Shelly Manne Black Hawk Vol. 1: The 13-Minute Live Jazz Take

What Makes At The Black Hawk Vol. 1 Essential Listening?

Because this wasn't a performance-it was a conversation that happened to have a paying audience. Recorded over two September nights in 1959 at San Francisco's Black Hawk club, this first volume captures Shelly Manne's quintet doing what studio jazz almost never allows: stretching. Three of the four main tracks run over 11 minutes. "Poinciana" clocks in at 13. That's not indulgence. That's what happens when musicians trust each other enough to let a phrase develop, turn around, and develop again. Producer Lester Koenig knew it. He let the tape roll and stayed out of the way. The result is a document of how hard bop sounded when it lived in a room instead of a control booth.

Why Does This Album Have a 4.84/5 Rating on Discogs?

Because Manne understood something fundamental: a great live jazz record isn't about playing your hits louder. It's about rethinking them in real time. The band here-Victor Feldman on piano, Richie Kamuca on tenor, Joe Gordon on trumpet, Monty Budwig on bass, Frank Rosolino contributing a composition-was a working unit. They'd been gigging together. You hear it in the way Gordon and Kamuca trade phrases on "Our Delight" without stepping on each other, in the way Feldman's comping adjusts to what Manne's doing on the kit. The 1,202 collectors who own this on Discogs (versus 95 who want it) aren't holding it because it's rare. They're holding it because it sounds like September 1959 in a San Francisco club where the drinks were strong and the set times were suggestions.

Quick Stats

Tracklist

Side A:
1. Summertime (11:56)
2. Our Delight (11:57)

Side B:
1. Poinciana (13:00)
2. Blue Daniel (8:33)
3. Theme: A Gem From Tiffany (0:17)

Start the stream. Let the atmosphere settle before we look at the wax.

The Needle Drop: Opening Night at the Hawk

You slide the LP out of its sleeve and the paper smells like 2024-that clean, slightly chemical scent of new vinyl stock. This is the Craft Recordings reissue, not the 1960 original Contemporary pressing, but Bernie Grundman's name in the runout tells you this was cut with respect. The cover photo, shot by Fred Lyon, shows the Black Hawk's dark interior, tables crowded close, smoke hanging in the air. You can almost hear the ice in the glasses.

Cue "Summertime." Manne counts it off with brushes. The tempo sits at a relaxed 72 BPM-the perfect heartbeat for a late-night pour of rye whiskey and a chair you don't need to leave. Feldman's piano intro is spare, almost tentative, like he's checking the room temperature before committing. Then Kamuca's tenor enters, and the whole thing opens up. This isn't the Gershwin tune you've heard a hundred times. This is the Gershwin tune rethought by musicians who've lived with it long enough to know where the doors are.

The Nerd Sheet: Why This Record Still Moves

Let's talk numbers. According to the Discogs master release page, the original Contemporary pressings from 1960 typically run between $30 and $60 in VG+ condition, depending on label variation and whether you've got the deep groove. The Craft reissue? Nineteen dollars. That's the steal. You're getting Bernie Grundman's mastering work-someone who knows how to honor the original Contemporary sound-for the price of a decent lunch.

The want-to-have ratio (95 to 1,202) tells you this isn't a grail chase. It's a foundational record that serious listeners already own. The 4.84 community rating on 139 votes is quietly impressive. That's not hype. That's a consensus built over decades.

Here's the lineage angle: the Black Hawk sessions (there were originally four volumes, plus unreleased material compiled into a fifth in 1991, and a complete box set in 2010) established the template for West Coast live jazz documentation. Compare this to Art Blakey's records at Birdland or the Vanguard-different energy, different room, different coast. Manne's approach was conversational where Blakey's was volcanic. That conversational quality-the way phrases hand off between Gordon and Kamuca, the way Feldman supports without dominating-became a reference point for later piano-led quintets. Listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio's live work in the mid-'60s and you'll hear echoes of this restraint.

Session synergy matters here. According to Wikipedia's album entry, this band was a working unit, not an all-star pickup group. Manne, Feldman, Budwig, Kamuca, and Gordon had been playing together regularly. That familiarity shows up in the micro-adjustments-Budwig's bass lines anticipating where Manne's going to place the next accent, Feldman's voicings leaving space for the horns to breathe.

The Educational Deep Dive: What Happened That September

The Black Hawk was a San Francisco institution, a club on Turk Street that became synonymous with West Coast jazz in the late '50s and early '60s. Lester Koenig, who ran Contemporary Records, was the kind of producer who understood that the best jazz happens when you let musicians play their set, not their singles. So he set up engineer Howard Holzer with microphones on September 22 and 24, 1959, and let the tapes roll.

The "mistake" fact here isn't a mistake at all-it's a philosophy. Koenig could have edited these performances down. He didn't. "Poinciana," a Nat Simon and Buddy Bernier composition that most bands take at six or seven minutes, runs for 13 here. That's not because the band lost track of time. It's because they found something in the changes that needed exploration. Feldman's piano solo in the second half builds so gradually you don't notice the intensity rising until you're already in deep.

Shelly Manne himself was coming off a busy year. By 1959, he'd already established himself as one of the most in-demand drummers on the West Coast, someone who could swing hard without overwhelming a tune. He played with taste. The Black Hawk sessions let him lead without shouting. His brush work on "Summertime" is a clinic in texture-he's not just keeping time, he's painting the backdrop.

Victor Feldman, a British-born multi-instrumentalist who'd settled in L.A., brought a harmonic sophistication that kept the rhythm section interesting. Richie Kamuca and Joe Gordon-both stalwarts of the West Coast scene-delivered solos that felt like they belonged to the moment, not the career highlight reel.

Monty Budwig, on bass, was the glue. He anchored every track with a warm, woody tone that Holzer captured without distortion. That's harder than it sounds. Live recordings in 1959 were a gamble. You couldn't punch in. You couldn't fix a dropped phrase. What you got was what happened.

If you want this record in your collection, we've got a clean copy of the Craft reissue ready to ship. Nineteen dollars for a Bernie Grundman cut is, frankly, ridiculous value.

The Technical Scrutiny: What You're Actually Buying

Let's talk pressing. The Craft Recordings reissue (catalog number CR00601, released March 15, 2024) is a stereo LP cut from the original Contemporary masters. Bernie Grundman's name in the runout groove isn't just a credit-it's a promise. Grundman has been cutting lacquers for over 50 years. When he touches a jazz reissue, he's aiming for one thing: fidelity to the source without adding false warmth or fake "vinyl character."

The original Contemporary pressings had that classic deep groove profile and the "Contemporary" label variations (some with addresses, some without) that matter to purists. If you're hunting an original, check for the "LA" stampers in the runout and make sure the label hasn't faded to pink. But honestly? Unless you're spending $60+ on a pristine first press, the Craft reissue gets you 95% of the way there for a third of the price.

Sound-wise, expect a warm midrange with excellent transient snap on the cymbals. Manne's brushes on "Summertime" have texture-you can hear the individual bristles against the drumhead. The soundstage is wide but not artificially stretched. Gordon's trumpet sits left of center, Kamuca's tenor right, with Feldman's piano anchoring the middle. Budwig's bass has natural resonance without the mud that plagues some live recordings from this era.

Floor noise is minimal. There's some audience ambience-a cough here, a glass clink there-but it's never intrusive. That's Howard Holzer's engineering. He mic'd the room intelligently and kept the balance natural.

This record pairs beautifully with a slow Sunday afternoon when you've got nowhere to be. Pour something smooth-bourbon works, but so does a good Scotch-and let "Poinciana" unfold. Don't skip around. Let the sequencing do its job.

Context & Afterlife

Shelly Manne died in 1984 at age 64 from a heart attack. His legacy as one of jazz's most tasteful drummers remains intact. The Black Hawk sessions are a big part of that legacy-they demonstrated that live jazz could be intimate and expansive at the same time, that a working band could hold an audience's attention for 13 minutes without resorting to pyrotechnics.

The cultural afterlife of this album is subtle but persistent. It's not a record that gets sampled by hip-hop producers or referenced in pop culture montages. It's a record that musicians study. Piano trios looking to understand conversational dynamics. Drummers learning how to support without dominating. Horn players figuring out how to trade phrases without stepping on toes.

The Black Hawk itself closed in 1963, but these recordings preserve not just the music but the vibe of a specific place and time-San Francisco in the late '50s, when the West Coast jazz scene was proving it didn't need New York's approval to matter.

Collector's Corner: The Final Audit

Here's the honest assessment: if you're chasing the original 1960 Contemporary pressing, you're paying for the label, not a massive sonic upgrade. The Grundman-cut Craft reissue is transparent, dynamic, and respectful. For $19, it's one of the best values in the current reissue market.

Skip the $60 VG+ original unless you're a completist or you need the deep groove for ritual purposes. The music is the same. The mastering is arguably better on the reissue because Grundman had access to cleaner source tapes and modern cutting equipment.

What to check if you're buying used: make sure the vinyl is clean and free of major scuffs. These tracks are quiet enough that surface noise will intrude on "Summertime." Look for a copy that's been stored vertically and hasn't warped. The Craft pressing is new enough that most copies should be in excellent shape.

Does your copy have the Grundman stamp etched in the runout? What's your favorite track from this session? Tell us in the comments-we're always curious how collectors are experiencing these reissues versus the originals.

Grab a copy of Shelly Manne & His Men - At The Black Hawk Vol. 1 from the Miles Waxey bins here. Nineteen dollars for a record this essential is the kind of no-brainer that makes vinyl collecting feel sane again.