dhadzis

Well, you can also view this as a « free shipping to the US » campaign until June 30th, 2019! ... and worldwide shipping is free when you order more than one copy!

Just a heads up to let you know that the United Music Foundation is having a special price on the "Sidney Bechet en Suisse / in Switzerland" box set (4 CDs + 216 page art book in French and English featuring 250 photos and 140 documents, all rare or unreleased) at CHF 129,00 instead of CHF 179,00 until June 30th, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Sidney Bechet's first concert in Switzerland (at the Geneva Victoria Hall) and the 60th anniversary of his passing. You can order it here: https://unitedmusic.ch/store/en/accueil/8-new-product-7640160390103.html By the way, Sidney Bechet's son will be performing with his jazz band (featuring Olivier Franc who will be playing on Sidney Bechet's own soprano saxophone) at the Geneva Victoria Hall on May 29th. If some of you are around Switzerland at that time, there will be autograph sessions and media appearances from him. The United Music Foundation is a non-profit organization that reinvests all its profits. When you buy their Collector's Editions, you help them in their mission to preserve, enhance and spotlight endangered musical recording heritage, and to make it available to the public.

I checked with the United Music Foundation. You get free shipping worldwide every time you add 2 copies or more in the shopping cart.

Yes. Swiss Post costs are indeed outrageous. But if you guys want to make a group buy, I'm sure the costs will decrease.

Except that Mezzrow is not on that Swiss box at all!

I just saw that the United Music Foundation is back online with a new design, and they wrote that they do accept orders worldwide. If you experience any problem, I'm sure they can help you.

I just saw that the United Music Foundation is currently offering free worldwide shipping for the "Sidney Bechet in Switzerland" boxed set! I thought I should let you know ! Kind regards, David

Thank you for your kind words. The United Music Foundation can only sometimes set the music free and enhance it as far as modern technology allows - which is much further than 10 years ago. The rest is not in our hands. We can only do our best. But the more we are supported, the more music will be set free in large or small packages depending on the context. As for us, we keep preserving as much as we can.

...or at least as long as the evolution of technology is being watched and all digital files are being converted to the latest and most secure technological advents! But even your own Library of Congress does that!

This is indeed one of reasons. If the United Music Foundation had not taken a timely action, many of these recordings would now be lost forever or further damaged. The cost of the preservation and restoration process, which represents a USD 5 figure amount, has been entirely financed by the United Music Foundation, thanks to the public and private donors who have made this possible. In order to do so, the foundation had to secure an exclusive licensing agreement with the copyright owners.

Thank you so much for understanding the whole concept. The foundation is thinking of future generations, and has to partly finance its nonprofit activities with the sales of its releases. As you will see on the website http://shop.unitedmusic.ch, there are not many so far. As for the "grey" labels, despite its old age, the material is still copyrighted.

Exactly. The music was licensed. So were most of the pictures and memorabilia, since, after a heavy restoration process on both the audio, pictures and memorabilia, the idea was offer the music with its story and original context for future generations. For example, for Bechet's 1949 concert at the Geneva Victoria Hall, whilst no film footage is available, you also get to see pictures of the actual concert you are listening to, see some publicity and press articles published at the time, and read all about the background of the concert.

Actually this box set is not to be seen as the average Bechet reissue but rather as a "no compromise" project which actually consists in an 12" x 12" 216-page art book with 4 CDs of Bechet's Swiss recordings thoroughly restored and mastered from the best surviving original audio sources. This box set actually weights 2,5kg (5lb) ! The aim of this project, which took 2 years in the making, was to document the story of Bechet in Switzerland for future generations, with some 250 photos, most of which have never been seen before, as well as some 140 documents consisting in all Swiss tour programs from 1926 (Black People tour) through 1958, local press articles and announcements, as well as some legendary documents such as the never-seen original Ernest Ansermet article published in the Revue Romande in 1919, and André Wagnière's private guestbooks signed by Sidney when he came to his place in the 50's. At the bottom of this page, you will find a video preview of what is in the book: http://www.unitedmusic.ch/index.php/en/projects/sidney-bechet-in-switzerland Extensive research in a wide range of Swiss press archives has taken place to also document all of Bechet's Swiss concert dates and venues (from 1926 to 1958), thus correcting all errors from current biographies. And a bilingual essay (French/English) by Bechet's French biographer Fabrice Zammarchi explains Bechet's intimate relationship with Switzerland. As for the audio restoration and mastering process, you can judge for yourself here: http://www.unitedmusic.ch/index.php/en/projects/audio-clips Finally, I would like to point out that an average record company would never have been able to put together such a project, sincec it would have never been financially viable. It took a Swiss nonprofit for the preservation of the recorded music heritage, the United Music Foundation, to make this happen. As a result, this unique box set has been praised by the press and awarded twice (including the Coveted Best Reissue Award by the French Academy of Jazz). It also served as the basis of a TV documentary on Bechet in Geneva with previously unseen private footage. http://www.unitedmusic.ch/index.php/en/news/press-review/72-press-sidney-bechet Finally, I would like to correct one point: this box set is not only available from the United Music Foundation's web store but also from the Jazz Record Center in the US: http://jazzrecordcenter.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2899 Kind regards, David