Acoustic Sounds celebrates Contemporary Records with this new reissue of Curtis Counce’s 1957 album You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce!

Originally released in 1957 the album sees Counce (bass) alongside Jack Shelton (trumpet), Harold Land (tenor sax), Carl Perkins (piano) & Frank Butler (drums).

Recorded by Roy DuNann this edition is pressed on 180-gram vinyl pressed at QRP with (AAA) lacquers cut from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman and is presented in a tip-on jacket.

Side A:
A1 Complete (5:51)
A2 How Deep Is The Ocean (6:39)
A3 Too Close For Comfort (5:38)
A4 Mean To Me (4:31)

Side B:
B1 Stranger In Paradise (7:05)
B2 Counceltation (6:01)
B3 Big Foot (9:04)

The West Coast and its style of jazz was not the prerogative of white musicians for it also attracted a number of African-American musicians who excelled there, such as bassist Curtis Counce (one of the first to join the West-Coast musicians).

On this quite marvelous album, Counce surrounds himself with entrusted colleagues such as the excellent Texan tenor Harold Land (listen to The Fox), the Indiana pianist Carl Perkins (who died very young in 1958)(Introducing) and the excellent drummer, originally from Kansas City, Frank Butler (who played a lot with Art Pepper, for example on Intensity).

Trumpeter Jack Sheldon (listen to Quartet and the Quintet), with his hushed sound, completes the lineup for this album and boy, this is a most solid quintet which made several recordings in 1956-57 (Complete Studio Recordings: The Master Takes; Landslide Vol. 1); and inclusive of this one, which is of a particularly high quality.

Eight excellent themes are on the program, including a superb Stranger in Paradise, a smashing entry with Curtis’ composition Complete. An album at the crossroads of bop and the west coast, and now having been re-released on an impressive 180gram vinyl by Craft Recordings, You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce! is a definitive listening pleasure that cannot be refused.

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