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Rhino to reissue The MJQ Plays Porgy and Bess


bebopbob

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According to the "Jazzmatazz - Upcoming Releases", Rhino will be issuing the MJQ - Porgy and Bess LP on CD in May.

One of the last MJQ Atlantics to be issued on CD.

Hopefully Rhino will be reissuing more Atlantic material from the 1950s/1960s on CD.

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I've noticed that Warner has recently released remasters of some Atlantic recordings (an Evans, a Coleman, etc.). I hope this is an indication that they will be releasing more remasters of old Atlantics. I'm especially eager to get some remastered versions of some early MJQ recordings.

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bebopbob,

Have you (or anyone else on this board for that matter) heard the original lp? How does this performance rate? I really like the MJQ and I would love to hear another excellent performance of Porgy and Bess.

I should make it clear that I am an unabashed fan of the MJQ, and find almost everything that they did to be of enormous interest. (I can always discover something new, like a hidden John Lewis vamp, everytime I listen to one of their albums). That said, the "Porgy and Bess" album is excellent, not among the very best that group recorded, but an album well worth owning. I am looking forward to having a true. hopefully remastered CD (as opposed to the CDR version of my old LP) of this album.

Has anyone out there acquired the "Complete Prestige/Pablo MJQ" set? I have multiple versions of the Prestiges and all of the original Pablos, but is this new box set remastered?

I must have owned eight or more versions of the original Milt Jackson Quartet/MJQ material on Savoy over the years. I was quite disappointed in the 20bit remastering of this material on Savoy recently. My old London label 10" vinyl sounded superior. This seminal material, the foundation of the MJQ as it came out of the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, definitely needs to be honored with a quality remastering.

Garth.

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I bought the Prestige/Pablo box set last month and find the sound to be very good - I had the Prestiges on LP and CD and find the new remastering to be slightly superior. I didn't have any of the Pablo albums before, so I cannot comment on them.

I got the MJQ 40 Years box set last year, and although I had a lot of their Atlantic albums in some form, it watered my mouth for all of them, so the new Porgy and Bess CD will find its way to my CD bin, for sure. Hope there will be more. Still have to get the Lighthouse CD, and wait for a CD of the Fontessa LP with both the mono and stereo takes!

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I got the MJQ 40 Years box set last year, and although I had a lot of their Atlantic albums in some form, it watered my mouth for all of them, so the new Porgy and Bess CD will find its way to my CD bin, for sure. Hope there will be more. Still have to get the Lighthouse CD, and wait for a CD of the Fontessa LP with both the mono and stereo takes!

Yes, the MJQ 40 year box is a great one. The sound on the these CDs is superior to that on the individual CDs available at the time of its release, in particular the cuts from the Giuffre "Music Inn" album. I have a Japanese reissue of that album, and the remastering was just awful.

Your comment about reissuing both the stereo and mono versions of "Fontessa" is spot on! I remember when I stumbled across a (rare) stereo version of this album after many years of living with the original mono album, and discovering, much to my surprise, that I could not "sing along" with John Lewis's solos on many of the cuts. After close listening it was clear that the stereo cuts were different takes, a fact that was not universally known at that time. (I am not sure that the composition "Fontessa" itself is a different take, though). Of course, we now know that many early Atlantics (e.g. the Shorty Rogers big band recordings), were done on both stereo and mono takes ... a feast for jazz fans like myself. ...

Garth.

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Speaking of the MJQ 40 Years Box, I notice as I write this that there is one being sold on Ebay with a starting bid price of $24.99, with no bids yet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...agename=rvi:1:1

On the other hand Amazon has two used copies available from their independant dealers, starting at $269.94!!!! Makes me wonder .... do I buy the Ebay box, and sell my original privately through Amazon??

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=music

Hmmmmmmm.. what to do? ... What to do?

Garth

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I got mine on Ebay Germany for 40 EURO - so 25 $ is a very good deal.

The prices of some second hand dealers are a little over the top ....

Found out I was wise enough to keep my stereo LP copy of Fontessa and will compare with the Atlantic Jazz CD, which has the mono release. Wonder which takes they used on the box set ...

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