Stompin at the Savoy

Well have you listened to it on one of the streaming services like youtube or Spotify ? That would be a great way to know if you're going to like it

Yeah I think I remember something like that. There was a limited time reduction. But this is very rare indeed. I think their profit margins are pretty tight on these things.

8 hours! And you do this in atonement for what transgression?

I think I may be one of the faithful but I have recently become more choosy about buying recordings that, if I'm honest with myself, I will probably only listen to once, especially considering all the recordings I have by these players that don't suffer from sound quality issues. Obviously I'm in the minority on this one.

I found a copy of the Duke Ellington Centennial Edition for $147 on Discogs and it arrived just now. I liked the Ellington in Order series that Sony launched last year and bought what they put out, except for one volume which was entirely duplicating material in the Mosaic small group and orchestra sets. But they seem to have lost interest in the series. I was also unhappy about the lack of any documentation, even just pages on a website, from the company. Recently I've grown pessimistic about the continuation of Ellington in Order. I came across this nice copy very cheap on Discogs. It was a bit of a surprise getting it because I've never seen the set up close and some of the pics lead me to believe that it was a thick, cd-sized bundle. It turned out to be a Mosaic-like box with a gigantic bound paperback book!

Absolutely agree. Some may find this perfectly acceptable. Still I would suggest listening on YouTube or Spotify before buying.

Well maybe the CD sounds better (but somehow I doubt it). I thought for a minute about maybe toning it down with an equalizer but nah

You can get this as a hi res download from Presto for $14.50. So how is the book/documentation? Worth the dough? It's a little pricey for 1:26:25 of music. Could almost go on one cd. Sounds like they have deluxe packaging and booklet. I'm listening to this now on spotify. Some good playing but the bass is boomy and I guess amplified with a pickup. So to me it is bass heavy and worse, the amplification erases the natural tone and character of the bass, sounds like an electric bass. There is a general sense of recording level set too high, everything muddy and edging into distortion. Not totally sure I will listen to this more than once, may not buy... Postscript: I cannot even make it through the whole album on spotify! The bass is too overwhelming and ruins it for me. Because of the amplification the bass sustains strongly, so there is no drop off in volume between notes, just a continuous thumping behind the horn and drums. Plus the dynamics generally are bad: everybody (except the piano) playing as loud as they can all at once. Won't be buying this, though these are some of my favorite musicians.

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