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Lester Young/Basie Set Selling Well


tranemonk

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Not to provoke you, sidewinder, but this is a set I can see becoming expensive in the second-hand market. Unissued material (unless some Andorran puts it out) and overall high quality music. Beautifully supported by the book.

Then again, I'm just kind of a Pres/Basie nut.

Or general nut.

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There's not much in the greatest jazz of the past that was not touched by Lester.

Now his influence is almost gone. Who wants to hear some softish, rhythmic, subtle cat these days?

So jazz is almost gone too ... maybe it went with Lester...

Q

No, it appears to be all rap, sadly.

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Does anyone know what treasures lie unreleased in the vaults of the Majors ?

I'm sure in some cases even the people at the labels have no idea. But if it's a Basie-specific question, especially old testament, I'd guess probably not much (or anything) unreleased from Columbia or Decca as far as studio sessions. More likely other location recordings and airchecks?

Edited by Pete C
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The majors may be in a position to buy a few stray airchecks that have been put out on "boots," but I don't think they have anything on hand they haven't given us. . . .

What they can/could give us when/if they care to is the best sounding stuff around as opposed to the public domain labels.

Edited by jazzbo
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Didn't mean to be snippy! :) The biggest worry I have with the public domain labels and what they release is that they often release material the majors haven't. . . and the sound isn't great. But the majors may think (and probably with good reason) why should we now make any effort to put this out, most of those who want it have either bought these releases or ripped it from a blog. And so those who may have the best possible sources and may have the best engineers and facilities continue to not release the material. And we don't get the stuff as we could, and maybe should.

Which may all be nonsense, just something I imagine that is a way they look at it. I may be giving them way too much "credit," or they may have a totally different view and reason for not releasing this material.

If I worked at Sony or Universal I'd pitch a sort of "bootleg series" such as has started with the Miles Davis estate, but with classic jazz. Seek out what I could find of these sort of airchecks of the swing, "New Orleans Revival," bebop, etc. material, secure the rights, remaster them as well as possible, put them out in nice packages with some nice notes. And then be laughed out of my job, most likely. . . .

Edited by jazzbo
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If I worked at Sony or Universal I'd pitch a sort of "bootleg series" such as has started with the Miles Davis estate, but with classic jazz. Seek out what I could find of these sort of airchecks of the swing, "New Orleans Revival," bebop, etc. material, secure the rights, remaster them as well as possible, put them out in nice packages with some nice notes. And then be laughed out of my job, most likely. . . .

I guess it's expensive to do and a niche, so they leave it to Mosaic. That said, I've never really understood how the famous Sony Original Masters Ellngton was put out in new and fine masters in 2008 only to disappear after a year or so. That showed what could be done, and at the lowest price imaginable. But why just that one, and why so short-lived...?

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Speaking of airshots, Basie, & Pres, what about those three Basie airshots that Columbia put out on Super Chief (one from 1937, the other two from 1938)? Billie was said to be with the band on the 1937 date, but the only one they included did not have her singing. Has that stuff come out anywhere since?

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Speaking of airshots, Basie, & Pres, what about those three Basie airshots that Columbia put out on Super Chief (one from 1937, the other two from 1938)? Billie was said to be with the band on the 1937 date, but the only one they included did not have her singing. Has that stuff come out anywhere since?

I've seen They Can't Take That Away From Me and Swing Brother Swing (from the Savoy, 1937) on a number of releases. These and I Can't Get Started from another gig later that year are on the Lady Day complete Columbia box.

http://www.billieholidaysongs.com/live_songs.htm#1937

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Didn't mean to be snippy! :) The biggest worry I have with the public domain labels and what they release is that they often release material the majors haven't. . . and the sound isn't great. But the majors may think (and probably with good reason) why should we now make any effort to put this out, most of those who want it have either bought these releases or ripped it from a blog. And so those who may have the best possible sources and may have the best engineers and facilities continue to not release the material. And we don't get the stuff as we could, and maybe should.

Which may all be nonsense, just something I imagine that is a way they look at it. I may be giving them way too much "credit," or they may have a totally different view and reason for not releasing this material.

If I worked at Sony or Universal I'd pitch a sort of "bootleg series" such as has started with the Miles Davis estate, but with classic jazz. Seek out what I could find of these sort of airchecks of the swing, "New Orleans Revival," bebop, etc. material, secure the rights, remaster them as well as possible, put them out in nice packages with some nice notes. And then be laughed out of my job, most likely. . . .

Didn't take your reply as snippy. I just didn't read your post thoroughly.

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I got my Basie 1941-51 10LP box today... so I've got all the Columbia (Vocalion/OKeh) Basie I need.

I once had both Basie Columbia boxes, but found I rarely listened to them - too many alternates in some cases, and my favourite Basie track of all, Fiesta in Blue, was defective ...

What does that Columbia box look like? I can't seem to find it, only two Definitive boxes that go for ridiculous prices:

31ZJ31V5ZTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

41NDQAS5F6L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Is it this 4 CD box?

61iYeDdfo0L._SS400_.jpg

Edited by mikeweil
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Didn't mean to be snippy! :) The biggest worry I have with the public domain labels and what they release is that they often release material the majors haven't. . . and the sound isn't great. But the majors may think (and probably with good reason) why should we now make any effort to put this out, most of those who want it have either bought these releases or ripped it from a blog. And so those who may have the best possible sources and may have the best engineers and facilities continue to not release the material. And we don't get the stuff as we could, and maybe should.

Which may all be nonsense, just something I imagine that is a way they look at it. I may be giving them way too much "credit," or they may have a totally different view and reason for not releasing this material.

If I worked at Sony or Universal I'd pitch a sort of "bootleg series" such as has started with the Miles Davis estate, but with classic jazz. Seek out what I could find of these sort of airchecks of the swing, "New Orleans Revival," bebop, etc. material, secure the rights, remaster them as well as possible, put them out in nice packages with some nice notes. And then be laughed out of my job, most likely. . . .

Didn't take your reply as snippy. I just didn't read your post thoroughly.

Thanks Paul.

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Speaking of airshots, Basie, & Pres, what about those three Basie airshots that Columbia put out on Super Chief (one from 1937, the other two from 1938)? Billie was said to be with the band on the 1937 date, but the only one they included did not have her singing. Has that stuff come out anywhere since?

Masters of Jazz covered virtually everything live through early 1939. The live tracks alone make up about 4 full CDs of amazing music. Too bad the series got cut short. A couple CDs of the Lincoln Hotel recordings from 1944 would have been a musical Godsend.

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Mike, I did get the orange and blue LP boxes... other than that, yes there's the "America's Band #1" box, which has all the octet studio material, some other small group (most of that in fact) and some selected big band sides (not enough of them, not nearly so!)... but the main point is the glorious live material on disc 4. Most or all of it had been out on Masters of Jazz before, but not in as great sound. Pres is amazing there! Some of the best I've heard!

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Speaking of airshots, Basie, & Pres, what about those three Basie airshots that Columbia put out on Super Chief (one from 1937, the other two from 1938)? Billie was said to be with the band on the 1937 date, but the only one they included did not have her singing. Has that stuff come out anywhere since?

Masters of Jazz covered virtually everything live through early 1939. The live tracks alone make up about 4 full CDs of amazing music. Too bad the series got cut short. A couple CDs of the Lincoln Hotel recordings from 1944 would have been a musical Godsend.

I should also add that the Basie airshots with Billie Holiday are included on the Complete Lady Day box.

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