Verve/UMe’s Acoustic Sounds series has announced its 2024 releases which includes classic records from the likes of Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz & Bill Evans, and many more. The full list is available to view below.
The LPs will be mastered from the original analog tapes pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and packaged in high-quality tip-on gatefold jackets, replicating the original packaging. The majority of the albums will be mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound while Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering will master the Diana Krall titles and a number of others.
As always, all releases are 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.
Throughout the year, the Acoustic Sounds series will feature one to three new releases monthly from the Verve Label Group’s vaunted catalog, including records originally released on Verve, Impulse!, Philips, EmArcy and Limelight.
Next up? Ella Fitzgerald’s 1961 album, Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!, will arrive March 29th and follows several other of her albums that have received the Acoustic Sounds treatment. In contrast to her classic Songbook albums for Verve, this LP captures the essence of Fitzgerald as most people got to see her live—with a swinging quartet. The program is made up mostly of repertoire from the Swing and early Bebop periods with Fitzgerald mixing soulful ballads and hard-driving swingers.
The fall slate of releases will kick off with two of jazz’s most important and influential women: Nina Simone, and her immortal 1964 live album, In Concert, September 6, and Sarah Vaughan, with her sensational 1956 LP, Sassy, September 20.
Pre-order Ella Fitzgerald’s Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!
Acoustic Sounds 2024 Release Schedule:
January 26 – Ben Webster – Soulville (Verve, 1957)
February 23 – Stan Getz & Bill Evans – Previously Unreleased Recordings (Verve, 1973)
March 29 – Ella Fitzgerald – Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (Verve, 1961)
April 26 – Gerry Mulligan – Night Lights (Philips, 1963)
May 10 – Kenny Burrell – Guitar Forms (Verve, 1965)
May 24 – Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges – Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play The Blues (Verve, 1959)
May 31 – Diana Krall – The Look of Love (Verve, 2001)
June 14 – Billie Holiday – Body and Soul (Verve, 1957)
June 28 – Johnny Hodges – Blues A Plenty (Verve, 1958)
July 5 – Diana Krall – When I Look In Your Eyes (Verve, 1999)
July 12 – Sonny Stitt – Blows The Blues (Verve, 1960)
July 26 – Gerry Mulligan & Ben Webster – Gerry Mulligan Meets Ben Webster (Verve, 1960)
August 16 – Sonny Rollins – East Broadway Run Down (Impulse, 1967)
August 30 – Stan Getz – Sweet Rain (Verve, 1967)
September 6 – Nina Simone – In Concert (Philips, 1964)
September 20 – Sarah Vaughan – Sassy (EmArcy, 1956)
September 27 – Diana Krall – All For You: A Dedication To The Nat King Cole Trio (Impulse!, 1996)
October 11 – Chet Baker – Baker’s Holiday (Limelight, 1965)
October 25 – Mel Tormé – Tormé (Verve, 1958)
November 1 – Ben Webster – Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (Verve, 1960)
November 15 – Ben Webster – See You At The Fair (Impulse, 1964)
December 6 – Jimmy Smith – The Cat (Verve, 1964)
December 13 – Jimmy Smith – Root Down (Verve, 1972)