The music on here mostly consists of extended jazz jam sessions, playing mostly blues, "I Got Rhythm" type songs, and other jazz standards. Most tracks are too long for dancing, but there are a few tracks that might find their way into my mixes (including a great five-minute Ella version of "Flyin' Home" with Roy Eldridge, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Ray Brown, and Buddy Rich
) The tracks span the years of the recording ban, so you can hear some music from that time, which is rare. The performances span from boogie-woogie to swing to early bop.Some of the players are Ray Brown, Nat "King" Cole (spotlighting his piano skills), Roy Eldridge, Ella Fitzgerald, Slim Gaillard (playing the famous Groove Juice Symphony), Tiny Grimes, Bill Harris, Coleman Hawkins, Neal Hefti, Billie Holiday, Illinois Jacquet, J.J. Johnson, Jo Jones, Gene Krupa, Meade Lux Lewis, Charles Mingus, Les Paul, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Rich, Charlie Shavers, Slam Stewart (not with Slim), Dave Tough, Lester Young, and Trummy Young.
The design -- forgive me, I must get back to this -- is amazing. The CDs are in record-style sleeves, with original record cover art on the covers and original record label art on the CDs themselves. Every one is different. There's a 200+ page "booklet" (itself impeccably designed) that contains several essays, a long interview with Norman Granz (the producer of the series), and exhausting discographic detail. And the whole thing is in a slip-top box made out of WOOD and heavy thick plastic.
Anyway, pick it up if you have the scratch.
-yakov
