#17
Post
by Campus Five » Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:28 am
I like the Anita O'Day box. Its got some of her stuff w/Krupa that is not on the Krupa box - with both boxes you've got the bulk of Gene's band. The stand outs are some really good solo sides recorded in LA 1945-1948. The sideman are Zutty Singleton, Allan Reuss, Benny Carter, etc., among others. There are several really good tracks from these solo sessions, most of them are swing standards, "Rosetta", "I Can't Believe that Your In Love with Me", "Ain't Misbeahavin'", "Them There Eyes", etc,. I've never heard anyone but me DJ any of those solo sides, so they are good, non-played out versions.
The Kenton stuff I never listen to, but I'm sure there's some playable material. The fourth disc is pretty boppy, but still I'm sure there's some stuff worth having.
Suffice it to say, there's no easier or cheaper way to get the good material on here, and other tracks don't really cost anything - there's easily 2 full discs worth of good stuff. At ~$20 I can't complain.