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Ellington 1930s big-band Mosaic


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Picked up my box at the local post office - € 25 for import tax ....

The music and sound are great,f course. Now I have to get the small group box, too.

I've just been 'dinged' about the same amount by Royal Mail (although admittedly that was for 3 boxes). With their £8 'handling fee' on top as well, of course ;)

Due to arrive tomorrow with Teagarden and Sarah Vaughan - all being well.

Edited by sidewinder
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After re-reading this thread from the first post and careful consideration including sound comparison I decided to get rid of the 15 French CBS double LPs even though that means missing some of the earliest recordings. The two CD set "The Okeh Ellington" can be had for € 6 plus postage, and I will definietely order the small group box when it is back in stock later this year.

If anyone wants those LPs .... before they go to a local dealer ....

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After re-reading this thread from the first post and careful consideration including sound comparison I decided to get rid of the 15 French CBS double LPs even though that means missing some of the earliest recordings. The two CD set "The Okeh Ellington" can be had for € 6 plus postage, and I will definietely order the small group box when it is back in stock later this year.

If anyone wants those LPs .... before they go to a local dealer ....

You might want to hang on to the earliest stuff. Not sure "Okeh Ellington" will entirely replace them, and there's been some debate in other threads about the sound.

gregmo

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For me the alternate takes definitely don't detract from the set, but i've listened to them once and skipped them ever since. I'm not really big on alternate takes in general; in this case it's nice to know that they're there when i'll need them and i'll probably delve in to them more as the years go by.

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This is a great post. .   Regarding this part:

RCA Victor 1927-1934, 1940-1942, 1944-1946

The Complete RCA Victor recordings 1927-1973 (24 CD set)

1927-1934 disc 1-7

1940-1942 disc 8-13

1944-1946 disc 14-17

If one was not going to get the big Centennial box, what would be the best way to get this material?    I have Early Ellington, Jubilee Stomp, & Jungle Nights in Harlem, plus the Never No Lament box, and the Complete RCA Mid Forties Box.  That is a total of 9 discs.  What makes up the rest?  Would you need to go the Chronological Classics/Neat Work route to get it?   

 

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15 minutes ago, bluesoul said:

This is a great post. .   Regarding this part:

RCA Victor 1927-1934, 1940-1942, 1944-1946

The Complete RCA Victor recordings 1927-1973 (24 CD set)

1927-1934 disc 1-7

1940-1942 disc 8-13

1944-1946 disc 14-17

If one was not going to get the big Centennial box, what would be the best way to get this material?    I have Early Ellington, Jubilee Stomp, & Jungle Nights in Harlem, plus the Never No Lament box, and the Complete RCA Mid Forties Box.  That is a total of 9 discs.  What makes up the rest?  Would you need to go the Chronological Classics/Neat Work route to get it?   

 

It depends ... do you want alternates or can you do without them? And are you dead set on CDs or would vinyl be an option too?

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CDs, and I suppose I could do without alternates, but I'd be interested to know where that is available as well.  From what I can tell, RCA only did various greatest hits releases of this material, and not any multi-disc sets other than the Blanton Webster set.   Originally I thought I would try to minimize duplication by not getting the big RCA box, because I probably have about half of it, but getting all the Chronological discs would likely end up costing more anyway, and I'd have plenty of duplication there as well.  

Edit:  I guess I was mostly surprised at how much material on RCA Victor there is from that era.  I knew there was a decent amount that I didn't have, but 6 whole CDs worth was surprising.  I figure there has to be a lot of great stuff there.  

Edited by bluesoul
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15 hours ago, bluesoul said:

CDs, and I suppose I could do without alternates, but I'd be interested to know where that is available as well.  From what I can tell, RCA only did various greatest hits releases of this material, and not any multi-disc sets other than the Blanton Webster set.   Originally I thought I would try to minimize duplication by not getting the big RCA box, because I probably have about half of it, but getting all the Chronological discs would likely end up costing more anyway, and I'd have plenty of duplication there as well.  

Edit:  I guess I was mostly surprised at how much material on RCA Victor there is from that era.  I knew there was a decent amount that I didn't have, but 6 whole CDs worth was surprising.  I figure there has to be a lot of great stuff there.  

That rules out the "The Works of Duke" LP series that French RCA did of all this material (incuding alternates -which were not exceedingly many) in the 70s/80s on 24 individual LPs (repackaged in five box sets - the first four with 5 LPs each, the final one 4 LPs). For those interested, it was marketed worldwide, it seems, and might still crop up in secondhand bins here and there. In fact at a recent local clearout sale a lot of them cropped up here at 2.50 euros each (so I finally was able to get that single LP - Vol. 17 - that I was still missing).

BTW, would it be possible to get all the 'Chronological Classics" CDs at all without incurreing major costs, now that they have been deleted for quite a few years? A lot of CDs from this series go for insane prices on the secondhand market. This may not affect Ellington but who knows ...?

Edited by Big Beat Steve
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Chronos don't seem to be around indeed. I have plenty of the Ellington ones, though with the RCA and now the Mosaics around, mostly they contain material I've got elsewhere, but many of them do still contain stray cuts not included in the boxes, I think, so I'll likely hold on to most of them. (I was able to buy most of them - and plenty of others, including almost all the Fletcher Hendersons - in a used shop that took over the holdings of some deceased collector ... that was several years ago but after the series had been stopped and plenty of them already went for crazy prices.)

Not sure what other route there is here ... seems to be either Chronos or the boxes or the LPs mentioned. Not aware of any other real option (RCA did some smaller sets, "Never No Lament" for the Blanton/Webster band and one more for the mid forties band, but those contain much less music than what is offered in the box - those were mentioned above, sorry - and the mid-forties then is pretty much complete I guess - /EDIT).

Edited by king ubu
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On 25.11.2015, 01:37:46, Chuck Nessa said:

Can't speak for anyone else but I am eternally grateful for the Centennial box. I would have paid the price for the first dozen discs alone.

Same here - I got one of the last two or three copies available in Germany, for 300 DeutschMarks, which was big money for me back then, but would be a bargain today. Besides the booklet binding, the box is great. The music is fantatic. 

I'm afraid those labels favor this "Original LP" concept right now, and since the early stuff was not on LP "originally", they don't know how to handle that. It may be as simple as that. Got the Mosaics for the same reason. Once Mosaic is gone, who will take the effort and compile any box set of this kind? But who am I telling this. 

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