Best Swing Compilations?

Message

AlekseyKosygin · #1 Post by **AlekseyKosygin** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:19 am

I'm realizing that a good compilation can help your dance collection immensely...and now I'm looking for more, especially in the vein of classic swing from the 20's to the 40's...what are some of your personal faves?

Currently mine are:

An Anthology Of Big Band Swing (1930-1955) - Decca

Swinging At The Savoy 1937-1945 - Jazz Archives

Swing Vocalion 1 - Vocalion

Swing Vocalion 2 - Vocalion

Wicked Swing - BMG/RCA

I'd be pretty happy to find others that stand up to those...let me know!

Soupbone · #2 Post by **Soupbone** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 9:35 pm

These are both good:

Real Kansas City of the 20s, 30s, and 40s (Columbia)

The World of Swing (Sony)

Yakov · #3 Post by **Yakov** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 9:35 am

Sony: Swing Time! (great meat & potatoes 3 disc set of hits -- first disc is too early for me)

Proper: The Engine Room (very very interesting, often rare tracks)
Proper: Gettin' Funky: The Birth Of New Orleans R&B (early R&B is a terrific, underaknowledged on this board, that always goes over well when I play it -- many fantastic tracks)
Proper: The Big Horn (also R&B, focusing on the honking sax sound)

Delmark: For Jumpers Only (a fantastic "jump"/late 40's swing/r&b comp featuring many artists who don't have their own reissue CDs, fast tempos!)

And of course
BIG BAND BOX SET
which is well-regarded in these parts, although I've never seen it.

kitkat · #4 Post by **kitkat** » Mon Jan 26, 2004 11:01 am

Funny--I was just listening to "Swing Time!" Disc 3 this morning (been rather early-to-bed, wake up and unable to fall asleep lately, so I decided to take 5AM-8AM to work on cataloging) on random, thinking it was good enough to put on this thread, but that I'd wait till I'd gone through the whole set. Beat me to it.

kitkat · #5 Post by **kitkat** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 7:25 pm

I'm still trying to look it up, but there's some Time Life collection called "The Swing Era" and sectioned into discs by year groupings. It's badly labeled on an MP3 CD a friend gave me last year. I can't figure it out--it's got pieces from '37 that sound like they were recorded in the 50s. Either it's some of the best remastering out there, or they're re-recordings and the titles are a misnomer.

More when I track down some entry on the series.

#6 Post by **JesseMiner** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 9:40 pm

This isn't a single collection. There are probably 9 or 10 2-CD sets total. These are all rerecordings done in the 50s by orchestras under the direction of Billy May or Glen Gray. They cover original arrangements from different time spans ("1930-36", "36-37", "The Postwar Years", etc...). I have all of them (I got each set for $5 at Amoeba a while back), and some tracks are definitely better than others. Many lack the energy of the originals, but the sound quality is of course excellent throughout the series. I saw them listed recently on Time Life's site during a clearance sale, but they don't seem to be listed there anymore (I guess they all sold).

Jesse

dana · #7 Post by **dana** » Sat Feb 21, 2004 11:45 pm

The Time Life stuff is pretty good but Jesse's comments are bang-on. I have maybe 5-6 of them from the 'net.

Here are some google caches of the track listings, as they're gone from the site: One, Two

If you can read german, you can find more listings by googling "time life swing era"

d.

AlekseyKosygin · #8 Post by **AlekseyKosygin** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 12:34 am

I have almost all that time life stuff on vinyl...only late in the game did I realize that they were rerecordings...I have originals of most of the stuff on them by now anyway...but this being said I kind of wish I had these on CD because the sound quality is so great on a lot of the tracks...I'd definetly play some at a dance if I felt that my original track was of a much poorer sound quality...

Also if you ever get the vinyl you should never feel gipped tho because each set comes with a great book with nice big pictures from time life's archives as well as other sources...and they all have bios of various jazz artists as well as writeups about the time periods that the records are supposed to cover...

Lawrence · #9 Post by **Lawrence** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 8:12 pm

AlekseyKosygin wrote:I have almost all that time life stuff on vinyl...only late in the game did I realize that they were rerecordings...I have originals of most of the stuff on them by now anyway...but this being said I kind of wish I had these on CD because the sound quality is so great on a lot of the tracks...I'd definetly play some at a dance if I felt that my original track was of a much poorer sound quality...

Also if you ever get the vinyl you should never feel gipped tho because each set comes with a great book with nice big pictures from time life's archives as well as other sources...and they all have bios of various jazz artists as well as writeups about the time periods that the records are supposed to cover...

I have the entire set and several duplicates on LP, and I need to record them to CD. The booklets are great, if only as collectables, too.

Are they available on CD? If so, did the CDs come with the booklets?

funkyfreak · #10 Post by **funkyfreak** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 9:03 pm

I found most of the set on vinyl in a trip to Detroit last year, I was ecstatic. Highly recommended as this isn't the modern-style Time Life collections -- these are seriously great tunes in one place.

-FF

Yakov · #11 Post by **Yakov** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 3:16 pm

hey man you could have saved the trip -- jerry's records has about twenty copies on the shelf

kitkat · #12 Post by **kitkat** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 11:16 am

I really liked:

Lindy Hop Jamboree

the one time I got to hear it, but it's out of print and the only place I've been able to find any parts of the set is over on www.gemm.com, and they're extraordinarily overpriced.

#13 Post by **JesseMiner** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 1:07 pm

kitkat wrote:I really liked:

Lindy Hop Jamboree

the one time I got to hear it, but it's out of print and the only place I've been able to find any parts of the set is over on www.gemm.com, and they're extraordinarily overpriced.

Lindy Hop Jamboree is actually a series of compilations. There are currently 10 total:

LHJ, LHJ Vol. 2, LHJ Vol. 3, LHJ Vol. 4, LHJ Vol. 5 Groovin', LHJ Vol. 5 Jumpin', LHJ Vol. 6 Groovin', LHJ Vol. 6 Jumpin', LHJ Vol. 7 Groovin' and LHJ Voll. 7 Jumpin'.

There is definitely a question as to how legal these compilations are (if they are in violation of US or European copywrite law) and the sound quality varies from song to song and the liner notes are non-existent, but for some of us, these were great resources when we were starting out trying to find good music for lindy hopping. It was so helpful having collections of songs hand-picked by dancers organized by tempo (we used to just put these on at our practice sessions and dance, dance, dance). Since then of course, I've discarded the poor quality tracks and sought out the albums of the good quality ones. Great starting point though for me at least.

Jesse

Lawrence · #14 Post by **Lawrence** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 6:05 pm

JesseMiner wrote:
kitkat wrote:I really liked:
Lindy Hop Jamboree

the one time I got to hear it, but it's out of print and the only place I've been able to find any parts of the set is over on www.gemm.com, and they're extraordinarily overpriced.
Lindy Hop Jamboree is actually a series of compilations. There are currently 10 total:
LHJ, LHJ Vol. 2, LHJ Vol. 3, LHJ Vol. 4, LHJ Vol. 5 Groovin', LHJ Vol. 5 Jumpin', LHJ Vol. 6 Groovin', LHJ Vol. 6 Jumpin', LHJ Vol. 7 Groovin' and LHJ Voll. 7 Jumpin'.

I have a LHJ#5 and LHJ#6, too, which I (ahem) know Jesse also has, too. These are not commercial compilations, so I submit that they do not count. Or, if they do, then Nathan could submit his 10,526 "Essential" compilations, and I will submit my "LawrenceLindy" compilations (from 7 years ago) and my "Jazz Cafe" compilations, of which there are a grand total of THREE of each in circulation!

kitkat · #15 Post by **kitkat** » Sat Feb 28, 2004 8:23 pm

Do yours or his have international name recognition?

I don't mean to be rude with that...but it just seems to me that their title is a bit of a household name in many countries, so perhaps they're closer to a commercial compilation as far as this thread goes than personal DJs' mixes? I suppose it depends how they were distributed, but they sure seem to me to have more of a status than your average mix.

But I'll concede that we can stop discussion on this series. (Unless anyone's got a copy to send/sell me!)