New Sounds was originally a 10" LP compiling previously released 78 rpm records on the Blue Note label. A CD reissue with the same name and cover appeared in 1991, but while using many of the same personnel, had only two tracks in common with the original LP. It instead compiled a distinct James Moody 10" LP (James Moody and his Modernists [BLP 5006]) with the Art Blakey tracks and included several tracks previously unreleased on LP or any format. Conversely, the tracks omitted from the CD which were on the original LP have never been reissued.

In December 1947 Art Blakey formed a group for his first sessions as a leader. Dubbed "Art Blakey's Messengers", this group was a precursor to the famous Jazz Messengers groups of the next decade and beyond. Blakey had recently gone on a pilgrimage to Africa and adopted Islam. Many of his fellow musicians had adopted the religion as well, and the "Messengers" name was a nod to the message of the religion. Five tracks were recorded during this session, four of which came out on 78s. Two of the tracks were on the original 10" LP, all five are on the CD.

Three of the other four tracks on the original 10" LP were recorded by a group billed as the "Max Roach Quintet", recorded in Paris in May 1949. This group included James Moody and Kenny Dorham (who was also in Blakey's Messengers). The final track was recorded by a Moody-led group in Switzerland, in April 1949. These four tracks were originally released on three 78s.

As noted above the previous four tracks were omitted from the CD and replaced by two different James Moody sessions which were previously released on the 10" LP James Moody and His Modernists (BLP 5006). This LP, too, was a compilation of records originally released as 78s. The New Sounds CD includes the entirety of these two sessions—recorded October 19 and 25, 1948—including a previously unreleased alternate take of "The Fuller Bop Man."

In his review of the CD version of New Sounds, Scott Yanow of AllMusic gave it four stars and called the recording "historically significant. Classic and formerly rare music."

LP Tracks A3 and B3, CD tracks 10–14

LP tracks A1, A2, B1

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