Consumer alert: Chronogical Classics and others, $8!

[Yakov]

Recently, an old dude in the area died and his wife brought in his collection of jazz CDs to a local Pittsburgh store, Desolation Row (located inside an antiquarian book store, Caliban). His collection was all classic jazz and swing. The vast majority of it consists of complete runs of Chronogical Classics volumes. There's also other types of definitive sets such as Orrin Keepnews' Fats Waller on Bluebird releases, various Duke sets, the Legacy Benny Goodman + Peggy Lee set, Smithsonian sets of Jelly Roll Morton, etc. I nabbed a sexy six-disc Benny Goodman radio box (look for separate post) and several other discs. Please, folks, buy some of these discs before I buy them all and clean out my bank account.

And the best thing: All the discs are $8! Flat rate! 2-disc sets are $16, 3-disc sets are $24, etc.

Some of the artists represented in this superior collection:
Albert Ammonds
Henry "Red" Allen
Count Basie (inc. Complete Decca)
Boots & His Buddies (Texas!)
Chu Berry
Eddie Condon
Johnny Dodds
Duke Ellington
Ziggy Elman (Goodman trumpeter)
Leonard Feather
Bud Freeman
Benny Goodman
Edmond Hall (a FANTASTIC clarinetist, see the old thread I made)
Claude Hopkins
Coleman Hawkins
Erskine Hawkins (send me!)
Fletcher Henderson
Earl Hines
James P. Johnson (boogie woogie!)
Mills Blue Rhythm!
Jimmie Lunceford!
Benny Moten (Basie predecessor)
Frankie Trambauer (looks like a rare fan-label release)
Teddy Wilson (Goodman pianist)
Fats Waller

Inquiries:
Kris Collins, desolationrowcds@hotmail.com
(no online listings available, just email the dude)

[Matthew]

Boots & His Buddies (Texas!)

I'm listening to this right now (got it today), and overall it's a lot of fun. It's from 1937-1938, and the sound quality is not great, but good enough. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but what's good is really good. The booklet mentions that they never recorded more than one take of any song, which may account for some of the less-than-stellar tracks. Four of the tracks feature Cora Woods, who sounds a lot like a young Ella. I particularly like "The Raggle Taggle," for its "evil" sound. If you like to spin Bennie Moten or early Basie or Hines, check it out.

Edited to add that the tempos are very nice - a range, but with plenty of medium stuff.

[Yakov]

by the way, those discs are, of course, long gone by now