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Charlie Parker Records • New Japanese Reissues


Late

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December 11, 2019 - 1390¥

• CDSOL 46501 - Charlie Parker: The Happy Bird

• CDSOL 46502 - Lester Young: Pres Is Blue

• CDSOL 46503 - Joe Carroll: Man With A Happy Sound

• CDSOL 46504 - Cecil Payne: The Connection

• CDSOL 46505 - Duke Jordan & Sadik Hakim: East And West Jazz

• CDSOL 46506 - Yusef Lateef: Lost In Sound

• CDSOL 46507 - Pete Jolly: The Sensational Pete Jolly Gasses Everybody

• CDSOL 46508 - Barney Kessel with Harold Land: El Tigre

• CDSOL 46509 - Barry Miles: Miles of Genius

• CDSOL 46510 - Charlie Parker: Birdology

• CDSOL 46511 - Alice Darr: I Only Know How To Cry

• CDSOL 46512 - Charlie Parker & Lester Young: At The Summit

• CDSOL 46513 - Mundell Lowe: Satan In High Heels

• CDSOL 46514 - Jerri Winters: Winters Again

• CDSOL 46515 - Charlier Parker: Bird At The Apollo

 

Apparently this is "Phase One" of a new reissue campaign of the Charlie Parker Records label. CDSOL is the prefix used by the Ultravybe label.

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There was a box set released a few years ago that had their entire run, and it was really inexpensive.  I just looked it up, I paid $42 (including shipping) for the entire 30 CD set.  Still available on discogs and amazon for about $2/CD "The Charlie Parker Records Complete Collection".   The source material was not recorded well, so all the fancy Japanese remastering in the world is not going to make it an audiophile delight.

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/5433565?ev=rb

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B006ZUKBJ4/ref=tmm_acd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1574090376&sr=1-1

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21 hours ago, felser said:

There was a box set released a few years ago that had their entire run, and it was really inexpensive.  I just looked it up, I paid $42 (including shipping) for the entire 30 CD set.  Still available on discogs and amazon for about $2/CD "The Charlie Parker Records Complete Collection".   The source material was not recorded well, so all the fancy Japanese remastering in the world is not going to make it an audiophile delight.

https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/5433565?ev=rb

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B006ZUKBJ4/ref=tmm_acd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=1574090376&sr=1-1

I’m guessing it’s probably not worth it, then, because of the poor sound. 

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1 hour ago, Brad said:

I’m guessing it’s probably not worth it, then, because of the poor sound. 

It's certainly well worth $2-3/disc or whatever, as it's an interesting (though very inconsistent) body of work, but I don't think it's worth paying inflated Japanese prices for individual titles.  Japanese remastering's not going to help all that much.

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"Birdology" is Royal Roost material, circa 1949.  Probably all on the Savoy box.

"Bird At The Apollo" also contains tracks by Stan Getz, Timmy Rogers (comedian), and Sarah Vaughan.  Probably about 20 minutes of Bird on the disc.  See: http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/BirdSessions.aspx?s=500817

"The Happy Bird" has some performances with Howard McGhee that I don't think are available elsewhere.  Still, a "private" recording, not audiophile.

Same is true of the Pres titles.

The other titles listed were all original to CP Records.  I suppose there's potential for an audio upgrade, depending on their source materials.

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4 hours ago, felser said:

It's certainly well worth $2-3/disc or whatever, as it's an interesting (though very inconsistent) body of work, but I don't think it's worth paying inflated Japanese prices for individual titles.  Japanese remastering's not going to help all that much.

Exactly. That box set has been a rather good deal. As it happens I spun quite a few CDs of this set 1-2 months ago, and fidelity actually isn't that bad throughout, at least for the studio dates. Little of the non-Bird material is really essential (and most of the Bird material has been around elsewhere in various guises too) but it is nice to have and makes for a nice change (and in some cases for an interesting addition of otherwise overlooked items to the leader discographies).

As for why the Japanese would want to jump on that bandwagon again now, all I can say is - POINTLESS.

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The Japanese have their own market, and they understand and supply it well, without any concern for needs or wants outside their borders for the most part. They'll sell every one they manufacture and that's ultimately what it's about.

I have heard versions outside the Membrane box that sound better than same items within the box so I don't think it's totally fruitless to remaster the series--someone might find a better version of a favorite session and there's an element of the collecting body that will be happy with that.

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As far as their domestic market is concerned - agreed. There seems to be an element of utter collecting geekness at work there that probably defies assessment most anywhere else in the world (even in collecting circles - beyond an automatic "japanese reissues = holy grail" attitude, of course :D). But for worldwide marketing it just seems of relatively minor interest AFAIAC.

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To me its a question of fun. Some of this stuff is on Spotify and in many cases that might be enough. A lot of this material crops up in cast-off vinyl form for a fiver a go. The box is super-cheap, especially since many disks (except the Parker ones) contain two LPs. The new issues will give us covers and maybe notes, and there’s no need to buy them all. Equally, the odd dip into the vinyl mountain would give maybe more ambient pleasure and genuine period feel. 

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On 11/18/2019 at 6:51 AM, Late said:

6a00e008dca1f08834022ad39816dd200c-500wi

I didn't know who Alice Darr was. Found this interesting article on her.

I'm also unfamiliar with this one:

R-10723292-1503104093-7367.jpeg.jpg

And this one (with slightly disturbing cover art):

R-10001374-1489940890-1256.jpeg.jpg

I wonder what "Stereo-Pact!" was supposed to mean. Stereo-packed? Or a pact made with stereo?

 

 

slightly, eg. "I slightly just fell off this bridge".....

i see it features Jolly on accordian, not piano-- ditto the RCA 45 ep i had from him---- he was such a good piano player-- but they wanted him on accordian?

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14 hours ago, mjzee said:

"Birdology" is Royal Roost material, circa 1949.  Probably all on the Savoy box.

"Bird At The Apollo" also contains tracks by Stan Getz, Timmy Rogers (comedian), and Sarah Vaughan.  Probably about 20 minutes of Bird on the disc.  See: http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/BirdSessions.aspx?s=500817

"The Happy Bird" has some performances with Howard McGhee that I don't think are available elsewhere.  Still, a "private" recording, not audiophile.

Same is true of the Pres titles.

The other titles listed were all original to CP Records.  I suppose there's potential for an audio upgrade, depending on their source materials.

Thanks for the Info. About "Happy Bird" I thought this is the set from Boston with Wardell Gray , an Album with a red cover and a Color photo of Bird. I think the one I have is from Musidisc. 

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