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Count Basie -Super Chief


bebopbob

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Do you mean this one? R-1248670-1211829786.jpeg.jpg

 

There is great material here, but nothing that hasn't been reissued since.  In the LP days, this was one of the key sources for vintage Basie.  Now, the best source for the majority of this and the rest of the Columbia recordings with Lester Young in the best sound is the first Mosaic box of Basie and Lester Young...this one:

R-10470643-1498098018-8594.jpeg.jpg

On the other hand, Super Chief also has some nice tracks of the Basie band without Lester Young, not rare but nice. 

 

Edited by John L
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Now that I've seen the cover I remember this one. I saw it numerous times in the record racks and always put it right back (not just for the silly 70s cover which still makes me cringe).

Hodgepodge compilation that should be interesting as a starter but invariably leads to lots of overlaps if you explore this music deeper on other reissues.

If you want to get these recordings on vinyl, IMO the best way to go would be the six double LPs from the "Jazzotheque" series on French CBS which has them all:

https://www.discogs.com/Count-Basie-Count-Basie-VolVI-1946-19501951-The-Orchestra-And-The-Octet/release/7663820

(A full overview of all six 2-LPs sets is at the bottom of the track listing on this page)

These Columbia recordings also were released as an LP box set (with fairly basic layout and packaging) by some other CBS branch at one time (It took me ages to locate Vol. 5 of the above Jazzotheque series so when I saw that box set in a shop one day one day - which was fairly cheap secondhand - I almost sprung for it for the contents of that Vol. 5 but in the end did not because I liked the Jazzotheque packaging a lot better - and eventually Vol. 5 did turn up anyway ;)).

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just to note, for sound geeks; re: the Columbia CD Basie reissue with notes by Loren Schoenberg: the notes are terrific, as usual for Loren, but the sound, really, is not as good as the earlier CD issue. I think its the transfers, not the restoration - and that Super Chief LP has some of the best sound of all.

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"Super Chief" included six  tracks never previously released on LP -- "Shout and Feel It," "Where Shall I Go," "I Ain't Got Nobody," "Goin to Chicago Blues," "Who?" "Upright Organ Blues." I just checked recently and didn't see those tracks duplicated on the French CBS series and they are not on the more recent CD box.

Am I overlooking them?

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I'd get it just for the liner notes, which include priceless running commentary by Jo Jones.

The set might appear "hodgepodge" but the liners give the presentation a narrative, which is a lovely one.

I got mine free for pledging to KERA-FM's very first pledge drive, back in early 1974(?), and have no want to toss it. Can't say that there's not better sources for the music, but as a presentation. it's still superb.

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27 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I'd get it just for the liner notes, which include priceless running commentary by Jo Jones.

The set might appear "hodgepodge" but the liners give the presentation a narrative, which is a lovely one.

I got mine free for pledging to KERA-FM's very first pledge drive, back in early 1974(?), and have no want to toss it. Can't say that there's not better sources for the music, but as a presentation. it's still superb.

I own "Super Chief," the four-volume Lester Young Story  on CBS two-record sets, the French CBS Basie series, the Mosaic Box and the CBS CD box. I can't seem to get rid of any of them. Not that I really want to, but I'm at the point in my life where I am shedding duplicates in favor of acquiring stuff I don't have in any form. But I can't seem to part with any of these. I guess I win, but it kinda feels like I'm losing.

Edited by Mark Stryker
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2 hours ago, Mark Stryker said:

"Super Chief" included six  tracks never previously released on LP -- "Shout and Feel It," "Where Shall I Go," "I Ain't Got Nobody," "Goin to Chicago Blues," "Who?" "Upright Organ Blues." I just checked recently and didn't see those tracks duplicated on the French CBS series and they are not on the more recent CD box.

Am I overlooking them?

I've just checked the Basie entry in Bruyninckx for CBS 67205.

I  Ain't Got Nobody and Going to Chicago are on Vol. 1.
Shout and Feel It and Where Shall I Go (Song Of The Wanderer) are live recordings (no CBS studio recordings) reissued elsewhere too.
Who? and Upright Organ Blues are by Glenn Hardman & His Hammond Five, apparently included for the Lester Young solos. No Basie, so I am not sure what their place is on a Basie compilation. I have this session on a CBS "Young Lester Young" LP from 1972, and therefore might even predate "Super Chief".

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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1 hour ago, Mark Stryker said:

"Super Chief" included six  tracks never previously released on LP -- "Shout and Feel It," "Where Shall I Go," "I Ain't Got Nobody," "Goin to Chicago Blues," "Who?" "Upright Organ Blues." I just checked recently and didn't see those tracks duplicated on the French CBS series and they are not on the more recent CD box.

Am I overlooking them?

I'm away from my home so I can't check for sure but I think some of them are on the Mosaic Columbia set. 

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Jo Jones' commentary of the Glenn Harman date. Lee Castle was on trumpet, apparently a last-minute sub Buck Clayton, because...

Buck got a streetcar and followed some chick to the stockyards to get a piece of tail. 'Start without me'. We used the first trumpet player from Tommy Dorsey's band. He'd been out all night and turned up drunk and with a split lip. Some chick's husband had come in, hit him across the hand with a .45 and he jumped from a second floor window. So he was pretty mussed up. Played OK, though.

A splendid presentation, properly consumed by, for, and within itself.

 

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1 hour ago, medjuck said:

I'm away from my home so I can't check for sure but I think some of them are on the Mosaic Columbia set. 

Right - the last 4 are on the first Mosaic Basie/Young set.  None are on the second (latest), as that does not include Columbia material.   

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