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Posted

Geez, Brad, thanks alot. After my recent pigfest in the Mosaic True Blue promotion, I was trying to keep a low buyer's profile for at least a week or two. So long low profile. Nice price and great music. Heads-up like this are what make the board so terrific. Buying this even though I suspect Mosaic will eventually do a more complete Basie Columbia set.

Posted

Looks tasty... glad to see they put "It's the Same Old South" on there. I had to dig out some old vinyl when I played that on a Martin Luther King day last January--it's one of the earliest anti-racism songs I know of in jazz (along with "Strange Fruit," of course).

Posted

GOM-Speaking of anti-racism songs, don't forget (Why Am I So) Black and Blue? The music and lyrics never fail to sting me. Waller brings a mournful quality to the piece that really resonates.

Posted

Hey, yeah, definitely, Clandy44. I certainly think of that one, as well as "Strange Fruit."

"It's the Same Old South" has an interesting story behind it that I'll have to check again when I get home from work tonight. I believe it came from a 1930s leftwing musical called MEET THE PEOPLE, and I'm not sure that Basie was all that enthusiastic about recording it at first. I first read about it in a book called CULTURAL FRONT, which devotes some attention to the involvement of jazz musicians in 1930s and 40s political causes. Hopefully the liners in the new set will go into some more detail.

Regarding Disc 4 of this new set, I'll be interested to see how much of it I already have... I have an old Vintage CD called ROCK-A-BYE-BASIE (with a really horrific cover) that has about 25 broadcast tracks from 1938 and '39. If nothing else, I'm sure that the sound will be better on the box.

Posted

I just preordered this through CDUniverse. Of all the stuff coming out this month (Mosaics etc), this is my first priority--I've been waiting a long time for Columbia to do something with at least some of the Basie material in their vault. The only question for me at this point is who did the transfers. Sony's remastering of older stuff has been pretty good lately, so I'm pretty confident.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

tjazz, just looking at the listing on CD Universe (and not having the Essentials in front of me), it looks like there's a fair amount of overlap, but by no means will this set contain everything that was on the Essentials. (I'm sure it will be in much better sound, however.) None of Disc 4 is on the Essentials, though--that's all live material (which I think has, for the most part, been out before on several different labels).

Posted

Looking at the DeepDiscountcd.com website, I also noticed that DEFINITIVE has a 3-CD Complete Columbia set 1941-1951. So is this the same, but with disc 4 of the AMERICA'S #1 BAND being extra live material? :o

Posted

Looking at the DeepDiscountcd.com website, I also noticed that DEFINITIVE has a 3-CD Complete Columbia set 1941-1951. So is this the same, but with disc 4 of the AMERICA'S #1 BAND being extra live material? :o

Don't think so, tjazz!

Disconforme/Definitive has TWO Basie Columbia sets, one 1941-1951 (3CD) (link) and one 1936-1941 (4CD) (link). There has been some talk about these somewhere before (probably in the lost part of AAJ), and they seem to be "complete" (no additional material, no alternate takes, certainly no of the new stuff on Columbia/Legacy).

I am not sure about this. And Definitive (just in case you don't know this yet - otherwise forgive me for stating the obvious) is a rip-off label. They have quite a lots of stuff which in Europe is in the public domain now (meaning older than 50 years), and they copied a fair amount of other label's releases. So generally, one should try to go for the original (though Basie is a special case, as no original exists - maybe the Chronological Classics would be the way, there).

ubu

Posted (edited)

Well, only one copy made it to my local Tower and I had it held for me, and so glad I did! So far I'm enjoying this a lot, I'm just listening at work and I've had all this music before but I suspect it will be better sounding here, and the booklet looks pretty nice. . . .!

498325.jpg

Edited by jazzbo
Posted (edited)

Lon (or anybody),

Who did the remastering and liners? Any other impressions?

I ordered mine from CD Universe and I don't expect it to be here until tomorrow at th earliest.

Edited by montg
Posted

Andreas Meyer did the transfers from acetates and metal parts, and Mark Wilder and Seth Foster have done the tape transfers. So far I have only really heard the transfers from acetates and metal parts and they sound very very good, typical of Meyer's work. There's depth to the sound, and Pres and the trumpets sound great!

I think they did a good job selecting and assembling this set. Once you know ahead of time it isn't complete, then the usual incomplete nature of Keepnews' productions aren't an issue. I haven't been able to really read too much of the booklet yet, but it seems solid.

Posted

Andreas Meyer did the transfers from acetates and metal parts, and Mark Wilder and Seth Foster have done the tape transfers. So far I have only really heard the transfers from acetates and metal parts and they sound very very good, typical of Meyer's work. There's depth to the sound, and Pres and the trumpets sound great!

I think they did a good job selecting and assembling this set. Once you know ahead of time it isn't complete, then the usual incomplete nature of Keepnews' productions aren't an issue. I haven't been able to really read too much of the booklet yet, but it seems solid.

Thanks for the early report, Lon. Mine shipped on Friday and should arrive sometime later this week... Is most of the Famous Door material from '38 or '39? I have a lot of the '38 on a VJC CD called ROCK-A-BYE-BASIE, but, judging from the song titles, there won't be much overlap.

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