SwingDJs

This may are may not be an easier way of looking at starting a collection, but how about lists of CDs you wish you'd never touched (and perhaps why.) Maybe we can save some people some dough.

dont EVER buy this

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra, 1940 - 1944 - Cause he sucks

Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, 24 Gems! - Horrid sound quality, clipped songs.

The Andrew Sisters, 50th Anniversary, Volume 1 - Cause they suck

Barbecue Blues, Compilation - nothing good on it

Bing Crosby, Bing's Gold Records - need I say more?

Capital, The Birth of A Label, Compilation - Square ass shit

Harry James and His Orchestra, Classic Tracks, The - Horrid sound quality

G.I. Jive, Compilation - nothing good on it

Louis Jordan, Let The Good Times Roll, Disc 1 & 2 - Cause he sucks

Nat King Cole Trio, Live At The Circle Room - Horrid sound quality

Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Remember - Horrid sound quality

Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Rarities, 1940-1942 - There is a reason these are "rarities"

Glenn Miller - Forever Gold - at $5 seemed like a good buy, but only one track swings.

Wow, great topic; I'm going to have to look at all my crap and post a more definitive list... Anyways, one of the ones that stands out is:

Great Times! Piano Duets with Billy Strayhorn

Scott Yanow and allmusic.com may give it 4 stars, its tracklist might be good, but jesus this CD was a big disappointment. Recording quality was ass, awkward duets between Ellington and Strayhorn with a bass player. Maybe this CD means something historically, and it is an exlusive look at the two, but it just doesn't 'sound' that good.

I hate hate hate her voice. There isn't an authentic sounding vocalization on the whole disc.



Her voice is so soft and airy...it just kinda makes my skin crawl.

I agree with you, Shana, on the Basie/Schuur. Yuck.

Other notable stinkers:
o Crescent City Maulers - Screamin - The worst neo-pop jump stuff I've ever heard.
o Les Elgart - Two Classic Albums From - The most god-awful boring simple bland big band ever. What was I thinking?
o Best of the Big Bands (Madacy) - The worst versions, the worst sound quality, bad bad bad. Madacy is a label to be avoided.
o Brian Setzer - Dirty Boogie - Overdone singing, overdone guitar, awful arrangements. And I paid for this?
o Ella Fitgerald with Tommy Flanagan Trio - Not every CD with a great singer is great. This was late-Ella when she screamed and her performance is overexaggerated.
o Les Brown and his Great Vocalists, Best of the Big Bands (Columbia 1995) - slow, romantic, cheesy, sweet, vocal big-band songs. Emetic in the extreme. What was I thinking when I bought this?

I wish I'd never bought a Laserlight collection of Count Basie.

because it meant i would, someday in the future, spend thousands of dollars on jazz music.

oh wait maybe that's OK.

Ron wrote:I agree with you, Shana, on the Basie/Schuur. Yuck.
Other notable stinkers:
o Crescent City Maulers - Screamin - The worst neo-pop jump stuff I've ever heard.
o Best of the Big Bands (Madacy) - The worst versions, the worst sound quality, bad bad bad. Madacy is a label to be avoided.
o Brian Setzer - Dirty Boogie - Overdone singing, overdone guitar, awful arrangements. And I paid for this?
o Ella Fitgerald with Tommy Flanagan Trio - Not every CD with a great singer is great. This was late-Ella when she screamed and her performance is overexaggerated.

I completely disagree on the Diane Schuur CD. She does hit some high notes, but her vocal range is rather broad and she hits those notesto use her vocal range to its fullest. That CD also captures the post-humous Basie band at its best.

I agree completely on the Madacy label: I fell for them at Best Buy, too.

Dirty Boogie is the top form of a style of music that I (and most people) just don't like. I agree, though, that Cresent City Maulers, on the other hand, is just bad music.

julius wrote:I wish I'd never bought a Laserlight collection of Count Basie.

I gotta qualify this one. We've discussed Laserlight before. Although there are some bad Laserlight compilations out there, that is the nature of a budget label or almost ANY label, for that matter. My first several experiences with Laserlight CDs were just the opposite of yours, giving me the impression that Laserlight was one of the few budget labels that puts good, otherwise unreleased stuff out.

Two examples: The "Count Basie: LIVE!" and "Corner Pocket" CDs are recordings from the same live show at a small club in the 50s. The recording really puts you there, with glasses clinking, background conversations, and everything. The "LIVE!" CD has really great stuff with two "jam" songs I've never found elsewhere.

Maybe I'm missing something on this album, but I seem to remember all the songs being so bloody sappy they make me want to hurl.

John Lee Hooker: Detroit 1948-1949

Thought I might manage to find some nice classic blues...all I got was 20 tracks of teh same song (with different words and titles). Sound quality's pretty crappy too. Wish I would have saved the money and put it towards something better.

Roy Milton and his solid senders specialty records.( I got it because his piano player rules) But to no avail the band just sucks....unless you like that square ass "do the hucklebuck" ....

Lucky Millender "Ram-Bunk-Shush" (CD-CHARLY 288) It's his later stuff which was R&B jump style....which totally sucks...again, unless you like novelty Bongo boogie and chew tabbacco rag tunes.


I honestly have to think about this, because even though I would buy a cd that would not be good for DJing I still love listening to it and owning it...

so aside from purchasing a CD in which it's music thats lame, whihc is only a very few, I would have to go by the quality of the CD, and if is the only thing out, then by all means I can over look bad quality.

such as, Lil Johnson and Barrell House Annie, horrible quality....but thats the only CD ever put out..........so I'll take it.

DIZ and GETZ..verve, ok to listen too, great Line up (Ray brown,Oscar Peterson,Max Roach,Herb Ellis,Dizzy and Stan) but nothing for DJing...unless you want to push the crap out of the few good dancers by playing their "don;t mean a Thing" which clocks at 350plus....

Jennie Lobel's first cd - cause even she herself don't like it... but wait, I got it for free so it doesn't count.
Then there is that neoswing-jump-salsa band from Texas whose name I have erased from my brain. But the cd is still around somewhere. But their cd really suck.
And then I have a couple of big band, jazz collections that I got really cheap and now they're only gathering dust at home. The beginning of my jazz collection, and I don't even touch them anymore.

SirScratchAlot wrote:But to no avail the band just sucks....unless you like that square ass "do the hucklebuck" ....

Guilty as charged....