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2 Vogue box sets


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I have the first box.  I thought the sound was fine.  All or almost all of the sessions had already been mastered for CD (for a series of Vogue recordings with plain black labels).  I don't recall anything that sounded like a needle drop.  However, I am not terribly fussy about mastering.

I've never even heard of the second box, but I think I'll try to order a copy.

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It was a tougher decision for me for the first box, where there was a large amount of duplication, as I did have a lot of the black cover CDs, but less so with this second box (though of course I have the Lester Young and Miles Davis material).  But they are very attractive packages.

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I have had both boxes for quite some time now and am very happy with them.

The sound quality is good and, in regard to the recording dates, more than adequate. I'm a bit of a discerning listener and not once did I have any moment in which I would have criticised the sound. The cover reproductions are nice (bare bones, but sturdier than many of the more flimsy covers in other boxed sets I own), the liner notes are adequate enough, etc.

I have really enjoyed these and considering the fact that I bought each one for around 19 Euro, they are actually prized possessions, despite the unavoidable duplication I encountered in my rather extensive jazz collection.

Get them!
They're just nice and fun to have!

P.S.: A few years ago I switched to CD sleeves and many box sets were removed, but these two are still around because I also like to look at them.

Cheers!

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I've recenty had the occasion of directly comparing parts of two of the CDs in the first of the thread starter's box set with the corresponding reissues from the "black cover" CD series (A. Hodeir and Jimmy Raney) and found them rather on the same level, as if they had recycled the masterings from the black cover reissues for this box.

No complaints, then.
Except that - as many others have pointed out before - their selection of the "usual suspects" for this box is rather unimaginative. Vogue would have had A HUGE LOT of other good recordings form that period that could have made up a set that is just as impressive without forcing passably astute collectors to buy that many duplicates. I have quite a few black ones but VERY FAR from all and even my number of duplicates is sizable which made the box set just "acceptable" price-wise even at the discount price - under the premise that the duplicates can always go in the car and/or with the regret that the "black cover" duplicate CDs will probably be impossible to shift now except at a giveaway price (annoying considering the price tag they had at the time). (So in the car player again?)

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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51 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

... the regret that the "black cover" duplicate CDs will probably be impossible to shift now except at a giveaway price (annoying considering the price tag they had at the time). 

I was fortunate that most of the "black covers" in my collection were cut-outs (and probably mostly from Tower Records in NYC), but yes, quite a bit of duplication and still a few rare sides were not issued in the first box.  But overall, pretty happy with the set.

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2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

The Django box set is also very enjoyable.

That's true: I don't have these two, but do have the Django, which is great. It contains the Ultraphone sessions, some of the earliest recorded Django and a lot of airchecks with the Air Transport Command Band, some of the material of the US tour with Ellington and a lot of sessions with the Quintette du Hot Club de France. And the presentation is also great.

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Those sets look very tasty!

For what it's worth, I found the (French) Savoy Musidiscs LPs to be fine, back in the 60s. It was on those that I first heard the delightful 1956 recordings by Milt Jackson with Lucky Thompson (highly recommended). The only bad French LPs are, I read online, the 70s Blue Note LPs - though I've never heard any of them.

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12 hours ago, Shrdlu said:

 The only bad French LPs are, I read online, the 70s Blue Note LPs - though I've never heard any of them.

"Bad" is fairly relative. I have a feeling the ones that some have their problems with are later than from the 70s - I have only a few of them but these do sound quite listenable. Audiophilistic geeks may have their bones to pick with these pressings (but what would satisfy them 100% anyway once a different reissue marketed as being the ultimate in "upgrades" hits the market? ;)) but if you consider how even "reputable" reissues by the heros of (re)mastering have been altered sonically in the CD era with the tendency to remaster them really LOUD compared to the original releases or earlier reissues then "bad" can have many facets. ;)

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Well, there are a couple of dudes online who are experts on this kind of thing and they sound pretty sensible and knowledgeable and give masses of detail, including label pics. It is generally accepted that those 1970s French Blue Note LPs are not good. Rudy, of course, had nothing to do with them. I have no interest in them personally.

It is also agreed that the 70s Impulse LPs, with green labels, are not as good as the van Gelder LPs. I have some of the green label ones and they sound O.K. to me. Fortunately, van Gelder Impulse LPs (two series of them, with different labels) in usable condition are not expensive. The prices of van Gelder Blue Note LPs are insane, and my reaction is "Hey, they are only vinyl records.".

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15 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

The Pathe Marconi French Blue Notes came out in the 1980s. The main gripe with them was that they were mostly DMM.

That's the ones I was alluding to. The web seems to say it is not DMM per se that is the problem but how the records in question were actually produced. And I've just noticed after a quick check even on the S. Hoffman forum there are some who in this kind of debate say they are quite happy with the aural quality of their 80s DMM BN's.

Just to check , after Shrdlu's first post I spun my copy of Lou Donaldson's "Blues Walk", and honestly, i cannot complain (though of course I do not have another issue to compare - but who among us mere mortals in the collecting fraternity has any number of different versions of one and the same record across the bulk of their collection?). But maybe that Donaldson session wasn't extremely bass-heavy anyway?

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The Pathe Marconis are on pretty lightweight vinyl, which I don’t think helped them much. Having said that, the Japanese Kings are similar in that respect and sound umpteen times better.

I remember Brownie posting here some years back about the DMMs and saying words to the effect that they were a travesty. Unlike teeth, still got all of mine though. :D

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The first of the two box sets shown in the starting post actually is made up of FRENCH masters. Probably recyclings of the remasterings from the "black sleeve" reissues.

I've just checked the track listing of the second (Americans) set now (I had not heard of this one before) and am baffled. What's the point of reissuing such a hodgepodge today where the market is flooded with almost everything? Dial, Roost and King masters, some Blue Notes, some PJs, Jerry Newman live recordings, and so on ... Showing a sampling of what Vogue leased back then. Vogue leased a lot, yes - but hasn't virtually ALL of this been around on the reissue market very, very often and don't we all have most of this already? (Probably more so than in the case of the first box set) A box to take along for your car player or on holidays? No doubt it would be convenient for that. I just cannot quite see what GAP it fills.

 

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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I just don't think we're the target audience. In part I think the box set came about because they could be assembled with all these labels now under one roof. They can reuse previously paid for masterings and make a nice little set for newer collectors.

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If you enter "vogue box sets" or words to that effect on Amazon's website, there's a listing of all the artists and their performances on the 20 CD's that make up this package.  I would have copied and pasted the link, but Amazon won't allow that. 

Edited by Dave James
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