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Ray Charles' complete Atlantic recs. due out 9/20


J.A.W.

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Is this the thread to discuss the music? Or would that be the other one (formatting problem-thread)?

Whatever, let's start here...

I picked up this box while doing some frustration-shopping (having lost at 120GB drive containing around 95-100 GB of FLAC-compressed and not yet backed-up music files...). Discs 1-4 I have listened to, so far, and wow!

I knew the sides from "The Great Ray Charles" and the sessions with Milt Jackson (I *love* Billy Mitchell! He's one of the reasons why the Thad Jones Mosaic is so tasty!), but most of the rest was new to me.

I loved the early sessions on disc 1, and of course I love the jazz sides. It's a kind of jazz that you won't hear elsewhere, very soulful (yet not in the groovy, finger-poppin' style, rather soulful and bluesy), and no one is showing off here.

Same applies to the Fathead album (which I've heard for the very first time on Saturday).

Another terrific set new to me is the Newport appearance - love "In a Little Spanish Town"!

Sound is terrific, beginning with the 1952 sessions. I'd dare to say that there are not many sessions from '52 that sound so good!

The book is very nicely done, too. The only thing I miss there is some short descriptions going with the photos.

As for the programming/sequencing, I don't care it's not in album sequence. The only album I had before, that I assume being a "typical" Charles fifties Atlantic album is "The Genius of Ray Charles."

Still my guess is that even if I knew more of the original albums, I don't think the chronological sequencing could be bettered by any alternative.

The only thing I don't enjoy is an aspect of the packaging: if you put the discs into the box as I figure they should be put in (they were all loose when I picked it up, so I don't really know), you have trouble getting the ones lying lowest out (discs 4 and 8, I assume, rather than 1 and 5, but as I said, I took them all out and had to figure out first how to put them in properly).

All in all, though, this set is a definitive winner!

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I just borrowed this set from a library. The packaging is a trip! Kind of a "cute" idea, but it guarentees that you can't store it with the rest of your collection, unless you take out the CD's and store the box in your garage or something. I don't know if I'll have time to listen to all of this before I have to return it.

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  • 7 months later...

Everything from "Birth of Soul" is in this set, right? So the question really is, since I have that, how much of the other material is essential?

Yes, all of Birth of Soul is in this.

There are some of us who are really tempted to answer "all the other material is essential." I'd have a hard time saying . . . "Well, you don't really need. . . "

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Everything from "Birth of Soul" is in this set, right? So the question really is, since I have that, how much of the other material is essential?

Yes, all of Birth of Soul is in this.

There are some of us who are really tempted to answer "all the other material is essential." I'd have a hard time saying . . . "Well, you don't really need. . . "

I'd say about 80% of the jazz sides and pretty much all the live stuff in the set is essential.

This is one of the best music purchases I've ever made.

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