The Proper Box, is this lable legit?

[Hardbopjazz]

For my birthday I got some cash and off I went to the record store. I saw a Johnny Hodges 4 cd box for $25 call "Jeep is Jumpin' ". Is The Proper Box a legit label?

[Chas]

Previous thread here

[wolff]

Is The Proper Box a legit label?

LMAO...NO!! Not legit. A pathetic EU PD label making and selling burns.

[Claude]

They are not selling burns, and they are legit in Europe and many other parts of the world, but not in the US as far as recordings are concerned that are less than 70 years old.

[Guest]

if there so illegitimate than why are they avail. at all major US retail music outlets

[Fer Urbina]

AFAIK Proper comply with 50-year old rule (by the sound they get sometimes, it seems they use 50-year old sources too and don't rip from the more recent Mosaic, Hep, Bear Family etc reissues), so perfectly legal in the EU.

They have done some decent work putting together most of the Fats Navarro and Wardell Gray recordings. Good value for money IMHO, even though the sound quality is not the best available.

Joop Visser, the guy who signs the liner notes used to be the brains behind Charly, right?

F

[Claude]

if there so illegitimate than why are they avail. at all major US retail music outlets

Because nobody seems to care. Or maybe the legal sitiuation is too complicated for the CD store staff that orders the CDs. It's a strange situation. I don't think Tower or CD Universe would deliberately take the risk of selling illegal CDs. Rightholders can seize these CDs in the US and sue the importers.

Edited January 18, 2006 by Claude

[brownie]

if there so illegitimate than why are they avail. at all major US retail music outlets

Well, the USA have an illegitimate President and nothing is being done about tha,t why would anyone care about illegitimate CD releases flooding the stores?

Ed. to add: hope this will not condemn this thread to the Political Forums!

Edited January 18, 2006 by brownie

[AllenLowe]

not to mention how they ALWAYS botch the sound with digital noise reduction distortion - listening to a Proper box is like having one finger in your ear, and the other up your ---

[Jim Alfredson]

--- nose?

[AllenLowe]

sure, why not -

[mr jazz]

I can't dis Proper too much. Their boxes are inexpensive and offer an introduction to many artists of the 40s. As mentioned, the Navarro box is excellent for its content-less so for SQ.

[tatifan]

I've been the first to complain about Proper's sound, ethics, etc., but I must admit to picking up several recent sets, the Shorty Rogers, Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck ones. I guess the Rogers is the only one to include much not currently available, but they cram 4 cds of various albums together in a convenient way, especially now with the slimmer boxes w/ cardboard sleeves. Yeah, I know......should you shoot me now or later? (to paraphrase Daffy Duck)

[RDK]

You get what you pay for. They're good value for the money, though the sound can be spotty. Some of the sets are more "ethically-challenged" than others - I'd stay away from the Mingus set, for example, which I believes rips off the Uptown CD, but the Proper "Big Horn" box is terrific.

[Kalo]

I've steered away from these on the whole, in part because of the legitimacy issue, in part because in the case of many of them I already own a significant chunk of recordings from the artists. I did buy the 4-disc Woody Herman box when it showed up at a local used CD place. I had none of the music on it and it was only $16, so hard to resist. Seems like a well-selected anthology: for instance, it contains all the numbers singled out for praise in various books I own that cover Herman. The sound is acceptable to these ears, if not great. As I was unlikely to buy the Herman Mosaics (too exhaustive for me, though no doubt replete with gems), I can't say that I feel too bad about this purchase, especially as I've done my share to bulk up the Mosaic coffers over the past 20+ years.

[Fer Urbina]

I did buy the 4-disc Woody Herman box when it showed up at a local used CD place. I had none of the music on it and it was only $16, so hard to resist. Seems like a well-selected anthology: for instance, it contains all the numbers singled out for praise in various books I own that cover Herman. The sound is acceptable to these ears, if not great.

The selection in the Herman set is excellent as an overview of his early years. Problem is that the sound of the Columbia sides from 1945-46 (what was recorded in NY rather than in California) is amazing for those years. You can check it out in the Mosaic or the double CD-set "Blowin' Up A Storm" (Sony/Legacy), which on the other hand does a terrible job misidentifying takes (originally issued ones for unissued ones) and not so good selection (they managed to include two alternate takes of Bijou leaving out the one originally released with the classic Bill Harris solo). All this has been corrected in the Mosaic set.

So no perfect solution here

F

PS Edit to add that the Proper box has the Summer Sequence parts edited to form a suite, which I personally prefer, rather than the unedited masters as in the Legacy and the Mosaic sets.

Edited January 19, 2006 by Fer Urbina