he story of a jazz label, the creation of which is a labor of love more than a shrewd business decision, is the story of the impresario behind it. In the case of Musik Produktion Schwarzwald (MPS), that person was Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, who, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, produced distinctive recordings on the first German label to release jazz exclusively. The hallmarks of MPS releases were the quality of the recordings (some of which were made in Brunner-Schwer's living room) and the artistic design of the sleeves, which included detail about the artists and performances. The MPS roster was replete with big names -- Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Lee Konitz, George Duke, Jean-Luc Ponty and Monty Alexander among them -- yet the label's soul came from the mix of American, Canadian, European and Japanese jazz musicians who were recorded. The music encompassed a wide stylistic range -- from swing to free jazz, jazz-rock to ethnic jazz.

Drummer Kenny Clarke and pianist/arranger Francy Boland were responsible for a renowned Blue Note title, The Golden Eight. All Smiles is in the same vein -- intricate big-band music that falls somewhere between swing and hard bop. The roster of fifteen includes four trumpets, three trombones and four saxes, along with drums, bass, piano and vibes. Great American composers are covered with numbers from Berlin, Porter and the Gershwins, but one of the most interesting is John Philip Sousa's "High School Cadets," which sounds like a marching band crashed into a jazz ensemble. This is muscular, invigorating music; when the brass cuts loose, it could wake the dead.

Trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff was a central figure in German jazz who played with many greats from America, including here, where "friends" Don Cherry on cornet, Elvin Jones on drums and Lee Konitz on sax provide expert backing. Challenging and progressive, this spare music gives the notes time to bloom and then decay, imparting an atmospheric feel, almost as though it were meant to be accompanied by visuals. The fluidity of Mangelsdorff's trombone provides an anchor around which the other musicians revolve. Mangelsdorff wrote or co-wrote each number, all of which dispense with traditional melody. If you like much of what's on the ECM label, this album will provide many moments of serene, contemplative listening.

These two LPs are among MPS's first dozen or so vinyl reissues. The very first was Oscar Peterson's Exclusively for My Friends, a deluxe boxed set of six of the label's best-known albums, which I reviewed in late 2014. There and here, MPS has done it right, using the original analog master tapes as the source (pictures of them are included, just to emphasize the point) and pressing on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany. The finished product equals or surpasses what the audiophile reissue labels -- Music Matters, Analogue Productions, Mobile Fidelity, Pure Pleasure, Speakers Corner -- routinely produce.