Dexter Gordon Steeplechase Box

[Ed S]

Well good news for me. My Dexter set shipped today

I was starting to get a little antsy and was figuring that they had only picked up a few of these and I'd be outta luck.

[jazzbo]

Good news!

[Ed S]

Even better in that they didn't charge me for shipping the set separately. The skeptic in me had me figuring they would rap me for a second shipping fee.

[Ed S]

I ordered a couple of Django Jazz in Paris titles that were supposed to be abailable in March, then April 1. They're still on backorder.

Well, my two Djangos arrived today. Better late than never. I understand that the import titles can be a little tricky, so I'm glad to have them. Since I mentioned this earlier in the thread, I didn't want to leave a false impression of CDUniverse. They were a little slow with this one, but I got frequent order updates and notification of shipment a couple of days ago.

[Adam]

up

[Kyo]

Ditto to what Tod said. My only criticism is that the discography doesn't indicate what record the session corresponds to but I can figure that out.

That's the easy part. Figuring out which takes were originally issued is harder.

Sometimes they mention it in the liner notes, sometimes they don't. It doesn't

help that the track running times for some of those albums are incorrect on

both allmusic.com and the official Steeplechase website. I like to split box sets

into the original albums on my iPod (with a "master playlist" that contains the

entire boxset in its regular order) and that was quite difficult with this set.

The music is great though and considering I paid less than 40 Euros for it I can't really complain.

Edited June 5, 2007 by Kyo

[sal]

Glad to see this thread resurface. I bought the set back when it was released, and its without a doubt a must have if you are a Dexter fan. He was playing in peak form for these sessions....and for me, it doesn't get much better than peak Dexter.

Something I found interesting....there is a session where Tootie's drums sounded really unusual, and in the booklet he explains that the drum kit in the studio was for rock music, and the bass drum was stuffed with pillows. He had to tune it the best he could to suit the music. While the drums do sound a bit strange, I actually think it worked really well, and gave that particular session a unique sound.

And NHOP.....what a player! What a great sound.

[mikelz777]

I was intrigued by what I read here about the Steeplechase set so I checked it out and found it to look like a pet-peeve nightmare. I think I counted 72 tracks over 8 discs and only 39 of them are unique. (in the sense that they aren't alternative takes) Nearly half of the tracks are alternative takes and they are sequenced all together so you'd have 2 or 3 versions of the same song playing in a row!! At least the Prestige box set spread it's alternative takes around so that you might not even notice they were there. This set might be cool for completists but I think I'd find it tedious and way too expensive for what you'd actually be getting out of it. I don't suppose we'd ever see a comprehensive master-takes box from Steeplechase?

Edited June 5, 2007 by mikelz777

[Kyo]

I agree that the many alternate takes are annoying, but with CD burners and mp3 players you can easily compile your own master takes collection and I think the price is not too bad considering that it contains six complete albums (remember how expensive those SteepleChase discs usually are!).

[mikelz777]

I agree that the many alternate takes are annoying, but with CD burners and mp3 players you can easily compile your own master takes collection and I think the price is not too bad considering that it contains six complete albums (remember how expensive those SteepleChase discs usually are!).

I laughed when I read this because it's the exact same reasoning I use when I try to justify to myself spending a tidy sum on a box set! Still, I'd only want about half the box for making my own master takes set so I'd rather borrow it than buy it which is generally frowned upon. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who has it or who would ever buy it.

[Patrick]

Interesting future purchase possibility (gotta enjoy the Prestige box first). The only Steeplechase title I own is More Than You Know which I have not yet spent a lot of time with. Have the "Dexter in Radioland" live albums (Cheese Cake, King Neptune, Love for Sale, I Want More, It's You or No One, Billie's Bounce) ever been assembled in a package? How do these compare to the rest of the Dexter cannon, to the studio Steeplechase, to the various live recordings?

[Kyo]

I think both the Dexter in Radioland and the Swiss Nights series came out as boxsets of some sort in Japan, although I've never seen them. Maybe someone else can give us some details on those, as I'm interested in that material as well.