SwingDJs

Swifty wrote:That Basie Set looks sweet, but I'll have to check against what I already own to rationalize buying yet another Basie set.

I've been looking for a Duke set though, anyone have any recommendations?

Blanton-Webster Era 3 CD set (RCA)

Duke Ellington & His World Famous Orchestra '46-'47. (Hindsight Records)3 CDs.

The Mosaic Complete Capitol Recordings set is fantastic, and more expensive. 5 CDs

Also, the RCA Milleniuem edition is great, and even more expensive. 20 something CDs for about $300.

Swifty wrote:That Basie Set looks sweet, but I'll have to check against what I already own to rationalize buying yet another Basie set.

I've been looking for a Duke set though, anyone have any recommendations?

Yeah, there's quite a bit of overlap if you have any of the Columbia recordings even though it supposedly includes some live sessions that haven't been released before. It has all the small group stuff, the Jones-Smith and the Octet. It's been remastered and the sound better than on the previous versions i have.


For a Duke recommendation, a good medium sized compilation is
The Duke: The Essential Recordings (1927-1962)



An interesting one is the dvd The Intimate Duke Ellington that has Ellington in solo, trio, and octet units.
The octet has Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Lawrence Brown, and Cat Anderson.

Swifty wrote:That Basie Set looks sweet, but I'll have to check against what I already own to rationalize buying yet another Basie set.

I've been looking for a Duke set though, anyone have any recommendations?

No kidding about the Basie set. I just did a run through and I already own about 85% of it, including the live cuts. I would like to own some decent quality Jones-Smith stuff but wether they clen it up and if I can find t at a dirt cheap price will decide if I get it.

As for Duke I know some people have really like the 4 Disc proper set, Masterpieces 1926-1949. You can take a look at the track list at http://propermusic.com/

I usually don't go for compilation sets, but...
I happened upon this Big Band box set today. I know it's $90, but it's also 40 cds. 40! It has a substantial amount of music by each of 18(?) artists, at least 2 cds per person. For the amount of music that's included and the fact that it's an import, the price seems pretty low to me- which leads me to wonder if the sound quality might be pretty shitty. So, anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has this set and if you think it's worth it to shell out $90. Would I be better off to just get individual cds by those artists instead of the box set or do you think it's a good investment?

It's even cheaper on Amazon, I know some people got it for 60$. I have heard nothing but good things about it either.

Harrison

I have had the Big Band Box Set for quite a while now



If you click here you will be brought to a listing that has it for under $50

I would say its MORE than worth the price. There is a lot of great music, great musicians, and great recordings. With that though there is also lots of bad music and poor recordings.

Definitly worth the $ though

Damn. I'd feel ripped off that I paid close to $70 for it...except that I can't regret getting it at that price, either.

Sweet! Thanks for the heads up. I probably won't be buying it anytime soon, due to a lack of funds; it's nice to know for the future, though.

That thing is amazing. Amazon says that there are 792 tracks!

Christ, thats a big box set.
Its like a DJ starter kit. Wish I know about that box set 3 years ago.
Looks very good

Bob

Swing Tanzen Verboten.

I really dug a song out dancing last night, and though I asked kind of late, the DJ was pretty sure he'd played it off that set.

How good is the set overall? A mix of things easily found on cheap CDs elsewhere? Totally unique? Mostly things you can easily find elsewhere but still a good buy for its unique tracks?

I have this set. It's awesome! I love it. Not all of the music is danceable, but it's certainly interesting and worth the $20-25 it'll cost ya new. It's a Proper box set, so you know. Whatever quality you associate with other Proper sets, apply that here.

One cd is all "propaganda swing", which is really interesting but not for dancing. During the war alot of Germans listened to foreign radio broadcasts, which was verboten. BBC did something to try and sneak the news past the censors by putting the newsbriefs in the middle of a song. The Germans figured this out and did the same, trying to fool the German people into listening to their own propaganda while thinking it was BBC news. Very intersting, made me laugh alot. But in an incredulous way.

I like it because there's alot of music on there by european artists, and I have trouble finding them otherwise (except Django Reinhardt/Stephan Grapelli). It's a nice place to start from when searching for war era european big band music.

Also, there's a 60 page book that accompanies the cds, it's really interesting and informative. The sound quality's pretty good, neither extraordinarily good nor extraordinarily bad. I'd say this set is well worth your money, especially if you're at all interested in WW II history aside from the music.

The Bix Centennial All-Stars' disc sounds pretty sweet, especially "Borneo." I first got turned onto this group listening to KJAZZ down here in Long Beach. I think I'm gonna get it.

Anyone heard this group?

SWING TANZEN VERBOTEN! is a completely brilliant, one-of-a-kind set that could only come from the crazed mind of Proper's Joop Visser. Depending on the crowd, you could play some of the Nazi propaganda tracks for dancing. One is really interesting -- a reworking of "Hold Tight" that is about Communism. During World War II, Germany was the country with the Red Scare -- we imported it when we won. So the sentiments in the song sound familiar, except it's German! I could go on about this... you should not miss.

I just found 1944-46 that features Sid Catlett. I like the music (especially "Linger Awhile"), but the sound quality in the online previews is not so hot (very noticeable hiss). Anybody know what the sound quality is like in the actual recording?