this. But many refused to testify for the Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Also the film industry was X-rayed for alleged subversive characters. The outcome was that several writers, directors and producers were no longer employed. People were summoned to testify at the hearings organized by McCarthy and his Committee.

Character

In his autobiography "A Straight Life" (originally published by Schirmer Books, New York, 1979), Art Pepper writes about how Lester Koenig became a producer of records:

Art Pepper also remembers that Lester Koenig was like a father to him and many times helped him to make a start for "a straight life" again and again by giving him the chance to make recordings and help him clean up his financial situation.

Senator Richard Nixon of California took part in the hunt with heart and soul and insinuated that Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson had ties with the communists. The hunting reached a pinnacle when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried and were executed. They died because they refused to confess and name others, one commentator said. (See for more info Spartacus Educational). Eventually McCarthy's Committee was more and more criticized and McCarthy himself became unbelievable and died a mad man.

John Koenig

John Koenig who studied to be a cellist and studied with the great Gregor Piatigorsky, played in orchestras in Israel and Sweden. When at home in LA he was active in his father's firm. He was co-producer of the Art Farmer album On The Road (1976; S7636). After his father's untimely death in 1977, John gave up his post in the Swedish Radio Symphony and returned to Los Angeles to manage his father's record company and the estate. Now he was the producer of Contemporary Records and he himself was featured on disc: Chico Freeman - Peaceful Heart, Gentle Spirit (C14005). Koenig Jr. subsequently studied law and became a lawyer in a big law firm and then founded his own firm. You can read his fascinating biography at the site of the International Cello Society. John Koenig has a vast knowledge of Contemporary Records Inc. by experience and by perception. He was also quoted in Art's biography.

Although Les was a man who had an ear for new ideas, even if they were not executed well, he always was the man with taste and the technique had to serve.

The melodious and energizing art of pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. is evident on Contemporary S7600 from 1961. He plays with Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums), and on Side 2 with Sam Jones (bass) and Louis Hayes (drums).

Hampton Hawes

Pianist Hampton Hawes also wrote down his esteem for Lester Koenig. Hawes had made a 45 rpm single for Discovery in 1952 with Shelly Manne, and he cut a ten inch for Vantage Records in 1955. That was it. But Shelly Manne took him one day to Lester Koenig's office. Hampton Hawes in his biography "Rise Up Off Me" (written with Don Asher, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1972):

Valve Condenser Microphone AKG C 12

The AKG C-12 is a smooth sounding microphone and has the character which is so typical of good, vintage condenser microphones. The character is completely different from dynamic microphones which are so en vogue these days in the pop music business. It is clear that the equipment used in those days by Lester Koenig, Howard Holzer, Roy DuNann, Val Valentin, John Palladino, was of a different nature if compared to transistors and op-amps and one bit converters of today. The equipment matched the mikes to bring about the best characteristic and dynamics. The C-12 has a very individual signature which is easily recognized. For example in André Previn West Side Story disc (S7572), or Phineas Newborn's A World of Piano (S7600 - Old Jazz Classics Records reissue OJC 175).

When Cecil Taylor was recorded in New York City at Nola's Penthouse Sound Recording Studios by Tommy Nola and Lewis Merritt, no microphone type and other equipment is mentioned. Except that the cover shows an upright piano which is evident when listening to the disk.

Fantasy: Old Jazz Classics

John Koenig produced several records issued in the S7000 and 14000 Series. Ceck John Koenig at Discogs. But finally, in 1984, Contemporary was purchased by Fantasy Inc., Berkeley, California. Now original Contemporary recordings were remastered and issued as Old Jazz Classics (OJC). These definitely show that the tapes were replayed by using modern tape recorders for play back and that the music may have been re-recorded on another modern tape machine using modern sound equipment and that these recordings served as the new master tapes from which the OJC lacquers were cut. OJCs bear the character of transistors and have more straight dynamics, specifically in the high frequencies. Fortunately there is always some of the original sound character coming throug, unmistakingly Contemporary and unmistakingly the C-12 microphone for which AKG has designed a more modern version, the C12VR. John Koenig recalls:

John Koenig's words give insight in how carefully recordings were mastered, and how slight alterations to the procedure were made in respect to the equipment used at the time. It explains also that the entire production of a title was truly a work of art. Yet the OJC editions are practically the only affordable ones if you want early items like The Two (with pianist Russ Freeman) and The Three (with Shorty Rogers and Jimmy Giuffre).

Digital Audio on LP and Compact Disc

Eventually Contemporary Records moved into the digital era. At right the covers of two recordings: C14012, California Concert (1984), and C14026, Bebop Lives (1986) with the indication Recorded Direct To Digital. They were issued on LP. No Compact Disc equivalent of either one could be traced in Schwann catalogs from 1984, 1985 and 1987. The new digital format confronted any producer and any sound engineer with a few difficulties. Apart from the limitations of the digital format in those days, the biggest problem was that multitrack recorders - if available - were very expensive. Making multitrack recordings with the Multi-channel Ampex tape recorder as used by Contemporary in the years before was out of the question; unless you wanted to make an analog recording and convert it to the digital format afterwards. So the sound picked up by the various microphones had to be balanced on the spot, and the signals had to be mixed down then and there to the two channels of a basic stereo recording. These signals were then converted by a Sony PCM-F1, or a PCM 1630, and recorded on a U-matic or even a Betamax video recorder.

On the Spot

No re-mixing at a later date was possible. That is what "direct to digital" in most cases meant. The cover of Bebop Lives says that the performances were recorded and mixed aboard the Aura Sonic Mobile Unit by engineer Tom Mark. Given the equipment's capabilities, most recording engineers did a fine job when recording in a studio, but making a live recording was not all that easy. Whether the artistry of these musicians playing during the California Concert is worth listening to or not, is to be judged by the listener. However, the technical aspects of that and other recordings cannot be compared to Contemporary's analog recording technique of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, employed in whatever setting, be it club or studio, and the mastering and pressing of the quality discs.
After a few years the new life with Fantasy in the digital domain was cut short and Contemporary became history.

This page is an adaptation and expansion of an article first published in 1995 of which an edited version also appeared in Analog Aktuell, the magazine of the Analog Audio Association, Germany. Page researched and written by Rudolf A. Bruil and first published on the web on June 28, 2010.

I am indebted to John Koenig for his recollections, comments and additional information.

YouTube: Checkmate - A Tribute to Lester Koenig

YouTube: Checkmate - The King Swings (1962 broadcast)

YouTube: Checkmate - TV Episode

Valve Microphone AKG C12VR - remake of the C-12 as used by Lester Koenig of Contemporary Records. 1. capsule of 2 diaphragms of 25 mm. 2. transformers. 3. choice of three basic patterns: omnidirectional, cardoid, and figure of eight - with two steps in between the settings make a total of 9 characteristics to choose from. 4. socket with rubber damper to absorb shocks. 5. 6072 twin triode valve. 6. shock absorber.

California Concert with Bud Shank and Shorty Rogers on Contemporary C-14012 from 1984 - Bud Shank (alto sax), Shorty Rogers (flugelhorn), George Cables (piano), Monty Budwig (bass) and Sherman Ferguson (drums) Bebop Lives with Frank Morgan Quintet on Contemporary C14026 from 1986- Frank Morgan (alto), Johnny Coles (flugelhorn), Cedar Walton (piano), Buster Williams (bass), Billy Higgins (drums).

It's Sand Man, Makin' Whoopy, Kansas City Tango, Ah-Leu-Cha, Echoes of Harlem, Mia, Aurex