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Ellington Centennial box price


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I went to my local Borders with my 25% coupon hoping to buy one of the RVG's I was missing in my collection. I checked the box set section and saw the BIG Duke box, for $400. It was too tempting and could not resist, specially since I got 100 dollars off with the coupon!!

I never compared prices before on this, and I see one on ebay going for $200 right now. So, did I do good or should I have shopped around some more?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

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I'm surprised that you found a sealed copy in a Borders. Didn't this set go OOP a year or two back? When I managed the music dpt. at a Borders, we got deletion lists every month ("D" meant Borders was deleting it from inventory; "D*" meant that the label was deleting it, period) and had to send back anything that was about to go OOP. (I ended up buying a fair # of such titles from the jazz section.)

I think you done good. That's such a great set... myself, I used the coupon to spring for the Dec. 1943 Duke at Carnegie set on Storyville. Can never have too much live 1940s Duke, I always say...

Edited by ghost of miles
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I'm surprised that you found a sealed copy in a Borders.  Didn't this set go OOP a year or two back?  When I managed the music dpt. at a Borders, we got deletion lists every month ("D" meant Borders was deleting it from inventory; "D*" meant that the label was deleting it, period) and had to send back anything that was about to go OOP.  (I ended up buying a fair # of such titles from the jazz section.)

I was surprised too. I am almost positive that the last time I looked, two months ago, it wasnt there. I have been enjoying this set, so far I have listened to the first 6 Cd's, and the sound is great, actually, impressive. :party:

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I was seriously thinking about going after that one today, but I've been buying so much lately and am really overextended. I have some of the material on other CDs already, and there are a lot of alt. takes on the first half of the set (not that I don't appreciate alts, but there's already 24 discs to listen to!). So I think I'll placate myself and buy the Never No Lament set instead. At least for now... :P

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Question for you, Chuck: how do the RCA recordings of 1927-34 stack up against the Brunswick and Okeh sides from this period?  Same band, right, just different label?  Never quite understood the overlap...

Short answer is the Brunswick an Victor recordings were recorded in better sound. Second part of that is the Victors cover a longer time span and more material.

This is desert island stuff for me.

If you want more info/opinions email me.

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Desert Island stuff for me too, always something new and fresh to hear!

I think Ray that you will eventually be able to get all the material in this set separately . . . may take another decade . . . but they'll bring it out. I would have thought that the earliest material would come out by now. . . . But it will. In this set the sound on this material is phenomenal!

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Duke didn't have an exclusive contracy with any one label in the 1920's, so his records appeared on a number of labels, including Victor, Brunswick, Okeh, Gennett, Vocalion, Columbia, Cameo, etc. Many titles were recorded more than once, so it can be interesting comparing the different versions, which sometimes feature different soloists.

I've owned the Victor sides in various configurations over the years, but after acquiring this box, I am astounded by the amazing sound quality.

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Totally agree about the amazing sound quality. The original RCA Bluebird cds were too "scrubbed." Not bad, but when I discovered the great sound on the Chronogical Classics versions of this material, I dropped the Bluebirds. But this Centennial remastering is truly superb for the first decade!

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Totally agree about the amazing sound quality.  The original RCA Bluebird cds were too "scrubbed."  Not bad, but when I discovered the great sound on the Chronogical Classics versions of this material, I dropped the Bluebirds.  But this Centennial remastering is truly superb for the first decade!

So why hasn't BMG released the first-decade stuff in a smaller box like the "Never No Lament" Blanton-Webster box? (mostly rhetorical question)

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I DON'T know. I would have wanted that FIRST, but we got the "third period," we got the "Live and Rare" (including some material not in the box set, mostly "talkin' Duke") and then we got the real money-maker (I would think) the Blanton-Webster material.

Perhaps they feel there is little commercial potential in this material based on past sales, etc.?

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The reason I asked was because I have the Brunswick and Okeh comps alrready, as well as some of the early Victor sides. I'm mostly (though certainly not exclusively) interested in the later 30's and 40's stuff, so I'll certainly pick up the "Never No Lament" set asap.

Lon, don't think I can wait another ten years to get the rest of this stuff, but I'm sure I'll stumble across another copy of this box before then. :D

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