Duke Ellington 1932-39

[Bluesnik]

the other day i bought this box through caiman and amazon.fr. it is put out by Sony and BMG and contains on 4 CDs all masters from that era and supposedly 4 unissued tracks. it's called RCA and COlumbia masters and includes all in all 95 tracks, featuring among others Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard, Harry Carney and Juan Tizol. some tracks were recorded at the Cotton Club. it's got a beatiful swing sound. i didn't own any Ellington from these years so this will fill up a few holes.

apart from Ellington this series also covers Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong (The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens, which i got in another incarnation), Glenn MIller, Memphis Minnie and Mississippi John Hurt. they are all Columbia and RCA masters. all boxes are specially priced, so it isn't too expensive to buy 4 CDs.

[jazzbo]

Yes, these are real bargains, even more so when they first came out; I think I got mine for 13 dollars and postage (the Ellington is the only one I have). The Waller is the same music as is on the most recent Columbia three disc box set, admittedly without the excellent booklet. There are other threads on these in the reissue forum.

[J.A.W.]

These sets were released by Sony/BMG Europe.

Edited February 18, 2009 by J.A.W.

[AllenLowe]

good sound and I believe one of our members (Bruce Talbot, formerly of the Smithsonian, though I haven't seen one of his postings in a while) wrote at least some of the notes and may have supervised some of these -

[ghost of miles]

It's a great set, discussed elsewhere as well, though I can't find the thread right now. Still hoping that Mosaic covers this era with a big-band box, though.

[Ron S]

And they're still real cheap:

Currently $6.40 plus $2.98 shipping.

Edited February 18, 2009 by Ron S

[Chuck Nessa]

And they're still real cheap:

Currently $6.40 plus $2.98 shipping.

That means they found a way to avoid paying "publishing" for the music in the set.