If you’ve been impressed by the Tone Poet Series from Blue Note, you will be very interested in the news this morning about Verve/UMe’s Acoustic Sounds series that will be available starting in May with the release of two iconic jazz classics from Ray Charles and the Gil Evans Orchestra. If you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll notice a heavy emphasis on Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald recordings which are going to sell out very quickly.
Verve/UMe’s acclaimed audiophile-grade all-analog vinyl reissue series is about to get the royal treatment. In partnership with Acoustic Sounds, the releases will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Impulse! Records and its incomparable and influential catalog with a series of high-end vinyl releases of some of the orange-and-black label’s most essential titles.
The Impulse! 60 series will kick off on May 14 with two of the four releases that launched the label known as The House That Trane Built, in 1961: Ray Charles’ singular and long-out-of-print Genius + Soul = Jazz and Gil Evans Orchestra’s superb Out of the Cool. Charles’ album will also be made available digitally for the first time in years.
The LPs will be mastered in stereo from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, except for Charles which has been mastered by Kevin Gray. All albums will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl and packaged by Stoughton Printing Co.in high-quality tip-on gatefold jackets, replicating the original Impulse packaging.
Like all Acoustic Sounds titles, the releases will be supervised by Chad Kassem, CEO of Acoustic Sounds, the world’s largest source for audiophile recordings, and will utilize the unsurpassed production craft of Quality Record Pressings.
The official release schedule May through December 2021:
May 14
- Ray Charles – Genius + Soul = Jazz (Impulse!, 1961) — pre-order at Amazon ($26.99)
- Gil Evans Orchestra – Out Of The Cool (Impulse!, 1961) — pre-order at Amazon ($26.99)
June 25
- Oliver Nelson – The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961)
- Sonny Rollins – On Impulse! (Impulse!, 1965)
July 30
- Bill Evans – Trio 64 (Verve, 1964)
- Bill Evans – Trio 65 (Verve, 1965)
August 20
- Charles Mingus – The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (Impulse!, 1963)
- Charles Mingus – Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (Impulse!, 1964)
September 10
- Ella Fitzgerald – Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas (Verve, 1960)
September 24
- Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Ella & Louis (Verve, 1956)
- Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong – Ella & Louis Again (Verve, 1957)
October 22
- Bill Evans – At Town Hall, Volume 1 (Verve, 1966)
- John Coltrane – “Live” At The Village Vanguard (Impulse!, 1962)
- John Coltrane – Crescent (Impulse!, 1964)
November 19
- Duke Ellington & Coleman Hawkins – Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins (Impulse!, 1963)
- Oscar Peterson – Night Train (Verve, 1963)
- Oscar Peterson – We Get Requests (Verve, 1964)
December 10
- Duke Ellington & John Coltrane – Duke Ellington & John Coltrane(Impulse!, 1963)
- John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman – John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963)
- Roy Haynes – Out Of The Afternoon (Impulse!, 1962)
