Super Cheap Classic Albums Sets

[Big Beat Steve]

The royalties issue is a red herring. Don't worry about the other people getting screwed, that's out of your hands unless you're in the industry, in a position of power to effect change and/or enforce policy.

I fully agree with your "overall" point that cheapo sets (such as by certain labels we all know about) rip off serious, decent and deserving reissuers such as Uptown by jumping on THEIR bandwagon and taking advantage of them. And I'd stick with Uptown in any such case anyway.

But you know what? I know that I will be getting screwed if I fell into the trap of any of those CD resellers who'd charge me waaay more for one single CD than what an entire set of these discussed here would cost me (there is only one of that entire series that I'd ever be tempted by and I already have half of it on vinyl. But among the rest, one or two of the others would set me back more than the price of that entire set if bought from the usual internet platform suspects). THIS is where bitch slaps are in order. Now if that set should help to cut the ground from under the feet of those resellers who charge such obnoxious prices then I know that humanity will be rendered a SERVICE. Because pricing excesses will be kept at bay.

A way out? Make the corporate labels keep things in print. Everything.

No dice? Then once things enter the P.D. the rule of demand and supply (and willingness to pay or not to pay so much or so little for so much or so little quality - or vice versa) will settle it. Simple as that. That's part of life too. Like it or not.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Big Beat Steve

[king ubu]

One aspect that some record dealer explained to me - I've not heard about that before (and I'm not sure he's right): the retro-active thing... it's not that simple, in fact, according to him, reissues of material older than 50 years at the appointed date has to be released (or have been released) in the very form that the label wants to keep it going... as I said, I'm not sure, but this was his explanation for the current flood of cheapodoodliest crappity crap reissues. Point being: they need to throw out as much as they can right now, in order for these releases to be legal once the period changes to 70 years. Again, I'm not sure that's true.

[JSngry]

But you know what? I know that I will be getting screwed if I fell into the trap of any of those CD resellers who'd charge me waaay more for one single CD than what an entire set of these discussed here would cost me (there is only one of that entire series that I'd ever be tempted by and I already have half of it on vinyl. But among the rest, one or two of the others would set me back more than the price of that entire set if bought from the usual internet platform suspects). THIS is where bitch slaps are in order. Now if that set should help to cut the ground from under the feet of those resellers who charge such obnoxious prices then I know that humanity will be rendered a SERVICE. Because pricing excesses will be kept at bay.

We've had this discussion before. The internet is your friend.

[Shawn]

My brain hurts.

[RDK]

My brain hurts.

Mine too. It's gotten to the point where I just don't think about it that much anymore. If there's something that I want and it's at a price I can afford or think it's worth, then I'll buy it. If not, then maybe I'll download it (legitimately or otherwise). Honestly, most of the stuff I download I soon forget about or don't really like anyway. I also have nearly 40 years of music-buying to fall back on, and have been buying more used CDs than ever over the last few years 'cause they're so damn cheap. I've also gotten over the unreasonable expectation that I need to hear and/or have everything - I won't live long enough to accomplish that anyway. What I do still enjoy is opening my ears and hearing new things, whether I ultimately value them or not - be it decades-old music, new releases, or live performances. Put that all together in a blender with my meager sheckles and you get my musical stew. I try to be fair about it, but I'm far from perfect.

[ejp626]

But you know what? I know that I will be getting screwed if I fell into the trap of any of those CD resellers who'd charge me waaay more for one single CD than what an entire set of these discussed here would cost me (there is only one of that entire series that I'd ever be tempted by and I already have half of it on vinyl. But among the rest, one or two of the others would set me back more than the price of that entire set if bought from the usual internet platform suspects). THIS is where bitch slaps are in order. Now if that set should help to cut the ground from under the feet of those resellers who charge such obnoxious prices then I know that humanity will be rendered a SERVICE. Because pricing excesses will be kept at bay.

We've had this discussion before. The internet is your friend.

Or maybe it was your friend before the Feds threw the book at Kim Dotcom -- and quite a bit of stuff vanished overnight. On the whole this is a positive -- rampant and blantant piracy of that nature cannot be justified. Maybe for some people the stakes raised just to the point where they would rather pay for a PD copy (50 year cutoff is still the law in Canada! -- probably for only another few years) than 8 to 10 times as much for the legit product.

[JSngry]

The internet is still my friend. Kim Dotcom was just the flashy drunk one.

[CraigP]

The internet is still my friend. Kim Dotcom was just the flashy drunk one.

So true.

[colinmce]

That's interesting to hear about Horace Silver, thanks for the info. I always found it odd that this legend-- about the only one left from the hard bop inner circle-- was still living but is never discussed as being "present", if that makes sense.

[GA Russell]

What about Jasmine? Are they strictly a PD outfit?

I've ordered a Sauter-Finnegan release of theirs made up of music never before released on CD. We'll see if it's a needle drop.

[JSngry]

Bal Masque (I think that's what cover they're imitating...) (+ bonus cuts, again, how many did they give you?) $14.84 here http://www.amazon.co...30393760&sr=1-1[*]

Hey, what's that? Never seen it before!

Good, great, essential? (Well, good at least, it's Duke!)

More or less a dance album, but an Ellingtonian one, so that ups the ante quite a bit.

Listening to it now, had forgotten how inventive the charts were...not Masterpieces or Indigos totally redifine the tune inventive, but...good lord, this is maybe a "mid-level" Ellington album, and still I can't take my ears off of it. So many sounds and colors, especially from the piano itself. Goodness!

And the bad is really, really tight, which isn't always the case. It doesn't matter with Ellington, usually, but...

[king ubu]

sounds good enough for me!

[Swinging Swede]

There's no such word as chronogical.

A Google search for "chronogical" gives 1,530,000 hits. I'd say it's a word now!

[Teasing the Korean]

I'm tempted to pick up maybe one of these, probably by someone for whom I have a lot of vinyl but no CDs. For example, there is a Cal Tjader set now.

I'm eagerly awaiting the Nino Rota 8 1/2 Classic Albums.

[Pete C]

A Google search for "chronogical" gives 1,530,000 hits. I'd say it's a word now!

Definately. (why do about 40% of people think that's how you spell definitely?--actually, based on a Google comparison it's only about 10%)

Edited August 16, 2012 by Pete C

[J.A.W.]

A Google search for "chronogical" gives 1,530,000 hits. I'd say it's a word now!

Definately. (why do about 40% of people think that's how you spell definitely?--actually, based on a Google comparison it's only about 10%)

Don't get me started on misspellings many people think are correct... And I'm not even talking about the abuse of apostrophes in verbs and plural.

Edited August 16, 2012 by J.A.W.

[Pete C]

With the captains of industry insisting on a global economy without boundaries or government regulation, I'm not going to let the major (multinational) labels tell me I can't buy a CD that's perfectly legal in Europe.

[JSngry]

Or how to spell!

[king ubu]

I'm eagerly awaiting the Nino Rota 8 1/2 Classic Albums.

[GA Russell]

Pete, I think that they are thinking of "separately".

[Pete C]

Pete, I think that they are thinking of "separately".

Maybe it's the sequence, but I can't figure out what you're responding to.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, I have to say that I got the Sun Ra box a few weeks ago and am pretty delighted. I failed to buy much Sun Ra, partly because there was so much and I was confused, partly because there was a lot of other stuff to buy. This happens. FOllowing a recent thread on Sun Ra, where Hot Ptah gave what to me was a helpful list of early stuff that seemed to fit in with what I liked anyway, I got the Real Gone box. Yes, the sleeve notes are absent. But I think that's true of most Sun Ra stuff; make of it what you will. Don't doubt the stuff has been ripped from Evidence and other CD issues, but, well those firms knew well that the material was going PD soon so I don't feel guilty.

The little booklet has several pages of other releases, most of which are of no interest, but there are 3 (three) boxes each containing 8 (eight) LPs of LES BAXTER!!! (Oh, I see from AMazon UK there are now FOUR boxes!) What? Who would buy these? I mean, who really? We all know TTK likes him. I might try one, if I could find out which one has good chunks of Plas Johnson on it. I only saw one 2 CD set from EMI. Everything else was cheapo other labels. But this is the point, ain't it? To tempt the curious...

MG

[sonnymax]

It took me less than 10 minutes to find lossless versions of all the Sun Ra titles in that box on the Internet. Why should I pay someone else?

[J.A.W.]

If they took (some of) the material from the Evidence CDs, they also "imported" the heavy noise reduction on those discs

[crisp]

The little booklet has several pages of other releases, most of which are of no interest, but there are 3 (three) boxes each containing 8 (eight) LPs of LES BAXTER!!! (Oh, I see from AMazon UK there are now FOUR boxes!) What? Who would buy these? I mean, who really? We all know TTK likes him. I might try one, if I could find out which one has good chunks of Plas Johnson on it. I only saw one 2 CD set from EMI. Everything else was cheapo other labels. But this is the point, ain't it? To tempt the curious...

See my post yesterday in the Vocalion thread. Fortysomethings like me love this stuff. Because when we were growing up it, and music like it, was always in the background, it's more evocative of our childhoods than the "cool" rock and roll we were supposed to like.

Plus, our parents were aspirational, pop music fans. We didn't want to rebel against them like the previous generation did (and had to) against theirs; we wanted to emulate them.

Edited August 17, 2012 by crisp