SwingDJs

A friend of mine who is not into swing went to a estate sale with his girlfriend. While there they stumbled upon the Time Life swing era compilation set. They purchased this incomplete set ( I think one of the LPs is missing and one is severely damaged). Apparently they purchased this entire set for, ahem, a song. My question is this. Should I purchase this from him? I told him to take some pictures and bring them in so that I can take a look. Is this worth purchasing? I did a quick search on ebay and found some dude who was selling the whole thing. Bidding started at $500. That's american. Apparently someone out there thinks this is valuable. The question is, What do you people think?

It is also very American to screw the little guy. If I could have knee capped everyone bidding on the Basie set I wanted on Ebay, well...

My honest advice is make him a decent offer. $20.00 to $50.00. Maybe it's not something you want, even if we all say it's great.

Kalman

I want to see what artist and what songs are on there. My friend said that the compilation was made in the 70's.

Is it the one mentioned on This thread? I'm surprised the out-of-print records are going for so much when there are out-of-print CDs you can buy w/ better quality. Silly collectors.

Anyway, yeah, the sound's good. It's got a sort of Glenn Millerey sound to the way they play, but Jesse said on that thread that they were using much older arrangements. So I guess my opinion of it is that it swings better than post-war white bread big band, and it's got a lot higher sound quality than the stuff it doesn't quite swing as well as. If you like it, keep it for yourself--then sell the records when you come across the CDs.

Almost the entire LP set is on CD. You can find the entire CD sets on ebay with regularity.

There is one HUGE advantage the original LPs have over the CDs. The books.

Each of the original LP sets has a fantastic book describing some historical aspect of the era from 20s thru 50s. Also the books list complete discography of both the original session and the remake recording.

I personally have bought several of the original LP sets off ebay just to get the books.

But be carefull. There was a reissue in LP form in the late 70s or early 80s that did not include the books.

Also you can find the books by themselves sometimes on ebay and also at second hand book stores. They are worth having if you enjoy the historical aspect of the swing era and how it related to pop culture.

I guess I forgot to mention. My friend said that the books were missing. Maybe this is the reissue that you are talking about.

For those interested, I just posted an excel spreadsheet of a cross reference between the LP set and the CD set.

http://wkhr.org/SwingEra/Swing_Era_CD_LP_Reference.xls

FYI,

Jerry

Wow, that's a great resource! Thanks for putting in the time & effort.

Swifty wrote:Wow, that's a great resource! Thanks for putting in the time & effort.

Thanks Ryan for the compliment. But I have to confess, I was mearly the spreadsheet guy. A good friend sent that to me a year ago in a text file. I converted the data to spreadsheet. Makes it much easier to hunt for a particular song.

Jerry

I saw some of these sets recently, including the Basie one, and I was impressed with the photos in the books. It looked like there was a lot of cool info on Basie. I agree that the books may be the real reason to buy the sets. If your friend doesn't have the books, then I think it wouldn't be worth it.

I'm thinking that maybe I do not want this. I heard a couple tracks including "Every Tub". It sounded great and yes it did have a Glen Milleresque feel to it.

My wife and I just purchased the whole Time Life Swing series which included the books and the albums for $70.00 on EBAY.

The songs on the albums are not recordings of the performers that made the songs famous. The listings say, for instance, "Perdido" - Count Basie version , meaning the arrangement used by the band that recorded the song for the album was recreated from the version of "Perdido" that Basie played.

The books, however, are another story. They have great pictures of the era and some great recounting of stories about the bands that played in the swing era. At the end of each book they talk about each song on the accompaning album, who wrote the arrangements, and other cool stories about the song itself.

swingman dan wrote:My wife and I just purchased the whole Time Life Swing series which included the books and the albums for $70.00 on EBAY.

The songs on the albums are not recordings of the performers that made the songs famous......

The books, however, are another story......

Dan your right. I'm hoping everyone realizes that this set are recreations. Billy May is the chief architect of the recreation. One of the books has a segment on Billy May and the job of recreating the series.

Getting the entire set off ebay, with books for $70 is a very good price. I bought 7 or 8 of the sets for $20. I've never even played the vinyl, even though it looks to be mint. The books were the main attraction for me.

Out at the radio station, we have a fairly beat up set of the LPs and books. The CD reissue along with the books are the perfect combination.

Jerry_Jelinek wrote:

swingman dan wrote:My wife and I just purchased the whole Time Life Swing series which included the books and the albums for $70.00 on EBAY.

The songs on the albums are not recordings of the performers that made the songs famous......

The books, however, are another story......

Dan your right. I'm hoping everyone realizes that this set are recreations. Billy May is the chief architect of the recreation. One of the books has a segment on Billy May and the job of recreating the series.

Are the Benny Goodman recordings considered part of the series? I know those were recorded by Benny Goodman and Orchestra. Also the original artists appear on a few of the tracks, for example, Nat King Cole is on one of the tracks.

George, as I said in the other thread, the collection is good to have, if only as a collectable. The books that come with the sets are kinda nifty. The set is not worth $500, but it is probably worth more to you than your non-swing friend.

I think the set does not feature original Swing Era recordings, but instead post-Swing Era re-recordings of Swing Era standards.