Jump to content

Chronological Classics


Swinging Swede

Recommended Posts

I've owned the Duke 40-cd box for many years now, and am very glad to have it. $99.99 is a good price (you can also get it thru Amazon here). Amazon states it's been discontinued, so you may want to hurry. I think it's fairly comprehensive through about 1943-44, then its more spotty. And it doesn't have the "Soundies," Fargo, The Treasury Shows, and the like. Sound quality is decent throughout, and it does come with discographical information, but not label information. This makes it a little difficult to figure out exactly which version of "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" you're listening to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 382
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

look here to learn more about this box:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...mp;hl=ellington

keep boppin´

marcel

"The webpage cannot be found"

I tried searching the forum, but I can't figure out which thread you mean.

just a guess:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=23493

thanks niko, that´s the link i mean.

sorry!

keep boppin´

marcel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another (bad) sign that the label is going belly up. A number of recent Chronological Classics releases have been appearing at some of the Paris shops that sell discounted DVDs and CDs. They are on sale at €3,90.

The same shops had a number of Masters of Jazz CDs on sale at discounted prices several years ago when the label gave up :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another (bad) sign that the label is going belly up. A number of recent Chronological Classics releases have been appearing at some of the Paris shops that sell discounted DVDs and CDs. They are on sale at €3,90.

The same shops had a number of Masters of Jazz CDs on sale at discounted prices several years ago when the label gave up :(

Too bad... but the writing has been on the wall for a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Duke deserves more from you guys than you buying a mediocre-sounding cheap box. :(

If you put on one of these CDs and you think it sounds mediocre, then you don't love Duke. Yes, true audiophiles can recognize a fraction of a percent of increased pleasure by spending a lifetime and a fortune hunting down alternate issues, but the great, great music is here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Duke deserves more from you guys than you buying a mediocre-sounding cheap box. :(

If you put on one of these CDs and you think it sounds mediocre, then you don't love Duke. Yes, true audiophiles can recognize a fraction of a percent of increased pleasure by spending a lifetime and a fortune hunting down alternate issues, but the great, great music is here.

Thanks, Randy. I'd also like to put in a good word for those folks for whom price is a consideration (but not the only consideration). I can't imagine how much individual discs of better sound quality would cost. To get 40 discs, with decent sound and good discographical information, for such a low price is an achievement in itself, and is probably good enough for a lot of us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love Duke. I have heard a few discs from this set. In my opinion they sound mediocre. I do care about sound quality. I've been collecting Duke on cd since 1988 and I have been going for the best sounding sources, and there is a difference that does help the music shine through.

I was more than partly tongue-in-cheek about this but I really feel that Duke deserves better than to be sort of pirated together (from a US standpoint) in slipshod fashion. I love Duke. But to each their own and I guess I'd rather people have Duke in any form than not in any form.

Edit to add: I know it seems arrogant to be concerned about sound quality in these compressed loss-file days but I'm always going to buy a carefully engineered remaster over some noise-reduced nonchallant affair produced with no access to master material or legitimate origin. I can hear the differences on my systems and they are worth the premium for me. Duke's work is one of those that I feel really shines when given its best reproduction, especially the first two decades worth.

Edited by jazzbo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure of the technical compliance of Chonological Classics with US copyright law when sold in the US either, but that's not a problem for me either. I consider the stopgap extension of copyright protection to protect Disney interests to be a theft from the people of the USA. I hope european leaders continue to resist the pressure to pass a similar measure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it doesn't really matter any more - I've done projects with "good" companies and "bad," and with the exception of only one (based in the USA) they do business the same way, do not give royalty statements, distort the numbers for publishing payments. As a matter of fact I just found out that one of my older CDs, made for a German company (for which they never, contrary to the contractual agreement paid me any Euro publishing), is doing rather well on I Tunes (I'm talking to SESAC about some way to deal with it, though I am skeptical that there is anything that will help). So in reality it's every musician for him/herself, unless that musician has any economic clout. On my end of the business, few do. So my feeling is to buy those reissues; at least keep the music alive, as both the majors and the minors will never change their ways of doing business.

Edited by AllenLowe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you put on one of these CDs and you think it sounds mediocre, then you don't love Duke.

I have to disagree with you there. It's quite possible to love Duke AND think that the music sounds mediocre - and I'm not talking about the quality of the playing or the arrangements. To me it's like listening to Duke's orchestra playing through a telephone line, or from three rooms away. You're going to get more out of the experience if you're listening in the same room. Now certainly 1929 technology isn't quite up to delivering at that level, but it doesn't need to be dulled down as much as it often is on these cheap sets in the name of "noise reduction".

I'd rather be listening in the same room as Duke with a noisy air-conditioner in the corner than in the next room with the door closed where I can't hear the air-con. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, I think if you paid Chuck Nessa minimum wage to answer your question, he couldn't answer your question for less than $100. Many of the Chonological Classics are out of print and commanding hefty prices. From Half.com:

1930, Vol. 2

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$171.22

1945-1946

Duke Ellington

CD, 1998

$91.49

1935-1936

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$50.69

1938 Vol. 3

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$58.08

1924-1927

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$59.85

1931-1932

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$62.49

1945

Duke Ellington

CD, 1997

$63.15

1935-1936

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$64.64

1941

Duke Ellington

CD

$65.14

1938

Duke Ellington

CD, 1996

$74.37

1939 Vol. 2

Duke Ellington

CD, 1998

$84.09

Edited by randyhersom
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I certainly don't want to argue with anyone here, having just picked up the 40CD box, too.

But even if, unlike Lon, I'm not (yet) a Duke completist, I happen to own various boxes, packages and single discs from every period of Duke's career: the RCA box, the OKeh and Brunswick/Vocalion set, Vol. 3 of the Chrono 6CD sets (they just compile six single discs in original packaging, but they add a sturdy box and a booklet with good liners, including some soloist identification, which is something I always happen to miss with the usual short Classics notes). And that Vol. 3 can be found for a prize that's hard to beat.

As for earlier Ellington Classics, yup, nowadays, several are impossible to find or only available for ridiculous prizes. But they have been around for many, many years, and I'm scolding myself for not picking up more of them when they were all over the stores here (same for the Masters of Jazz which were THE ultimate series for such stuff... no one did more thorough compilations, and their notes were excellent as well, often to the point of exhaustion, really...)

Anyway, my point is that with Duke, you just have to continue buying some here and there, and eventually you'll end up having a big chunck of his recordings, some in good, some in less good sound...

(I also have a few dozen discs covering Duke's later periods, including the Capitol and Reprise Mosaics, most of the Columbia reissues, the Private Sessions, some of the Fantasy, Impulse, Blue Note, Atlantic etc discs... and of course Money Jungle, too, he he he - but those aren't subject of this thread.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hello, I'am writing from France. We are looking for last discs of the Chronological classics from 1465 to the end and we cannot find them in France.

Are they available in the States ? If anyone has an idea how to purchase these albums, we would so happy as we have the complete works but not these 5 last dics.

and perhaps you can tell us too if some more than 1469 are forecasted in the future.

thank you so much for your help

Deborah :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

after a brief web search i seriously doubt that those five albums actually came out (yet?) if you look through this thread (which is admittedly very long) you'll find that there's a mostly uncertainty over the present and future of this series...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...