Complete Basie collection - how do I build it?

[Swifty]

anyway yeah, if you want to go from an incomplete to complete collection you're GOING to duplicate tracks! Them's the breaks.

I know this, I'm just trying to minimize. Like I said, I've got 4-5 full discs that are duplicates.

Getting a "complete" collection of anything at all is going to be by necessity a difficult, expensive, unrewarding activity. Don't worry about it. Look for stuff that's good and keep moving on, there's lots of great artists and you don't want to have an unbalanced collection. My original post will help you through the original years, then just get some of the live/radio stuff if you want, and then late-era material that you like, plenty of recommendations are available on this board.

That's my suggestion.

I already have an unbalanced collection, and I'm pretty happy with it. Even if you only get "stuff that's good" you will have an unbalanced collection as a result. I mean, Basie recorded for 50 years. Even if I buy everything Chick Webb ever recorded I can't balance that out. I like my unbalanced collection.

Regarding the accumulation of the "complete" Basie library, that's not my goal. But if there are complete RCA/Decca/Columbia sets out there why not head in that direction? The only reason I can think of is that I may/may not already have most of the stuff from those sets, which brings me back to my original question.

Thanks Rayned - it may not be complete but I'm not willing to compile that list either.

[JesseMiner]

Go with Definitive for good recording quality at a low price

1. Complete Decca
2. Complete Columbia (2 sets)
3. Complete RCA-Victor

I think this is a great place to start for a comprehensive early Basie collection. Sure it is frustrating for those of us who have been Basie fans for years and collected many other sets before these complete sets came along. Sure you're going to have a lot of overlap. But if you are as huge a Basie fan as me, you're going to want to get these sets sooner or later.

Here's my problem, consider the Complete Columbia - I've already got the Proper set and the America's #1 Band set. There is significant overlap but I was able to justify the purchase of the #1 Band set due to the rocking liner notes and the 2+ discs of radio and live stuff I wouldn't have otherwise. Plus I've got a couple of single CDs that are almost exactly identical to idividual discs from within one set or the other (that I already had).

Is the stuff that's on the two Complete Columbia sets that's NOT on either the Proper or #1 Band sets worth the purchase of another 4-6 discs with 80% or whatever overlap?

I'm assuming you are just talking about the Columbia recordings and that you already have the Complete Decca recordings and the Complete RCA-Victor ones.

The Proper box set is a mix of Decca, Columbia and RCA recordings through his earlier career. There are 4 CDs in the set. The America's #1 Band box set is a collection of Columbia recordings, including "2+ discs of radio and live stuff" as you say. There are 4 CDs in the set. The Complete Columbia is 2 sets with 4 CDs each. How likely is it that you already have even close to all 8 CDs worth of Columbia recordings? Or do you have a bunch of recordings that I am not taking into account here? Do you have a comprehensive enough collection? You do the math, and come to your own conclusion.

Jesse

[Yakov]

blah blah blah, here comes Jesse Miner with his math and logic to spoil our fun...

[kitkat]

Okay, I finally think I filled out the early stuff w/ just about everything recommended on this thread.

America's #1 Band! (4 discs, mostly Columbia, some live & elsewhere)
"At the Savoy Ballroom (live radio broadcast, 1937)" (10 tracks I got off the internet)
Big Band Box Set (2 discs)
Complete 1936-1941 Columbia Recordings (4 discs)
Complete 1941-1951 Columbia Recordings (3 discs)
Complete Decca Recordings (3 discs)
Complete Original American RCA-Victor Recordings (3 discs)
The Essential Count Basie (3 discs of Columbia; not complete)

I put them all in an ITunes playlist so I can throw away the duplicates that aren't as well-mastered as others and so I can throw away the songs I simply don't like. My book is clogged enough! It's a daunting task, though, because I now have 485 MP3 files to listen to. That's 1 day, 15 minutes, 23 seconds.

Whee!

Anyway, just thought I'd let anyone who's interested know exactly how much music this is. I'll edit this post once I get it all sorted to let you know how much music it is once it's filed down to keep only the best-mastered version of anything there are duplicates of.

One thing I've already noticed is that where the Complete Columbia and America's #1 Band sets have duplicates between them, the America's #1 Band set is always the better mastered version. Sometimes the difference is so great that if I only had the Complete Columbia version, I'd probably ditch the track as "not worth carrying," yet it's a 4 or 5-star (out of 5) track for both energy and quality in its America's #1 Band version. I'd definitely recommend having both--"Complete" to fill in the holes and "America's" to have the best quality possible.

[Lawrence]

The early years run the only significant risk of running into duplicates because they were not released as albums. But, as Rayned's list shows, Basie was far more prolific in his later years than his "peak" early Swing Era years, so, for most of his recordings, it should be somewhat easy avoiding duplicates just by sticking to buying CDs that were released as albums and not buy any compilations.

That said, the Mosaic sets (Complete Clef/Verve (still available; just came out), Complete Roulette Studio, Complete Roulette Live) are the best places to start for the New Testament stuff because Mosaic is meticulous about being complete, which includes worthy alternate takes and otherwise unreleased tracks from studio sessions. For thos ewho do not know, Mosaic sets release all recordings chronologically during a certain time period (or on a certain label), so each set would include all the albums for that time period. Each set contains 8-15 albums of material.

I once had the goal of owning every Basie recording, but realized that I had reached the point of diminishing returns about 40 CDs after reaching it. I have about 130 Basie CDs/albums, now, and I still don't think I'm close. Indeed, the phrase, "the point of diminishing returns" had taken on a profound new meaning for me. Then I bought the Complete Clef/Verve, a few months ago and found new stuff I had never heard that floored me.